How do I know which toothpaste to use? There are so many choices.

There are a lot. The first step for determining which toothpaste to use is if you look on the back of the box, there’s a little, small square that has ADA on it. This means that it has received approval from the American Dental Association. That means that the ADA vetted and determined that particular toothpaste is one that is healthy, is not harmful to teeth, and has fluoride in it.

A toothpaste with fluoride is critical for approval by the ADA. Fortunately, there are many, many brands on the market with ADA approval. Beyond that, people may want a toothpaste that has a whitening feature, has a little bit of material in it that’s longer-lasting, or an ingredient for sensitivity. These types of toothpastes don’t offer as much choice. There are usually just a few of each kind available. The biggest factor is approval from the American Dental Association. Then past that, we can make specific recommendations here in the office based on a client’s specific needs.

Without being specific to the brands, there are a lot of natural toothpastes.What about those?

Correct. There are a lot of natural toothpastes out there that do not have fluoride in them. While those can mechanically remove some plaque and food debris from teeth, they don’t have fluoride. Fluoride is basically the biggest thing that has made a huge, huge difference in dental care over the last hundred years. It’s definitely a miracle of modern dentistry and goes a long way in helping you determine which toothpaste to use.