Bleaching toothpastes typically include abrasives (to take away debris and residual stain), humectants (to avoid loss of water), thickening agents or binders (to stabilize toothpaste formulations and avoid separation of liquid and solid phases), and flavoring and foaming agents (a preference of buyers).
Therapeutic agents may contain fluoride (can be in all ADA-Accepted whitening toothpastes for reducing caries), potassium nitrate (to care for dentinal hypersensitivity), and triclosan or stannous fluoride (to decrease gingival inflammation). Additional agents that may be inserted to bleaching toothpastes to supply esthetic advantages are pyrophosphates or zinc citrate (to stop tartar buildup) and a variety of abrasives or enzymes (to assist teeth whitening).
Daily oral care toothpastes acting by chemically or mechanically eliminating stain. The result is stain removal without spoiling the underlying tooth formation. Whitening toothpastes that remove surface stain should not be confused with bleaching agents that act by breaking down pigment to dispose of color from teeth.
Before You Buy A Whitening Toothpaste
So, which one can be regarded as the best bleaching toothpaste option?
The idea of the research was to test the four whitening toothpastes – Aquafresh, Tom’s, Rembrandt, and Ultra Brite and find out the one that could bleach three different stains the best. All og the toothpastes used diverse ingredients for whitening. Ultra Brite was expected to whiten the best, because it used tough abrasives to scrub stains.
The toothpaste with the highest average ranking was Aquafresh. Rembrandt was second, Ultra Brite third, and Tom’s last.
After the test, the author researched to discover why exactly the following toothpastes had the results they did. He found out that Aquafresh had an ingredient called Triclene that broke up the bonds of stains so they could with no trouble be brushed away. Ultra Brite and Tom’s used abrasives, and were the two worst whiteners. Rembrandt used Alumisil, but was not found to break up particle bonds. The experimentation proved that abrasives are the least effectual method for bleaching teeth, and components that break up the bonds of stains are what buyers should look for in a whitening toothpaste.
(According to CALIFORNIA STATE SCIENCE FAIR 2004 PROJECT number J1102)