I’m wondering what happens to different molecules on teeth, what toothpastes are made of, how does it fight sugar etc.
In: Biology
First, we need to understand WHY we brush our teeth. In your original question – how does it fight sugar? It doesn’t. Sugar doesn’t harm teeth. Sugar (and other leftover food bits) feed bacteria, and bacteria harm teeth. The bacteria in your mouth eat various compounds in your food (they love sugar). Their waste products include the gross crud you can scrape off – plaque. The plaque is acidic and dissolves your teeth. Once the plaque has been there long enough, it essentially crystallizes into tartar – a hard to remove buildup that is well cemented to the tooth enamel. The tartar is not smooth like the underlying tooth enamel, and when it rubs on your gums they get inflamed and start to retract. Retracting gums exposes more tooth, and thus more buildup can occur further under the gum line.
Now that’s out of the way: Toothpaste weapons:
1. Flavour, usually mint – makes brushing less disgusting. Try brushing without toothpaste and note how quickly you discover how your mouth actually tastes. It’s unpleasant.
2. surfactants – SLS, etc. helps emulsify lipids to get oily residue to dissolve off teeth…also causes the foamy reaction which serves practically no purpose other than to help spread the paste around
3. abrasives – often baking soda or other hard minerals: They aid in your toothbrush action actually being able to scrape the schmutz off your enamel while not harming the enamel. The trick is to have grit that is harder than plaque and tartar, but softer than enamel so it scratches the bad, but leaves the good…Think of it like really soft sandpaper.
4. Fluoride – This is the big one. It’s relatively complicated but the long and short is, the fluoride compound sticks to the enamel, and when bacteria come along and poo their acid, the acid reacts with the fluoride rather than the tooth itself. It’s a sacrificial layer that keeps teeth strong
5. Pain-killers – Sensitive toothpaste has ingredients that reduce tooth pain and sensitivity to sweet, acid, hot, and cold.
6. Colour and sparkly stuff – makes the paste interesting in the hope that kids might like it.
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