Which toothpaste should I buy
As there are many different types of toothpaste available in the supermarket, my hygienist Katherine and myself are frequently asked which one suits me best?
There are 5 different families of toothpaste, the first is the most common and this is the anti?decay toothpaste. This will contain a fluoride compound such as sodium fluoride. If the fluoride content on the back of the box is more than 1,000 ppm or parts per million; they are effective at preventing tooth decay. Children’s toothpaste typically contains 500 ppm of fluoride. This is usually flavored in a fruity or sweet manner. If you are a patient of mine that’s received a prescription for toothpaste, this could have as much as 5,000 ppm of fluoride in it. This could be because I want to prevent against decay around a lot of crowns or fillings that you have or you may actually have a higher decay rate than others. These would typically be renewed at your checkup or appointment and these are only available on prescription.
The second family are desensitizing toothpastes; you may have heard or used Sensodyne, etc. These have an active ingredient of potassium nitrate or arginine. They work in two ways; one, they interrupt the pain stimuli in the nerve. And the second way is, they block little tubes that feed through the tooth so that the pain can’t be transferred to the centre where the nerve is situated. If the pain persists even after using the desensitizing toothpaste, please ask me at your checkup. What could be the cause? It maybe that it’s a bite problem and it is being mimicked as tooth sensitivity or you may have went away little bit too much with the neck. In this practice I do tend to see quite a lot of abrasive brushing as our patients are very into their oral hygiene. So they can tend to overdo it a little and we can advise you, Katherine or myself, on how to brush just as effectively but without damaging the tooth.
The third type are anti-calculus or anti-tartar toothpastes. These type attempts to reduce the hardening of the creamy layer that’s built up over the tooth over the day into the tartar. The active ingredient here is normally something like zinc citrate.
The fourth kind are the anti-plaque, a similar kind of mechanism but they trying to stop any plaque or the creamy layer that forms within 45 minutes of brushing your teeth on the tooth. These have an active ingredient such as triclosan inside them.
The last family are ones I’m very commonly asked about and these are the whitening toothpastes. Patients often want to have an improvement in their appearance and there are toothpastes such as Arm & Hammer. These typically have very mild to no results, but what is more concerning is the coarse, abrasive which function by abrading the stains on the tooth surface. This gives that minimal whitening effect. However the long term effects of this kind of toothpaste are still unknown as we are grinding down or abrading the front surface or the surface of the teeth.
If you do have any questions on this after reading this article, please ask Katherine or myself at your next visit, which one we think would suit you best. Call us today on 020 7580 5954