Medical Sciences Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for professionals in medical and allied health fields, students of those professions, related academics, and others with a sound understanding of medicine and healthcare-related sciences. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I've noticed that many common toothpaste products are very sweet. (Too sweet for me, usually!) This confuses me because my understanding is that sugars are one of the things we brush to get off our teeth. It seems counter-intuitive to brush my teeth only put a lot of sugar/sweeteners back onto my teeth.
Do the sweeteners used in toothpaste not have the same bad effect on teeth? (In other words, is is my heuristic "sweet = bad for teeth" overly simplistic?)
Artificial sweeteners are used in toothpastes. Mostly Xylitol or Sacharin. They don´t promote tooth decay. The sweetness in toothpaste are added in order to make more people brush their teeth on a daily basis.
