If you want to have a healthy mouth full of white teeth, you can't do without a good toothpaste!
But do you know what are the basic ingredients of toothpaste? Do you know how to choose toothpaste correctly? Let me tell you
What's in toothpaste?
In addition to water, the main components of ordinary toothpaste are the following:
Friction agent
Surfactants (simply understood as cleaners or foaming agents)
fluorine
Other minor ingredients include: ph modulators, stabilizers or binders, sweeteners, and some pigments. Functional toothpastes, such as anti-allergic, whitening, and pharmaceutical-based toothpastes, will also add corresponding functional ingredients.
Puzzle one: toothpaste, the most important thing is to choose a friction agent?
Exactly. Friction agents account for 30%-55% of toothpaste, as an insoluble particle, through the action of brushing teeth, remove plaque and tartar from the teeth to reduce caries and oral diseases.
The main friction agents are calcium carbonate, dibasic calcium phosphate, aluminum hydroxide, and hydrated silicic acid.
In the commonly used toothpaste friction agent, aluminum hydroxide and calcium bisphosphate friction coefficient is moderate, and will not hurt tooth enamel, is a relatively high-quality friction agent. Calcium carbonate is harmful to tooth enamel, is inexpensive, and is only used in low-grade toothpaste.
Hydrated silicic acid, generally transparent toothpaste will use this friction agent, hydrated silicic acid in foreign countries have a certain controversy, on the one hand, the opinion is that hydrated silicic acid comes from nature, is 100% natural, on the other hand, there are also views that hydrated silicic acid will damage tooth enamel, and change the oral acid-base environment.
The current mainstream view is that hydrated silicic acid is safe, and the FDA supports this view.
Puzzle Two: The less blistering the toothpaste, the better?
Partially correct! There is no problem with toothpaste containing foaming agent, there is a problem with containing sls foaming agent!
Sls is an ingredient that can be disliked even when added to shampoos and facial cleansers, and it's certainly not a good thing to use in toothpaste.
The use of sls is thought to dry out the protective layer of oral tissue, damaging oral tissue, increasing the frequency of mouth ulcers, and causing cold allergies to teeth.
Therefore, well-intentioned experts recommend that the toothpaste with less foaming is better, referring to the toothpaste that does not contain sls or has less sls. In fact, there is no need to judge by foaming, we can observe the logo of "no sls" or "sls free" on the toothpaste packaging.
The following picture is the picture that SLS free searched out on Google, so that everyone can understand that crooked people really don't like SLS, and they have made so many different logos.
Puzzle 3: Is it safe to contain triclosan in toothpaste?
Controversial, better avoid! Triclosan is also a controversial ingredient in toothpaste. Triclosan is an antimicrobial agent commonly used in toothpaste, soap, hand sanitizer and medical disinfectant products.
Regarding the safety of triclosan, the United States and Europe have been controversial for many rounds in the past 10 years, and there is still no conclusion. However, it is said that triclosan causes cancer, basically no evidence has been found, and it has been denied.
However, it is still recommended that in view of the relatively large risk of triclosan and the effect is not irreplaceable, as a consumer, you should try to avoid toothpaste containing triclosan!
The function of toothpaste
In addition to cleaning, many of the current toothpastes will add some other functions, including whitening, anti-caries, anti-allergies, fresh breath and so on.
Can whitening toothpaste really whiten?
Most whitening toothpastes actually refer to removing stains from the surface of teeth through the cleaning ability of toothpaste.
So what ingredients are used to remove tooth stains? You must have seen the following obscure nouns on the packaging
hcs Brightening Factor: Hydrated silica, also known as hydrated silicic acid, hydrated silica, is a very, very common friction agent in toothpaste.
Light-sensitive white factor / s micron live beads: or hydrated silica, but specially polished hydrated silica.
ps-mp brightening factor: or hydrated silica.
apc crystalline brightening factor: Hydrated silica represents itself as the most famous ingredient in the world!
Other whitening ingredients commonly found in whitening toothpaste:
Perlite: An ore that acts as a large-grained abrasive in toothpaste
Bamboo salt/well salt: or abrasive
Natural plant white factor: sodium phytate
Sodium phytate is an ingredient derived from grains. Domestic literature has mentioned that phytic acid and its sodium salt have a good dissolving effect on smoke stains, but the search of English literature has not found any information, most of which is added to cosmetics to make plant-based chelating agents.
Do you think silica hydrate is the biggest whitening routine?
Oh, in fact, this is also a safe way of physical whitening. The following two types of whitening ingredients that are really necessary to know▼
Hydrogen peroxide, which is a bleaching ingredient allowed in whitening toothpaste, the maximum amount allowed in the United States ada is 6%, and toothpaste containing hydrogen peroxide must be specifically noted on the packaging.
In the early years, whitening toothpaste containing hydrogen peroxide was still very popular, and after 2013, because it was reported that toothpaste contained bleach ingredients, domestic toothpaste was rarely added. However, many whitening toothpastes in the United States will still add hydrogen peroxide.
Toothpaste containing hydrogen peroxide is not suitable for long-term use and has a bad effect on sensitivity and gingivitis.
There is also a magical whitening ingredient - optical whitening ingredient, code ci 74160, which is also very commonly used. ci 74160 is a blue colorant, through the optical effect of blue pigments to make the teeth look temporarily white a lot, this set of roads is also no one.
Does anti-allergic toothpaste work?
In addition to whitening, anti-allergy is another leading function of toothpaste. Anti-allergy toothpaste is mainly added with strontium chloride or potassium nitrate.
Strontium chloride forms a barrier on the surface of the dentin nerve exposed due to gum atrophy to reduce tooth sensitivity.
Potassium nitrate is also commonly added to anti-allergic toothpaste, but potassium nitrate works as a neuroleptic agent rather than forming a barrier.
The proportion of these two ingredients added in toothpaste is relatively standardized, and there are no safety issues at present. Most toothpastes that claim anti-allergic function add these two ingredients.
In general, in addition to looking at the function of toothpaste, the most important thing is to see what the friction agent composition is, and then to see whether it contains sls foaming agent, triclosan, hydrogen peroxide and other components.