Herbal Fluoride-Free Toothpaste

Details

This tube exists for people who have decided to go without fluoride, and who deserve a clean, plainly labelled option rather than a shelf of coloured gel. Fifteen names on the INCI list, all below with percentages. The first thing to say is the thing this listing exists to say. Fluoride is the single best-evidenced measure against tooth decay there is. The pooled Cochrane estimate across dozens of children's trials puts the prevented fraction at about 24 percent against a non-fluoride paste. This tube has none. That is a real loss and it is not a safety upgrade, and we are not going to let the word herbal imply that it is one. If nobody has told you to avoid fluoride, buy our daily fluoride toothpaste instead. It is Rs 20 cheaper and it is the better product for almost everybody. The second thing is what herbal means here, because on this shelf it is the word most exposed to the biggest cheat in Indian personal care. Natural, herbal and ayurvedic are unregulated words, and they are routinely printed on a conventional synthetic base with a fraction of a percent of a plant extract stirred in for the label. So here is the number. Neem leaf extract 1.0 percent, miswak extract 0.5 percent, clove bud oil 0.4 percent. That is 1.9 percent. The remaining 98.1 percent is sorbitol, water, calcium carbonate, hydrated silica, glycerin, xylitol, cellulose gum and a coconut-derived surfactant, which is the same base a conventional toothpaste uses. Herbal describes 1.9 percent of this product. Printing that number is the difference between a description and a marketing word, and the honest thing to add is that the antibacterial activity of neem, clove and miswak is a laboratory observation and not a demonstrated caries result comparable to fluoride's. The third is the clove. Clove bud oil is roughly 82 percent eugenol, and eugenol is one of the 26 fragrance components the EU makes declarable. So it is declared, at 0.33 percent, rather than folded into the word herbal.

• Full INCI, in descending order: Sorbitol, Aqua, Calcium Carbonate, Hydrated Silica, Glycerin, Xylitol, Azadirachta Indica (Neem) Leaf Extract, Cellulose Gum, Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate, Salvadora Persica (Miswak) Extract, Eugenia Caryophyllus (Clove) Bud Oil, Eugenol, Mentha Piperita (Peppermint) Oil, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Limonene
• With percentages: Sorbitol 34.0, Aqua 27.6, Calcium Carbonate 15.0, Hydrated Silica 10.0, Glycerin 6.0, Xylitol 3.0, Neem Leaf Extract 1.0, Cellulose Gum 1.0, Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate 1.0, Miswak Extract 0.5, Clove Bud Oil 0.4, Peppermint Oil 0.3, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice 0.2, which is 100.0. Eugenol at about 0.33 and limonene at about 0.01 are constituents of the two oils rather than separate additions, and are declared for that reason
• The 1 percent line falls after the sodium cocoyl glutamate. Neem, cellulose gum and the surfactant sit exactly on it
• No fluoride, stated on the front of the pack and in the name, not implied by omission
• The herbs total 1.9 percent, and the base is a conventional one. Herbal is a description of 1.9 percent of the tube
• Eugenol declared at about 0.33 percent, as a constituent of the clove bud oil. It is one of the 26 EU declarable fragrance components and it is also what makes clove taste of clove
• Abrasivity RDA 82, by the radiotracer method to ISO 11609, against the standard's ceiling of 250. Higher than our fluoride tube's 68, because calcium carbonate is a harder abrasive than silica
• Measured pH 9.2, alkaline, because calcium carbonate is alkaline. Enamel demineralises below about pH 5.5, so alkaline is not a problem for teeth. It does taste chalkier
• No SLS. Replaced by sodium cocoyl glutamate at 1.0 percent, which foams less
• No titanium dioxide, so the paste is off-white to pale beige, which is the neem and the clove
• No preservative, and the claim holds: 34 percent sorbitol and 6 percent glycerin put the water activity below what bacteria and moulds need
• No triclosan, no saccharin, no aspartame, no dyes, no plastic microbeads, no charcoal
• Honest trade-off one: the missing fluoride, which is the largest trade-off on this entire shelf and is stated first rather than last
• Honest trade-off two: xylitol at 3.0 percent is here for sweetness, not as a substitute active. The caries evidence for xylitol comes from 6 to 10 g a day in gum, and a pea of paste holds about 0.03 g. It does not replace what the fluoride would have done
• Honest trade-off three: it tastes strongly of clove, and clove is a taste people either want or cannot stand. There is no way to make a clove paste taste mild
• Honest trade-off four: at RDA 82 with a chalk abrasive, this is more abrasive than the silica tube. Still low by the standard, and worth knowing if you brush hard or have exposed dentine