Dental hygiene is essential because it helps your teeth and gums to stay healthy and also helps avoid other health complications. Poor dental health has also been associated with diabetes, stroke, heart disease, and arthritis.
One of the crucial steps to practicing good oral hygiene is to brush twice a day. To ensure that you’re doing a thorough job, spend two minutes brushing once in the morning and once at night. (5)
The products you use can also affect your oral health, so it’s essential to do some research so you can choose one that suits your oral needs. One important product when it comes to dental hygiene is toothpaste, particularly toothpaste tablets.
What are toothpaste tablets
One of the types of toothpaste on the market is toothpaste tablets, such as PÄRLA Toothpaste Tablets. These are tablets that you can pop in your mouth and chew. After that, as you brush, it’ll start to foam. Once it’s foaming, you can brush as usual.
What are the advantages?
Since it’s a relatively new product, it’s understandable that you want to know the pros and cons. As a start, here are some benefits you can get when using toothpaste tablets:
1. Eco-friendly alternative
One of the main benefits of these kinds of toothpaste is its eco-friendliness. Since there’s no need to store it in tubes, people can reduce how much garbage they produce.
Most toothpaste tubes use multiple materials, some of which aren’t accepted in recycling centres. What’s worse is that toothpaste tubes are often made from aluminium and plastic, which disintegrates into microplastics over time. These will then spread into the environment and become dangerous for animals and plants.
Because of this, toothpaste tubes typically end up in landfills and oceans. Seeing as 1.5 billion tubes are thrown into landfills each year, it makes sense that eco-conscious individuals might want to change this.
If eco-friendliness is one of the criteria you look for when choosing toothpaste, switching to tablet types is a good decision. As mentioned earlier, toothpaste tablets eliminate the need for tubes, ensuring that you’re not contributing to waste production. Simply storing them in reusable jars is a terrific way to keep the tablets without producing garbage.
2. Helps avoid messes and wasting toothpaste
Another great benefit to toothpaste tablets is that they’re not as messy as pastes. Parents will be glad of this since it can help their kids brush properly without wasting the product. This often happens when you end up squeezing too much toothpaste on your toothbrush, which also translates to a waste of money.
With toothpaste tablets, there’s no need to worry about making a mistake when portioning your toothpaste. Each tablet is the same size, so you get the same portion every time you brush your teeth.
What are the disadvantages?
For a fair assessment, it’s also important to get to know the disadvantages when using toothpaste tablets. Here are some cons you can expect:
1. The taste will take some getting used to
One problem that people might have when they first try out toothpaste tablets is the taste and texture. The tablets are usually quite concentrated since it’s in solid form, and they’re quite dry when you chew them. But you won’t have to endure the taste and texture wait too long since the tablet will eventually become moistened, and then it foams as you brush. With time, you’ll eventually get used to the experience, too.
2. It’s not yet popular
Despite being a fantastic eco-friendly alternative, it’s still not as popular as regular toothpaste in tubes. One of the reasons for this is that it’s not widely available in retail stores. While you can find them in shops specializing in eco-friendly products, toothpaste tablets are unlikely to be seen if you walk into a drugstore.
Another reason why it hasn’t caught on yet is because people are usually hesitant to make a switch. People are comfortable with their tubed toothpaste, so venturing into something completely different might require some time for them to get used to.
Conclusion
Keeping your teeth healthy and clean is essential. Given that toothpaste is an important product to maintain good oral hygiene, the type of toothpaste you choose is essential. Toothpaste tablets are a new type of toothpaste that’s becoming popular due to its various benefits, such as being eco-friendly, mess-free, and flexible with ingredients. But it also has some downsides, such as being not readily available in stores and requiring some getting used to.
If you want to make the switch, giving it a trial period is vital to help you make your final decision.
References
- “Toothpaste tablets: Your next big thing?”, Source: https://www.dentistryiq.com/dentistry/products/hygiene/article/14203936/toothpaste-tablets-your-next-big-thing
- “The 7 Best Toothpaste Tabs of 2022”, Source: https://www.treehugger.com/best-toothpaste-tabs-5116283
- “Toothpaste Tablets: A New Way to Brush Your Teeth”, Source: https://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/oral-care/products/toothpaste-tablets-new-way-to-brush-teeth.htm
- “4 Best Toothpaste Tablets With Eco-Friendly Packaging”, Source: https://www.ecowatch.com/best-toothpaste-tablets-2654810784.html
- “Oral Hygiene Tips”, Source: https://www.verywellhealth.com/oral-hygiene-5209794
- “Colgate leads toothpaste tube recycling innovation”, Source: https://recyclinginternational.com/plastics/colgate-leads-toothpaste-tube-recycling-innovation/26597/
Isreal olabanji a dental assistant and public health professionals and has years of experience in assisting the dentist with all sorts of dental issues.
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