DENTRIFRICES
Dentifrices are the preparations intended to cleanse the teeth of food debris, prevent calculus and plaque formation, polish to impart luster to the teeth and to leave a freshing feeling in mouth.
Types of Dentifrices:
Tooth Powder, Tooth pastes
Tooth powder is a powder containing abrasives, detergents, sweetening agents etc. meant for cleaning of teeth.
Formulation of Tooth powder:
1. Abrasive and polishing agents – Calcium carbonate, Dicalcium phosphate, tricalcium phosphate, sodium
metaphosphates are some of the abrasive agents most commonly used in tooth powders.
2. Detergents and Foaming agents: Sodium lauryl sulphate, sodium lauryl sarcosinate , diethyl sodium sulphosuccinate, magnesium lauryl sulphate and soaps like sodium palmitate are some of the detergents and foaming agents in tooth powders.
3. Sweetening agents: Saccharin sodium is the most commonly used sweetening agent.
4. Flavoring agents: Anise oil, peppermint oil, clove oil, cinnamon oil, spearmint oil etc. are used as flavors.
Tooth paste is simply a tooth powder wetted to make a paste.
Formulations of Tooth pastes:
Abrasives & polishing agents
Detergents & Foaming agents
Humectants
Binding agents
Sweetening agents
Flavouring agents
Preservatives
Colours
Miscellaneous – Anticarries agent; antibacterial agents; desensitizing agents
Formulation of tooth pastes is similar to tooth powders except that pastes contains humectants, binding agents and preservatives which are not usually added to tooth powders.
Humectants: Glycerine, propylene glycol, sorbitol are usually added in a concentration ranging from 10-30%.
Binding agents: Gum tragacanth, gum Arabic, karaya gum, sodium alginate, agar veegum, bentonite etc. are added
as binders in tooth pastes.
Preservatives: Methyl paraben and propyl paraben are used as preservatives.
Anticaries agents: Sodium fluoride, sodium lauryl sarcosinate etc. are frequently used as anti carcinogenic.
Anti bacterials: Triclosan is one of the antibacterial now a days used most widely in tooth pastes.
Desensitizers: Potassium nitrate and strontium chloride are used to reduce the sensitivity of teeth to hot and cold.
Evaluation of Dentrifrices:
Dentrifrices are evaluated for – Abrasiveness, Particle size, Cleansing property, Foaming ability, pH, consistency
