I used to be in Los Angeles final week visiting considered one of my daughters, and he or she took me to Erewhon. (Fortunately, for the report.)
In case you’ve by no means been, Erewhon is the grocery retailer the place a smoothie prices $22 and the car parking zone appears like a Tesla dealership. When in Rome, proper?
So, in fact, I find yourself within the toothpaste aisle, and what I noticed was fairly thrilling. Nano-hydroxyapatite was in every single place. Model after model, all that includes nHAP—the calcium mineral that makes up 97% of your enamel.
Ten years in the past, you couldn’t discover these items exterior of Japan. Now it dominates the toothpaste aisle on the most talked-about grocery retailer in LA. That’s actual progress!
For years, I advised sufferers who requested me about toothpaste that every thing in the marketplace was a compromise. Boka was the best choice accessible for some time—and I used to advocate them. They obtained nHAP into folks’s arms when no one else was doing it.
A lady subsequent to me within the aisle picked up a tube of Boka and mentioned, “Have you learnt something about these?”
I advised her I’d know a factor or two.
We obtained to speaking. She’d heard about nHAP from a podcast. She was selecting a toothpaste based mostly on the one ingredient she’d heard of, however neglecting to contemplate every thing else on the label.
I picked up the tube of Boka she was holding and flipped it round…
Varied important oils: peppermint, spearmint, wintergreen, anise, plus cardamom oil, and menthol. Seven elements with broad-spectrum antimicrobial exercise, doing the identical factor: killing micro organism.
Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate, which is a deceptive one. The entrance of the tube advertises “SLS Free” however what they did was swap SLS for a surfactant cousin. Totally different chemical title, similar class of ingredient, similar foaming-and-stripping impact on the cells the micro organism in your mouth depend upon. It’s a softer model, however it’s nonetheless a surfactant! “SLS Free” has grow to be a advertising phrase. It’s not the identical as surfactant-free.
She mentioned, “Aren’t important oils pure?”
Pure, perhaps. Microbiome-destructive, positively.
Right here’s the factor about “pure.” A small bottle of tea tree oil is the concentrated extract of kilos of leaves. No person is placing that a lot tea tree into their mouth by chewing leaves in actual life. Focus any plant compound sufficient and it stops behaving like a plant and might behave like a drug.
I began flipping each tube on that shelf. All the identical story…
Important oils in each single one. Some had 4. One had 9, together with tea tree oil, probably the most potent broad-spectrum antimicrobials in nature. These are small corporations doing good work getting nHAP into folks’s arms. However they’re loading their formulation with elements that don’t discriminate within the micro organism that they kill and suppress.
Right here’s what I believe is definitely occurring. Toothpaste is regulated as a beauty within the U.S. (although it actually shouldn’t be). So these manufacturers are borrowing from the skincare playbook. Chamomile. Lavender. Unique botanicals. “Elevated” elements that sign sophistication and justify premium pricing.
It’s beauty mimicry. And it really works, as a result of we’ve been skilled to learn toothpaste labels the best way we learn skincare labels. However having chamomile in your toothpaste isn’t the improve the label desires you to suppose it’s.
Right here’s what I advised her…
There isn’t any remineralization with out the oral microbiome.
Your enamel can’t heal with out the micro organism in your mouth.
Injury the microbiome, and remineralization slows and even stops.
The “good guys” aka the commensal, or useful, micro organism in your mouth—species like S. sanguinis, S. salivarius, S. oralis—are a part of a microbial neighborhood that produces nitric oxide, which helps cardiovascular well being. They impart together with your intestine and your mind by what researchers now name the oral-gut-brain axis. They preserve dangerous breath in examine. They stabilize your saliva chemistry so calcium and phosphate can redeposit onto weakened enamel.
When your toothpaste wipes them out, you’re not simply risking your enamel. You’re knocking out micro organism that preserve your whole physique wholesome.
It’s like watering a backyard whereas pouring salt on the soil.
A 2021 research printed in Antibiotics examined important oils — together with thyme and oregano — towards each cavity-causing species like Streptococcus mutans and useful commensals like Streptococcus sanguinis. The important oils killed each. The researchers put it plainly: these results on commensal micro organism “can increase issues,” as a result of eradicating them means “an imbalance can happen resulting in an infection or oral illness, turning our answer into an issue.”
I don’t blame these corporations. Important oils style good and provides toothpaste that tingly clear feeling. For a very long time, we didn’t perceive the oral microbiome properly sufficient to know this was an issue. However now we do.
At this level, my new good friend within the toothpaste aisle requested one other query: “OK, so I want nHAP with out the important oils. However isn’t 10% the focus to search for? Isn’t extra higher?”
Nice query. And the reply stunned her.
That 10% quantity traces again to a single 2009 research out of China. The “nano” particles they examined have been 500 to 2,000 nanometers, which, by right this moment’s requirements, aren’t nano in any respect.
They’re micro-particles. Ten to forty occasions bigger than what nano truly means now.
After all you wanted 10% of that. You want a variety of gravel to fill a hairline crack. However engineer a fine-grain sand that matches the crack precisely, and also you want far much less.
However efficacy isn’t the solely query price asking a few toothpaste. And that is the place we dentists are likely to get narrow-minded…
We have a tendency concentrate on what’s occurring to tooth construction. Does this rebuild enamel? Does it whiten enamel?
However a toothpaste ingredient doesn’t keep in your enamel. It touches your gums. It will get absorbed by the skinny tissue of your mouth. It finally ends up swallowed by accident. It results in your intestine. The best query isn’t simply “does it work on my enamel?” It’s additionally “is it protected for my complete physique?”
That’s the place the SCCS is available in…
The Scientific Committee on Client Security is the European Union’s unbiased scientific panel for evaluating elements in private care merchandise. They require producers to submit their knowledge. They run their very own opinions. They have a look at cell-level results, irritation, absorption, what occurs when a particle crosses into the bloodstream, what occurs when one thing accumulates in organs. Then they publish a proper opinion, and the EU makes use of that opinion to resolve what’s authorized to promote. If solely the FDA have been so thorough, however I digress!
In June of 2025, the SCCS printed their most up-to-date opinion on nano-hydroxyapatite. And so they have been particular. Rod-shaped particles. Uncoated. Unmodified. Sure side ratios. Not needle-shaped, which they explicitly flagged as doubtlessly dangerous. Particles assembly these actual specs, and solely these specs, they thought of protected.
Right here’s the road from their opinion: “Any uptake of hydroxyapatite (nano) by buccal mucosa is taken into account negligible, and the epithelial cells with internalised particles will probably be shed out over time.”
In plain English: these particular particles don’t accumulate in your physique. Cells that occur to select one up get shed naturally, the best way cells in your mouth already do.
That could be a enormous deal. And it solely applies to the precise type of nano-HAP the SCCS evaluated.
The nano-HAP we use in Fygg known as nanoXIM, made by a Portuguese firm referred to as Fluidinova. The particles are about 30 nanometers lengthy and 15 nanometers huge. Rod-shaped. Uncoated. Precisely what the SCCS permitted for whole-body security.
The analysis we invested in…
Full disclosure: I’m a co-founder of Fygg. You realize that. One of many issues I insisted on from the start was that we truly put money into unbiased analysis…to not show we’re proper, however to seek out out if we’re. Any model that asks to your belief ought to be prepared to place their components underneath a microscope in public.
So Fygg invested in a peer-reviewed research at Dr. Bennett Amaechi’s lab at UT Well being San Antonio—one of many prime remineralization researchers on the planet. We requested a selected query: how does our components evaluate towards each different main nano-HAP toothpaste, and towards fluoride toothpastes, in head-to-head remineralization?
Each product within the research produced important remineralization—in keeping with the broader literature exhibiting that each nHAP and fluoride can rebuild enamel.
And towards prescription-strength fluoride (ClinPro 5000) and normal fluoride (Crest), Fygg carried out comparably.
A well-formulated nHAP toothpaste can match what fluoride does.
Right here’s what’s telling in regards to the unfold. Fygg and Boka each use nanoXIM—the identical SCCS-grade nano-hydroxyapatite. And but Fygg considerably outperformed Boka. Two formulation utilizing the identical energetic ingredient shouldn’t produce nearly-double outcomes. One thing else within the formulation separated them.
The formulation filled with important oils, surfactants, and botanicals carried out worse. The components that left all of that out—the one designed to nourish the oral microbiome—carried out practically twice as properly. An in vitro research can’t inform us precisely why. However whether or not these elements are interfering with the chemistry within the dish, or damaging the microbiome in an actual mouth, or each, the outcome is identical. They get in the best way.
What I advised her to search for…
She was proper to be in that aisle. However earlier than she grabbed a tube, I gave her three issues to examine:
1. Depend the important oils and the botanicals. Tea tree, eucalyptus, thyme, wintergreen, peppermint, spearmint, anise—broad-spectrum antimicrobials. They kill the nice micro organism together with the dangerous. Fruit and flower extracts—chamomile, aloe, mango—are beauty mimicry and potential oral microbiome disruptors.
2. Search for SCCS-grade nanoXIM—not simply any “nHAP.” The grade and particle spec matter greater than the proportion. A label that simply says “nHAP” tells you nothing about what model is within the tube, or whether or not anybody has ever evaluated it for whole-body security.
3. Learn previous “SLS Free.” Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate is a cousin of SLS. Cocamidopropyl Betaine is one other. They’re all surfactants, and so they all do the identical work to the cells in your mouth. “SLS Free” isn’t the identical as surfactant-free.
That is why I co-founded Fygg, a components that treats the oral microbiome as a accomplice in remineralization, not collateral harm. After which we invested within the analysis to confirm it truly does what we designed it to do.
I hope this was useful. Hit reply when you have any questions or recommendations for what you’d like me to write down about subsequent.
Hold studying these labels,
Mark
P.S. In case you’ve already made the swap to nHAP, good for you. You’re forward of 95% of individuals. Now flip that tube round and browse the remainder of the label. That’s the place the true distinction is hiding.
Additional Studying & Citations
Aires, A., Barreto, A.S., & Semedo-Lemsaddek, T. (2021). “Antimicrobial Results of Important Oils on Oral Microbiota Biofilms: The Toothbrush In Vitro Mannequin.” Antibiotics, 10(1), 21.
Amaechi, B.T., Tan, A.I., Noureldin, A.A.Okay., Kanthaiah, Okay., Holladay, E., Obiefuna, A.C., & Vijayaraghavan, M. (2025). “In vitro analysis of the power of nanohydroxyapatite toothpastes to reinforce remineralization of enamel caries lesion.” Journal of Dentistry, 161, 106006.
