Your first impulse may be to brush your teeth more: That’s a good thing. But your regular toothpaste may be doing more harm than good to your enamel if it’s too abrasive.
Dentin is the soft layer of tooth structure underneath your enamel, explained New York-based dentist Dr. Azadeh Akhavan. “If [dentin] is exposed to very abrasive toothpastes day after day, it will wear down … and may introduce surface roughness to enamel,” she tells HuffPost, which can result in plaque buildup, staining and sensitivity.
“I would recommend toothpaste in the low abrasivity category for people with weak enamel,” Akhavan wrote.“High abrasivity toothpastes would potentially damage and wear the person’s enamel until the second layer of tooth structure [dentin] is exposed, leading to sensitivity and cavities.”
The RDA chart orders pastes from 0 to 200, with 0 being least and 200 being most abrasive; generally, 0-70 is considered low abrasivity, Akhavan noted.
To make things easier for you, we’ve rounded up the toothpastes that the RDA list categorized as low in abrasiveness. Read on for the ones that made the cut — and for more advice from Akhavan.
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