If you haven’t heard of charcoal toothpaste, it may be because you don’t have an Instagram account and aren’t bombarded 20 times a day with another pretty face promoting a product. Influencer culture has greatly, for lack of a better word, influenced our decisions when it comes to various products, and toothpaste is no exception. One of the more popular ones in recent times has been charcoal toothpaste and it’s no surprise that its popularity has been because of celebrities and popular Instagram influencers. But is it really worth the hype, or just another paid promotion gimmick?
With evidence compiled by various reviewers and dentists alike, unfortunately, it looks like charcoal toothpaste is a bust, but hey, at least you won’t have to worry about cleaning your sink every time you brush your teeth anymore.
Charcoal toothpaste companies claim many things about the product, advertising their charcoal toothpaste as having strengthening and detoxifying benefits and claiming it also has antibacterial and antifungal properties.
Unfortunately, it looks like not a single one of these claims has any factual and scientific evidence to support them, and in fact, due to the digging, it looks like charcoal toothpaste is actually doing more harm than good. While the debate on whether fluoride in our toothpastes is a good or bad thing, those for having fluoride present argue that the reason that charcoal toothpaste is bad is because of the lack of fluoride, but the presence of fluoride would be useless anyway as charcoal cancels out any power that the naturally occuring substance has.
One of the more popular reasons why consumers turned to charcoal toothpaste though wasn’t because it was marketed as natural and fluoride-free. No, it was because of its claims to have superior whitening effects. However, with the charcoal toothpastes that were tested and reviewed, not a single one of them had enough whitening agents present in the formula to garner actual results. There was also the concern that charcoal is far more abrasive than other cleaning agents found in common toothpastes, and therefore has a negative effect on the enamel and your gums.
So is it worth it? Not in the slightest. With its price tag compared to more reputable toothpastes and the evidence showing that there no benefits to your health, its safe to say that charcoal toothpaste will be on its way out soon, both on Instagram and the stores that carry it.
