How to choose a good toothpaste? These are the principles you need to master!

Nowadays, there are so many brands and types of toothpaste that it is really dazzling. So many people have such a request: I hope the doctor can recommend a good toothpaste for me. In any case, the advice of professionals must be right!

But to be honest, this task is not as simple as everyone thinks! In terms of the basic functions of toothpaste, most toothpastes are not very different, and it is often difficult to tell the difference; but in terms of the special functions of toothpaste, they vary greatly and cannot be explained in just a few words! Therefore, the key to choosing the right toothpaste is to master the selection principles, rather than to identify specific brands or types.

There is not much difference between toothpastes

Although there are many brands and types of toothpaste, in essence, they all help the toothbrush clean teeth by increasing friction. Therefore, no matter what kind of toothpaste, abrasives are the main characters (accounting for 20% to 60%).

The quality of abrasives is mainly measured by hardness, and the determination of abrasive hardness is scientifically based, with the "relative dentin wear rate" (RDA) as an indicator. It is generally believed that abrasives with RDA < 250 are safe.

Commonly used abrasives in toothpaste are calcium carbonate and hydrated silica, which are low-hardness and medium-hardness abrasives respectively. Therefore, from the perspective of abrasives, most toothpastes have no obvious advantages or disadvantages, and all are acceptable.

In addition, there are some auxiliary ingredients in toothpaste, such as detergents, moisturizers, adhesives, fragrances, preservatives and water. Among them, except for moisturizers, which account for a large proportion, the content of other ingredients is relatively low. Commonly used moisturizers are glycerol, sorbitol, etc., which are mainly used to prevent the paste from hardening and maintain the stability of the dosage form. As non-functional (no dental disease prevention effect) ingredients, they will not have an essential impact on the quality of toothpaste.

Special effects vary from person to person

1 People who are susceptible to tooth decay

Such people must choose anti-caries toothpaste. The key ingredient of anti-caries toothpaste is fluoride, which is the most effective and most worthy of recognition anti-caries ingredient so far. Therefore, fluoride is necessary in a real anti-caries toothpaste.

The so-called tooth decay susceptible people can be defined from two aspects: from an individual perspective, their characteristics are that the cariogenic bacteria in the mouth are more active and it is easier to form an acidic oral environment; from a group perspective, it mainly includes children, pregnant women, the elderly, people with certain local or systemic diseases, and the disabled. These people either cannot do a good job of self-oral care, or their own physiological or pathological conditions lead to reduced "immunity" to tooth decay. Therefore, the so-called "children and pregnant women should avoid using fluoride toothpaste" on the Internet is not scientific. It is worth noting that there are specific requirements for children to use fluoride toothpaste: first, choose children's special toothpaste; second, control the single use of toothpaste, children under 3 years old use a grain of rice (rice) each time, and children aged 3 to 6 years old use a bean (pea) size each time.

2 People with sensitive teeth

Such people may consider using desensitizing toothpaste. There are currently two ways to desensitize teeth: one is that drugs act on the outside of nerve cells, inhibiting the conduction of nerve pain signals through cell depolarization and reducing the pain caused by external stimuli. This type of drug is mainly soluble potassium salts, such as potassium nitrate and potassium chloride. The main reason is that potassium ions will numb the pain nerves and relieve sensitive symptoms; the second is that drugs reduce dentin sensitivity by blocking the exposed dentinal tubule openings to block external stimuli. Common drugs of this type include stannous fluoride or other stannous salts, strontium acetate, Novamin, sodium calcium phosphosilicate and arginine. Desensitizing toothpaste is relatively effective for mild tooth sensitivity, but severe tooth sensitivity still requires medical attention.

3 People who need teeth whitening

Before choosing whitening toothpaste, such people should fully understand its whitening principle. There are two main ways for whitening toothpaste to whiten teeth: one is to enhance the effect of abrasives, so abrasives with high hardness, such as perlite, are often selected. Although abrasives with high hardness have high cleaning ability, they are also easy to damage teeth; the other is to add bleaching agents, but for safety reasons, the content of bleaching agents will be limited, so the efficacy will be greatly reduced. Based on the above facts, you should be more cautious when choosing whitening toothpaste.

Other considerations

Any toothpaste ingredient must be able to play its role while also trying to avoid adverse reactions.

1 Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) in detergents can easily cause oral ulcers. People who are prone to oral ulcers should not use toothpaste containing this ingredient.

2 Toothpaste containing stannous fluoride or other stannous salts may cause tooth staining, so be careful.

As an external preparation, toothpaste can only play an auxiliary role in oral health care. The reason why fluoride toothpaste is relatively effective is that fluoride mainly prevents caries through local action. Therefore, if you hope that toothpaste can solve all oral health problems, you can only say that you are thinking too much.

References

1． Epple M, Meyer F, Enax J. A critical review of modern concepts for teeth whitening[J]. Dent J (Basel), 2019, 7(3):79.

2. Hu Deyu, editor-in-chief. Oral Preventive Medicine (6th Edition) [M]. Beijing: People's Medical Publishing House, 2012.

3． Hara AT, Turssi CP. Baking soda as an abrasive in toothpastes: Mechanism of action and safety and effectiveness considerations[J]. J Am Dent Assoc, 2017, 148(11S): S27-S33.

4． Alli BY, Erinoso OA, Olawuyi AB. Effect of sodium lauryl sulfate on recurrent aphthous stomatitis: A systematic review[J]. J Oral Pathol Med, 2019, 48(5): 358-364.

Source: Science Popularization China-Creation Cultivation Program