When people have cosmetic dentistry done, they feel motivated to take excellent care of their teeth and do everything right to protect their investment.
It’s good to use the right dentifrice. Especially if you have composite bonding, we strongly advise against using ordinary toothpaste. An ordinary dentifrice can be too abrasive. It can have agents in it that will scratch or dull the bonding.
I have seen people with beautiful composite bonding use an ordinary dentifrice, and by the time they have their next checkup, the bonding has lost its shine.
It’s difficult to rate commercial toothpastes on abrasivity. There are so many formulas that one brand will use. If you look at the dental care shelf in your drug store, you will see a number of formulas of Crest®. There will be whitening formulas, tartar control formulas, and various flavors. Below we show test results that revealed three formulas that are very gentle. However, we need to note that with Colgate and Crest, there were other formulas of the very same brand that were much higher in abrasivity score.
Here is data on three very low abrasivity formulas. from a study on dentifrice abrasivity. Of these three very gentle formulas, Supersmile® is the gentlest.
TOOTHPASTE
Supersmile®
Colgate® Regular
Crest® Regular
ADA permissible limit
ABRASIVITY SCORE
62
68
70
250
We know of two dentifrices that have been tested and proven safe for composite bonding work. They have been tested on real teeth with real people, and they will not dull the shine of beautiful composite work. The two are Supersmile® and Rembrandt®.
Click here for more information about Supersmile® toothpaste.
If your goal is to whiten your teeth, there are a vast array of products that promise you tooth whitening. Practically every formula announces that it will whiten your teeth. Sort the hype from the facts by visiting our page about whitening toothpaste.
This information is provided for you by the mynewsmile.com cosmetic dentist referral service, and was personally written by Dr. David Hall. If you would like to be referred to a cosmetic dentist who would be expert in all of these questions about tooth bleaching, please see our cosmetic dentist referral page.