How to Decode a Toothpaste Label

Here are the ingredients meant to achieve common claims you'll find on toothpaste labels

Catherine Roberts, Consumer Reports Senior Health & Food Reporter.

By Catherine Roberts
Senior Health & Food Reporter

December 12, 2024

The toothpaste aisle can be a confusing place, with a huge variety of claims touted on product labels.

Companies tend to emphasize one possible benefit of a toothpaste, but that doesn’t mean that’s the only thing a given product can help with, says Roxanne Dsouza-Norwood, a registered dental hygienist and clinical assistant professor of dental hygiene at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "The same ingredient can do multiple things. Fluoride is an amazing example of that," she says. You may see two separate toothpastes, one marketed for sensitivity and another for periodontitis, for instance.

But don’t think you need one of each: The two products might have the exact same active ingredient listed on the packaging. Here are a few common label claims and the ingredients meant to achieve those effects.

Cavity Protection
This is the most basic function of toothpaste, and it’s the main reason you’ll see fluoride in your toothpaste. It comes in a few different forms, such as stannous fluoride and sodium fluoride. Other ingredients like hydroxyapatite and various kinds of calcium and phosphates may help enhance the action of fluoride, but Martha McComas, a clinical associate professor of dentistry at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry in Ann Arbor, warns there’s not enough evidence to recommend them on their own without fluoride, too.

Gum Health or Antigingivitis
Stannous fluoride could also be the active ingredient at work here, because it has antimicrobial properties. Some other ingredients in toothpaste may also be aimed at reducing gingivitis, including some zinc compounds and even essential oils such as eucalyptol (made from eucalyptus) or menthol.

Whitening
The abrasive ingredients in toothpaste, such as sodium bicarbonate (more commonly known as baking soda) or sodium citrate, are often touted as whiteners. Hydrogen peroxide can also be used to help fight stains. McComas says that while any toothpaste can help you limit stains from coffee, wine, tea, and the like, the power of whitening toothpaste is limited, because it’s on your teeth for only a few minutes. Whitening strips, on the other hand, tend to require at least 15 or 30 minutes of contact with your teeth.

Tartar Control
Tartar is the hard yellowish substance that forms when plaque is allowed to remain on your teeth and solidify, and only a professional dental cleaning can remove it. But some ingredients, like tetrasodium pyrophosphate (and other pyrophosphates), are thought to help prevent tartar from forming.

Sensitivity Reduction
Stannous fluoride can help reduce tooth sensitivity. A 2020 analysis in the Journal of Dental Research found that the effectiveness of stannous fluoride for this purpose can be enhanced when it’s combined with potassium. Also good for reducing sensitivity: calcium sodium phosphosilicate.

Editor’s Note: This article also appeared in the January/February 2025 issue of Consumer Reports magazine.

Catherine Roberts

Catherine Roberts is a health and science journalist at Consumer Reports. She has been at CR since 2016, covering infectious diseases, bugs and bug sprays, consumer medical devices like hearing aids and blood pressure monitors, health privacy, and more. As a civilian, her passions include bike rides, horror films and fiction, and research rabbit holes. Follow her on X: @catharob.