The Ingredients List - Breaking down the what, where and why of natural and eco-friendly beauty.
Forget throwing the 2-for-1 Colgate in your supermarket trolley, the eco options for looking after your teeth are on the up. Following in the footsteps of other personal care items like deodorants and period products, the oral care market has had a sustainable makeover.
With the pandemic forcing us to spend much more time at home, this new breed of oral care products are making teeth cleaning routines an aesthetically pleasing ritual. Similarly, the ever-growing awareness around what we're putting in our bodies and how our lifestyles impact the planet is driving a boom in clean and green formulas that put sustainability at the forefront.
In fact, in 2021 online beauty retailer Cult Beauty launched a whole category dedicated to oral care.
The plastic problem
'The oral care industry is responsible for generating a significant volume of plastic waste. In the UK alone 264 million plastic brushes are thrown away each year and plastic interdental brushes are marketed as single-use so hugely exacerbate the problem,' Catherine Western, co-founder of Truthbrush, explained.
Truthbrush makes their brushes from Bamboo, one of the world’s most sustainable crops that also biodegrades. 'We wanted to create a product that was sustainable as well as beautiful. In the early days, bamboo toothbrushes were very basic to look at,' Western said. 'We hope to appeal to customers who may otherwise be reluctant to make the switch to an eco-product,' she added. For those who prefer an electric toothbrush, bamboo heads are also now an option.
Traditionally toothpaste is housed in plastic tubes and globally 1.5 billion of them end up in landfill each year. However, packaging-lite alternatives are on the rise. Tapping into the trend for waterless beauty, solid toothpaste tabs are totally plastic-free. Take PÄRLA, a sustainable oral care company founded by three successful London dentists. Their dehydrated toothpaste tablets are made with clean ingredients that come in a reusable glass jar - simply chew in your mouth and continue to brush your teeth as normal.
Clean formulas
Toothpaste formulas are also getting smarter. As health and beauty become greater bedfellows, research around topics like the microbiome is being applied to our mouths. Last year, after two years of research and development, Gallinée launched a prebiotic oral care range. Their formula was created to benefit the oral ecosystem - the second most diverse microbiome after the gut. Made from 95% natural origin ingredients, their toothpaste is designed for sensitive mouths and helps to achieve optimal oral bacterial balance.
vVardis is a Swiss dental company that is also looking to skincare when developing their products. Their at-home serum helps whiten teeth and prevent early decay by mimicking the way the minerals in your tooth enamel rebuild naturally.
'Tooth enamel is the hard, shiny and white outer layer of your teeth. It gives teeth the colour white and acts also as a protective shield for the more sensitive inner layers. It has no living cells. If it is worn away or is destroyed, it will never come back again,' Haleh Abivardi, co-founder, explained. 'We developed technologies that can create Enamel out of the minerals of your own Saliva,' she added.
CBD is even making its way into toothpaste formulas. US brand Hello, who specialise in creating vegan formulas with natural ingredients, have created a toothpaste with cannabis sativa oil and tea tree oil. Sourced from US grown hemp, it is designed to whiten, tame bad breath and tackle plaque. Although not available in the UK yet - watch this space for similar launches.
ELLE Edit: Sustainable Dental Products
Brushd Interdental Brushes - 5 pack
The fluoride debate
When it comes to the inclusion of fluoride, these new wave oral care brands are divided and the discussion is a highly debated one. Fluoride has been used in toothpaste since the early 1900s and protects teeth against decay by helping strengthen developing the enamel and slowing down the production of the bacteria caused by plaque. The NHS recommends that adults should brush at least twice daily with a toothpaste containing 1,350-1,500ppm fluoride.
However, some research indicates that there might be negative consequences of fluoride. Too much can actually make your teeth worse and also impact bones. However, it is worth pointing out that this is fluoride in large amounts that wouldn’t normally be a result of teeth brushing. It’s also been suggested that having large amounts of fluoride in waterways as a result of teeth cleaning could have a detrimental impact on the ecosystem including plants and wildlife although more research is needed on this.
From a microbiome perspective, Fluoride damages the microbiome in the mouth and brands like Gallinée use an alternative ingredient for preventing tooth decay: Xylitol. As often is the case with these topics, there isn’t one answer but many schools of thought - the jury’s still out.
