Just When You've Thought You Had The Right Toothpaste!

Toothpaste can be good and bad. Unfortunately the better it is at removing stain, the better it is at removing enamel also. Stay away from the high abrasive toothpastes as they can remove the luster and polish of porcelain veneers and crowns and dull that beautiful smile.

Toothpaste makers regularly measure their product's abrasivity. It's necessary for FDA approval, and usually is not included in marketing. Abrasivity measurements are given by what's known as an RDA value which stands for radioactive dentin abrasion or relative dentin abrasivity.

To measure RDA in the lab, the tester starts with extracted human or cow teeth. The teeth are irradiated in a neutron flux, mounted in methylmethacrylate (bone glue), stripped of enamel, inserted into a brushing-machine, brushed by ADA standards (reference toothbrush, 150g pressure, 1500 strokes, 4-to-1 water-toothpaste slurry). The radioactivity of the rinse water is then measured and recorded. For experimental control, the test is repeated with an ADA reference toothpaste made of calcium pryophosphate, with this measurement given a value of 100 to calibrate the relative scale.

The RDA table:
0-70 = low abrasive
70-100 = medium abrasive
10-150 – highly abrasive
150-250 = regarded as harmful limit

These are RDA values for common toothpastes:

RDA	Dentifrice brand and variety	Source
07	straight baking soda	Church & Dwight
08	Arm & Hammer Tooth Powder	Church & Dwight
30	Elmex Sensitive Plus	Elmex
35	Arm & Hammer Dental Care	Church & Dwight
42	Arm & Hammer Advance White Baking Soda Peroxide	Church & Dwight
44	Squigle Enamel Saver	Squigle
48	Arm & Hammer Dental Care Sensitive	Church & Dwight
49	Arm & Hammer Peroxicare Tartar Control	Church & Dwight
49	Tom's of Maine Sensitive (given as 40's)	Tom's
52	Arm & Hammer Peroxicare Regular	Church & Dwight
53	Rembrandt Original (RDA)	Rembrandt
54	Arm & Hammer Dental Care PM Bold Mint	Church & Dwight
57	Tom's of Maine Children's, Wintermint (given as mid-50's)	Tom's
62	Supersmile	Supersmile
63	Rembrandt Mint ('Heffernan RDA')	Rembrandt
68	Colgate Regular	Colgate-Palmolive
70	Colgate Total	Colgate-Palmolive
70	Arm & Hammer Advance White Sensitive	Church & Dwight
70	Colgate 2-in-1 Fresh Mint (given as 50-70)	Colgate-Palmolive
79	Sensodyne	Colgate-Palmolive
80	AIM	Unilever
80	Close-Up	Unilever
83	Colgate Sensitive Maximum Strength	Colgate-Palmolive
91	Aquafresh Sensitive	Colgate-Palmolive
93	Tom's of Maine Regular (given as high 80's low 90's)	Squigle (Tom's)
94	Rembrandt Plus	Rembrandt
94	Plus White	Indiana study
95	Crest Regular (possibly 99)	P&G (P&G)
101	Natural White	Indiana study
103	Mentadent	Squigle
103	Arm & Hammer Sensation	Church & Dwight
104	Sensodyne Extra Whitening	Colgate-Palmolive
106	Colgate Platinum	Indiana study
106	Arm & Hammer Advance White Paste	Church & Dwight
107	Crest Sensitivity Protection	Colgate-Palmolive
110	Colgate Herbal	Colgate-Palmolive
110	Amway Glister (given as upper bound)	Patent US06174515
113	Aquafresh Whitening	Indiana study
117	Arm & Hammer Advance White Gel	Church & Dwight
117	Arm & Hammer Sensation Tartar Control	Church & Dwight
120	Close-Up with Baking Soda (canadian)	Unilever
124	Colgate Whitening	Indiana study
130	Crest Extra Whitening	Indiana study
133	Ultra brite (or 120-140)	Indiana study (or Colgate-Palmolive)
144	Crest MultiCare Whitening	P&G
145	Ultra brite Advanced Whitening Formula	P&G
145	Colgate Baking Sode & Peroxide Whitening (given as 135-145)	Colgate-Palmolive
150	Pepsodent (given as upper bound)	Unilever
165	Colgate Tartar Control (given as 155-165)	Colgate-Palmolive
168	Arm & Hammer Dental Care PM Fresh Mint	Church & Dwight
200	Colgate 2-in-1 Tartar Control/Whitening or Icy Blast/Whitening (given as 190-200)	Colgate-Palmolive
200	recommended limit	FDA
250	recommended limit	ADA

Consider alternate whitening toothpastes and regular toothpastes. You don’t need a whitening toothpaste every day - so give your enamel a break with a gentler toothpaste a few days every month.

KEEP ABRASIVENESS AT BAY - If you have sensitive teeth, then look for low RDA values in your toothpaste.

DRS. STEINBERG AND WEGER

1628 SPRUCE STREET | PHILADELPHIA, PA 19103 | 215.735.8844

DENTISTRYINPHILADELPHIA@GMAIL.COM