Your oral health greatly depends on the products you use to brush your teeth. Without toothpaste, brushing would only move surface particles, but the combination of toothpaste and brushing kills bacteria, removes plaque and keeps teeth clean. The American Dental Association (ADA) says that modern toothpastes contain a mixture of ingredients including fluorides, abrasives, detergents and flavorings to maintain and improve oral health. Each ingredient plays an essential role in oral hygiene.
Fluorides
Fluoride is perhaps one of the most important and commonly used ingredients in toothpaste. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says fluoride-containing toothpastes fall under the category of drugs because they actively reduce cavities and work therapeutically to clean your teeth. However, the ADA rather than the FDA works to ensure every toothpaste contains a safe amount of fluoride. Fluoride also acts as an antibacterial agent that hardens tooth enamel and protects teeth from disease and decay, preventing gum disease. All toothpastes approved by the ADA contain fluoride, either in the form of sodium fluoride or sodium monofluorophosphate.
Abrasives
Abrasives work like sandpaper. They are tiny particles that assist in grinding away the surface bacteria and plaque during brushing, helping fluoride to work properly. Unlike sandpaper, abrasives do not harm tooth enamel. Instead, they lightly brush over the surface of each tooth, removing debris. Today's most common abrasives include baking soda, calcium carbonate, hydrated silica, phosphate salts and magnesium carbonate, most of which are derivatives of sand.
Detergents
Abrasives and fluorides work best in the presence of detergents, like lauryl sulfates. Sodium lauryl sulfate and ammonium lauryl sulfate are the two most common types of detergents used today. Detergents help abrasives remove plaque and bacteria by trapping and dissolving them in foam, making it easier to rinse tooth debris away while brushing.
Flavoring
Without flavors, toothpaste would taste plain and bitter. Flavors disguise the bad tastes of other ingredients, such as detergents and fluorides. Toothpastes come in mint, bubblegum, cinnamon and peppermint-based flavors and contain non-sugar sweeteners, like sodium saccharin, to enhance the overall taste. The ADA does not permit the use of regular sugar as a flavoring because it would promote tooth decay, whereas saccharin-based flavors do not.
Despite their taste value, toothpaste flavorings are not intended to encourage consumption; only to enhance the task of brushing your teeth. In fact, the Fluoride Action Network warns that swallowing toothpaste, especially the ingredient, fluoride, can be harmful to young children and adults.
Thickeners
Toothpaste owes its name to the thickeners, or binders, it uses. Thickeners, such as carrageenan, mineral colloids and natural gums, give toothpaste its "pasty" consistency which allow it to stay on the brush and not fall. Without thickeners, toothpaste would be just another liquid solution, like mouthwash.
