Toothpaste tablets for kids! (…and adults who really like strawberries). Recommended for children from age 3+. Keep your kid’s teeth strong and healthy without any need to use wasteful plastic toothpaste tubes. Suitable for sensitive milk teeth with a reduced amount of fluoride at 500ppm.
To use, just chew one tablet and add a dab of water to feel it magically turn into toothpaste. Then clean your teeth as normal. (For a whole two minutes mind, otherwise, the tooth fairy will be after you!)
1 months supply = 60 Denttabs tablets
6 months supply = 360 Denttabs tablets
That’s for one child. If you want two months’ worth, which would be 1 month’s supply for two kids, then just click ‘1 month’s supply’ and put the quantity as 2. Get it? 1 months supply comes packaged in a small glass jar, while the 6 months supply is packaged in a cardboard box.
Keep out of reach of sticky fingers! This kids version of Denttabs seems altogether a bit too much like sweets (sweet shaped, strawberry flavoured) for it to be sensible to leave them in grabbing distance. If you have trouble getting your kids to see the benefits of brushing their teeth, hopefully, the similarity of a toothpaste tablet to a sweet will help persuade them that brushing their teeth can be fun after all. 😊
Kids Strawberry Denttabs
Plastic tubes of toothpaste of course! Unrecyclable horrors.
Most of us these days, manage to keep a substantial number of our teeth into old age (or we hope so anyway) and we can put that down to improved dental hygiene and dentistry, despite our increasing consumption of sugary teeth rotting goodness. Toothpaste, this underrated wonder of the modern age, makes it all better and keeps us smiling toothily rather gummily grinning. Not something one would like to forgo then, despite the environmental problems of toothpaste packaging. Thank goodness for a viable replacement for the toothpaste we all know and use then.
Fluoride!! All plastic-free toothpaste replacements made in the UK seem to be fluoride-free which has frustrated me for a long time. This is the kid’s version, so obviously, the fluoride content is less, (500ppm as opposed to the adult’s version which is industry standard 1450ppm). Kids need less fluoride than adults, which is why we have kids’ specific toothpaste in the first place. It isn’t just about the flavouring, although most children do prefer a strawberry flavour to mint. I’ve done the research and have concluded that we all want to keep our teeth as long as possible thanks, so fluoride it is. There is a lot of misinformation floating around about fluoride, making it harder to come across reliable sources to trust. (See the ‘Material Ratings’ section for further discussion and sources.) I’d rather stick with the dentist’s opinions personally, which is generally wholly in favour of fluoride. To me, that settles it. If you disagree, you can buy fluoride-free toothpaste in plenty of other places.
I wanted to find an alternative that was as close as possible to normal toothpaste and this is what I’ve come up with. Pop a Denttab in your mouth, use a bit of water or saliva (don’t just crunch them with a dry mouth) and bam! Toothpaste. So clever.
No water added = dramatically reduced carbon footprint and water consumption. Toothpaste is mainly water, so Denttabs help keep your bathroom and your carbon footprint nice and trim. Not to mention all that packaging you are saving from landfill! (Toothpaste tubes are very rarely recycled.)
Why else is it better? Denttabs say that their kid’s toothpaste is great because -
- ‘SPECIAL CARE OF SENSITIVE MILK TEETH GENTLE ON TEETH AND GUMS
- EXCELLENT TOLERANCE DUE TO 100% NATURAL INGREDIENTS
- NATURAL GENTLY POLISHING WITH CELLULOSE
- UNIQUE FLUORIDE EFFECT WITH ADAPTED AND REDUCED AMOUNT OF FLUORIDE FOR KIDS FOR REMINERALIZATION AND STRENGTHENING THE TOOTH ENAMEL
- CERTIFIED NATURAL COSMETICS FREE FROM MICROPLASTICS, PEG AND OTHER UNNECESSARY ADDITIVES OF POTENTIAL CONCERN’
The price of toothpaste varies a lot, from just a pound to around £4 at the higher end of the scale. Let’s call it £2 for a 100ml tube.
At £3 for a month’s worth, Denttabs are clearly more expensive than a tube of toothpaste you’d buy in the supermarket, as that tube would probably last more than one month. But, if you’ve dabbled in plastic-free toothpaste before, you’ll know that the alternatives are priced more like luxury items than everyday products. I think that Denttabs offer a much more reasonably priced alternative. If you are considering buying these toothpaste tablets, you are probably more concerned with the amount of packaging used in plastic tubes of toothpaste and are willing to pay a little bit extra for an alternative. I hope I have been able to provide you with that alternative without it breaking the bank. While plastic-free alternatives are still ‘niche’ they will be more expensive, hopefully, in future, we can change that! Plus, you save a bit of money if you buy 6 months’ supply rather than just 1 month’s worth. (You save £3, which is equal to a months worth, so that's 6 months supply of Denttabs for the price of just 5 months supply.)
What are they made from?
Ingredients: Microcrystalline Cellulose, Sodium Bicarbonate, Silica, Sodium Lauroyl Glutamate, Magnesium Stearate, Aroma (Natural Strawberry Flavour), Xanthan-Gum, Stevioside, Citric Acid, Beta Vulgaris Root Extract, Maltodextrin, Sodium Fluoride 500 ppm
Packaging: The bulk bags of Denttabs come in a compostable bag. These bags of Denttabs are sent enclosed in a cardboard box with paper tape sealing it shut.
This is Denttabs explanation (in their own words, which has been translated from German, by them may I add) as to why they used these ingredients, so refreshing to see a company explaining the purpose of what they put in their product! -
- ‘Microfine cellulose (Microcrystalline Cellulose) polishes your teeth ultra-smoothly into the interdental spaces. This is why new particles simply roll off the tooth surfaces, and plaque can hardly be created in the first place.
- Sodium fluoride (Sodium Fluoride) is used to remineralize the enamel and can help especially with sensitive tooth necks, but also with incipient caries. Because DENTTABS are "dry", it unfolds its full effect only with the application.
- Amisoft (Sodium Lauroyl Glutamate) is a surfactant (soap) that combines the dissolved proteins and fats with water to flush them out while rinsing. In AMISOFT glutamic acid is esterified with coconut fatty acids. In this chemical process, two naturally occurring substances (coconut fatty acids and glutamic acid) are combined, losing their original properties. "Glutamate" should not be confused with the flavour enhancers used in the food industry - DENTTABS are glutamate- and gluten-free.
- Stevia (Stevioside) is a sweet-tasting plant that, together with the aroma provides the good taste.
- Silica (silica) serves as a cleaning agent and helps to remove any soft plaque.
- Sodium bicarbonate, better known as " sodium bicarbonate ", adjusts the pH to 5.5 with vitamin C.
- Vitamin C (ascorbic acid/citric acid) regulates the pH value together with sodium bicarbonate (see above) and stimulates the salivation. The increased flow of saliva causes a faster remineralization of the tooth surfaces.
- Magnesium Stearate (Magnesium Stearate) is a herbal adjuvant used in tablet manufacturing.
- Xanthan gum is a natural thickener and gelling agent and provides the pleasant creaminess after chewing DENTTABS Toothpaste tablets.
DENTTABS are free of preservatives, germ-inhibiting substances, binders and contain neither aluminium nor nanoparticles.’
Where do they come from?
Germany
Are they sustainable?
Microcrystalline Cellulose – A.K.A refined wood pulp. A naturally occurring polymer, which means it is biodegradable, unlike most synthetic polymers. It is the most common polymer found in nature. Has no nutritional value, humans can’t digest it, so cellulose is completely inert to humans. It is often used as a filler in food to bulk a product out and is popular as an ingredient in ‘diet’ foods for this reason. Wood pulp, as a raw material, is plentiful and is produced mainly from softwood trees like pine. It can be made mechanically or chemically. Mechanical pulping is more efficient, as fewer trees are needed to make the same amount of pulp than chemical pulping. Chemical pulping has issues with pollution due to the chemicals used to break down the cellulose fibre, (although some mills work on a closed-loop structure to contain and reuse the chemicals needed) but while mechanical pulping does not have these problems, it is more resource-intensive. Wood is a renewable resource but often comes from monoculture plantations which were originally old-growth forest. Mismanagement of forests is a concern. Microcrystalline cellulose can also be made from agricultural waste materials, which is a more environmentally friendly option. Hopefully, in future, we will see it as being mainly sourced from these waste products rather than deforested wood.
Sodium Bicarbonate – has a ridiculous amount of uses. These range from relieving heartburn to getting rid of any lingering radioactive uranium deposits on your clothing. Useful stuff this. Sodium bicarbonate is made from the minerals nahcolite and trona, which is then refined into soda ash, which is then turned into bicarb of soda. Nahcolite and trona are mined, (the US has the largest deposits) so they are not renewable resources, but are so abundant we have enough to last more than 2000 years. Mining isn’t the most environmentally friendly process, but to produce sodium bicarbonate synthetically it uses up and gives off a lot of nasty chemicals, so swings and roundabouts. Good, bad, whatever, I refuse to go any further into this mining debate without a headtorch at least.
Silica – basically sand, but you can get it from sandstone, granite, plants, animals or even make it synthetically. It’s abundant, so we don’t have to worry about running out thankfully. Cosmetics use a non-crystalline form of silica. (As opposed to industrial crystalline silica, which has a bad rep for the health problems it causes in workers exposed to it, because crystalline silica can cause respiratory disorders when breathed in.) The kind of silica used in cosmetics does not pose a risk to your health. It’s very safe.
Sodium Lauroyl Glutamate – Derived from coconut oil, seems to not be of any environmental concern.
Magnesium Stearate – made from a reaction of Stearic Acid, (which is one of the most common forms of saturated fat in nature) and Magnesium Sulphate. It can be synthesised from many things, so plenty of it to go around no worries there. It is broken down very easily so not an environmental issue either. It is used to combine ingredients evenly in tablets, rather than the mixture of chemicals lumping together unequally. This makes sure you get the same amount of ingredient in each tablet. Important stuff.
Natural Strawberry Flavour – Note the ‘natural’ this means that the flavouring has been extracted from the actual botanical source material, strawberries, rather than being the bizarre mixture of chemicals that makes up synthetic ‘strawberry’ flavouring (which oddly tastes not that much like a real strawberry).
Xanthan-Gum – Acts as a binding agent and thickener. It is made by fermenting sugars such as glucose by a particular strain of bacteria. The feedstock for the bacteria can often be made of ‘waste’ from the food industry, such as whey, which is a waste product of cheese production. In terms of its environmental impact, it seems fine, plenty of bacteria to help make it, and there are studies showing that it is an eco-friendly way to help stabilise peat and soil (instead of cement or lime). Which makes it seem as if it probably won’t be harmful if it escapes into the environment. Again, not a lot of information on xanthan gum’s environmental impact.
Stevioside – Comes from the Stevia plant, mainly grown in South American and some Asian countries. It is primarily used as a sweetener. Its sweetening power compared to sugar is much more intense, so a teaspoon of stevia would provide the same amount of sweetness as a cup of sugar. Health benefits to that aside, that means less stevia has to be grown than sugar to add the same amount of sweetness. You need about a fifth of the land that you would for sugar to grow stevia, which also means less water is used to grow the crop than sugar too. So it is a much more environmentally friendly way to sweeten consumables!
Citric Acid – naturally occurring in citrus fruits, as you may have guessed. It has many varied uses. Production occurs industrially by feeding a cultivation of a particular type of bacteria with types of sugars, usually corn syrup which is cheap to use as a feedstock, to produce citric acid. It is mostly made in China, and half of what is produced is used as an acidity regulator in drinks. It can be shown as an ingredient by its E number, which is E330. 10% is used in non-food related products such as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals (which is the category this use would fall under). Mixed with sodium bicarbonate it creates the foaming action of the toothpaste. Citric acid is naturally found in food sources so it readily biodegrades, causing no harm to the environment from its use.
Beta Vulgaris Root Extract – Beetroot powder
Maltodextrin – This is a food additive made from vegetable starch. It could be used as a thickener, as a means to improve the ‘texture’ of the tablets or to add a touch of sweetness. It also acts as a preservative. As it is one of the last ingredients on the list, so if it is used as a sweetener here, it will probably only be a trace amount.
Sodium Fluoride 500 ppm - The one that causes a load of debate. Sodium fluoride helps prevent tooth cavities. Ingestion, such as drinking fluorinated water, is less effective than topical application, i.e. by using toothpaste. There is a long-established historical basis for claiming the benefits of fluoride for dental health. Despite this, there are lots of claims that ‘It’s toxic!!’ Well, of course it is… in high doses. Nearly everything is toxic in high doses, so don’t get worked up about it, unless you only eat toothpaste and nothing else for some reason. (Note - Children should be exposed to less fluoride than adults though, as their tolerance is much lower whilst they have their baby teeth. Once you have your adult teeth, this is no longer really a problem, so stop panicking.) Fluoride is naturally found in nearly everything it seems, be that rocks, soil and in nearly all water sources throughout the world, and places that don’t have much fluoride in their water often add it to public water sources to spare us excess trips to the dentist. Some countries add it to salt instead. How thoughtful. Fluorination of water is one of the biggest public health initiatives in the world and has saved a lot of toothaches. Unless you live in an area with an excessively high level of fluoride in the local water sources, most people are very, very unlikely to intake enough fluoride from drinking water, eating food, brushing their teeth and breathing etc. to cause harm.
Lots of studies have been done on the acute toxicity of fluoride for terrestrial and aquatic animals as well as plants. Harm has been found to be caused to organisms within a close range of places where fluoride is used for industrial purposes, such as aluminium smelters or brickworks. However, other pollutants emitting from these factories are likely to cause similar problems, so it is not entirely verified whether fluoride alone causes these problems due to these compounding factors. For freshwater organisms, fluoride levels can be increased to toxic levels by human sources, and this can depend on water hardness. Again, another human effluence could also contribute to this kind of pollution. More work needs to be done to properly assess whether human sources are leading to environmental pollution and how to prevent this, but evidence seems to suggest so far that industrial uses of fluoride (not just sodium fluoride, but calcium fluoride, hydrogen fluoride etc.) present a greater risk of becoming a pollutant.
If you would like more information, this is my source compiled by experts and published by the ‘United Nations Environment Programme, the International Labour Organization and the World Health Organization, and produced within the framework of the Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals.’ If you can’t believe these lot, then I’m afraid I can’t help you further. http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/ehc227.htm#1.0
How about ethical?
No information as of yet on the working conditions etc. As a German company, they are bound to stand by EU laws so we should be alright.
Extra good stuff:
Denttabs ship CO2 neutral, which means they pay to offset the emissions made during transportation. I think all businesses should do this! Hang on while I go buy a load of trees to plant…
Conclusion –
Plastic pollution been wiping the grin off your face and got you foaming at the mouth in anger? Chew on a Denttab instead of the problem and turn that frown upside down with this plastic-free toothpaste. Giving you fresh breath, a clean conscience, and a winning smile!
How much fluoride is there in Kids Denttabs?
DENTTABS Kids Strawberry contains an adapted and reduced amount of fluoride of 500ppm. Weight of one tablet is ~1/3 Gramm.
Denttabs also have a low abrasion value, approx 35 RDA.
Are they Vegan?
Denttabs state on their website that they are completely vegan, but the company hasn’t bought a ‘vegan seal of certification’ due to the high cost of being certified when not that many customers are asking them to specifically display such a certification.
This is their exact words (translated from German) ‘DENTTABS and the individual ingredients have nothing animal about them. The fact that we have not yet been certified as having yet another seal is honestly due to the rather low demand, the high costs and the associated time expenditure.’
What kind of toothbrush should I use with them?
Denttabs recommend using a soft-bristled toothbrush, as this helps with the ‘polishing’ action. However, I use a medium stiffness bristle and that works for me. I’m not a fan of soft-bristled toothbrushes for my own personal use. (The bamboo toothbrushes sold on this site are medium stiffness bristles, but I will start stocking soft-bristled toothbrushes in future.)
What about electric toothbrushes?
As Denttabs state that ideally a softer bristled brush should be used with them, they do not encourage the use of electric toothbrushes with Denttabs. I got one of my friends who uses an electric toothbrush to try out Denttabs, and she found that because Denttabs don’t foam up that much, she struggled to spread the Denttab around all her teeth using the electric brush. I’ve never used an electric toothbrush, so I’ve no idea what they are like or how they work. Use whatever works for you, but I just thought this may be worth taking into consideration. Update - I have had quite a few emails now from people who use electric toothbrushes saying they don’t have a problem using them with Denttabs.
