These Are the 12 Best Toothpastes for Pearly Whites, According to Experts

Tom’s Whole Care Anticavity Toothpaste comes from the well-loved Tom's of Maine brand, known for its all-natural self-care and hygiene products. This toothpaste is free from artificial flavors, sweeteners, and dyes and the ingredients are listed on its website, with information about how they’re derived and what they do, so you know exactly what you’re putting into your mouth.

With ingredients that are known to be effective, Parodontax is a good choice for people focused on fighting gingivitis.

With a minty-fresh aftertaste and titanium dioxide, the enamel-safe whitening agent used in many toothpastes, this toothpaste is an all-around great choice for those with sensitive teeth.

No one likes bad breath, in themselves or their partner. Arm & Hammer Toothpaste Plus Therabreath is our top pick for a toothpaste for those who want to be sure they’ve got fresh breath both right after they brush and throughout the day.

Arm & Hammer Plus TheraBreath comes in Invigorating Icy Mint flavor. “The mint flavor wasn't overpowering at all, which I liked,” reports Lili Ladaga, an Everyday Health editor who tested this toothpaste. “I like fresh breath, but I don't necessarily want to smell like toothpaste,” she says.

Part of what makes Colgate Total Plaque Pro Release Whitening Toothpaste so effective is its unique SmartFoam formula, which is designed to penetrate the hard-to-reach places where bacteria are common, like along the gum line. The toothpaste is also gluten and sugar-free.

It’s worth noting that Periogen doesn’t contain foaming agents, but while this may feel unfamiliar if you’re used to foaming toothpastes, rest assured that the minty flavor and cleaning power of Periogen Toothpaste will still leave you with the just-brushed scent and feeling you’re looking for. Periogen is a little pricier than some other toothpaste options, but the brand emphasizes that you truly only need a pea-sized amount. This means that each tube of Periogen will last you longer than the same size tube of other brands.

Hello Kids Magical Mermaid is the Orange Dreamsicle-flavored toothpaste that checks all the boxes necessary to quickly become kids' (and their parents’) favorite toothpaste. This toothpaste comes in different fun names and flavors: Smiling Shark (Fruit Punch), Unicorn Sparkle (Bubble Gum), and Dragon Dazzle (Blue Raspberry).

“My son loved this toothpaste so much, he refused to go back to his old one after we tested it,” says Simone Scully, editorial director at Everyday Health, who tested this toothpaste with her 5-year-old. “He loved the flavor we tried so much he immediately asked us to try one of the other flavors, Dragon Dazzle — which he liked just as much.”

The active ingredient in Hello Kids Magical Mermaid is sodium fluoride, which functions to prevent cavities and helps strengthen kids’ enamel. While it does contain fluoride, which can help protect kids' teeth from damage and decay, this toothpaste doesn’t contain many of the things parents hope to avoid allowing their child to ingest, namely artificial sweeteners or flavors, preservatives, parabens, or dyes.

Hello Kids toothpaste relies on rebaudioside to add the flavor kids like. Rebaudioside is a natural sweetener that is derived from the stevia plant and is known for its sweetness. Other notable ingredients include potassium citrate, which helps reduce any sensitivity, hydrated silica to act as a mild abrasive, and tetrasodium pyrophosphate to reduce tartar buildup.

The ingredients in Hello Kids Magical Mermaid toothpaste are effective in promoting oral health and keeping kids teeth strong, but xylitol, which is in many toothpastes, can cause GI issues if it’s consumed, so it’s always important to monitor kids while they’re brushing to ensure they’re not swallowing it.

For people sensitive to strong flavors and unfamiliar sensations, trying to find a tolerable toothpaste can feel daunting. While a range of flavorless toothpastes exist, OraNurse, a British toothpaste company, was initially created for autistic children, who can be highly sensitive to taste. Despite being flavorless and unfoaming, OraNurse still has what it takes to provide a thorough teeth-cleaning experience, with a range of fluoride levels to choose from.

One of my children is extremely sensitive to the traditional flavors and foaming sensation of toothpaste. Over the past few years, he’s grown to be able to tolerate a few fruity toddler gel toothpastes, but for years we cycled through dozens of toothpastes, in at least as many flavors (and even a few that are marketed as flavorless) but he was unable to tolerate them for more than one or two toothbrushing sessions. At one point, his sensitivity was so severe that we resorted to using unflavored, disposable oral swabs in lieu of traditional toothbrushing. As such, I figured he would be the ideal tester for a toothpaste marketed to meet his exact needs.

When I offered my son OraNurse, he started by smelling it, noting that it didn’t have the offensive “spicy” smell most toothpastes do. He applied it to his toothbrush with skepticism, but after brushing for a few seconds, he gave it a tacit nod of approval. After brushing, he shared that he felt it was a good toothpaste because it “tasted like nothing” and didn’t fill his mouth with “itchy bubbles,” which is his way of describing how toothpastes that contain the foaming agent sodium lauryl sulphate feel.

I gave OraNurse a try as well, and though it lacks the foaming, minty feeling I like in toothpaste, my teeth felt clean, and I could appreciate how someone sensitive to flavor and sensation would really like this option.

For flavoring, this tooth whitening powder contains menthol, mint oil, and mint leaf oil, which give it a cooling, minty flavor that I personally found pleasant during testing, but it’s also understated enough that it didn’t overpower any flavoring in the toothpastes I added it to. I was also impressed that it was simple to use, didn’t cause any sensitivity, and seemed to make a positive difference in the brightness of my smile.

RiseWell Mineral Toothpaste offers an all-natural, mineral-based option to those who want the effectiveness of conventional toothpaste but want to avoid either fluoride or the nonnatural ingredients sometimes included in toothpaste by other companies.

Hydroxyapatite is the naturally occurring mineral that RiseWell relies on as its primary active ingredient. Hydroxyapatite is used in most remineralizing toothpastes and has been shown to deposit onto the surface of teeth, enhancing the strength of the existing enamel to serve as a barrier to bacteria and the resulting decay that is possible. Calcium carbonate and silica function in this toothpaste in ways similar to other toothpastes; they serve as gentle abrasives that help remove debris from the surface of the teeth and smooth the enamel, helping to eliminate the tiny scratches in enamel where bacteria can linger.

RiseWell toothpaste also contains stevia, as well as sorbitol and erythritol, which are both sugar alcohols commonly used as sweeteners. When I tested RiseWell toothpaste, I found the taste pleasant; it was minty, but also sweet, and left my mouth tasting clean without feeling overpowered by a strong mint flavoring.

Bite, a company founded with the dual mission to reduce plastic waste and create trustworthy, all-natural oral care products, is our top pick for best toothpaste tablet. The tablets offered by Bite, called Bits, are travel-ready and easy to transport and come with a reusable glass jar that feels both sturdy enough to toss in your bag for travel and attractive enough to display on your bathroom countertop.

Once you’re brushing, the toothpaste experience you’ll have with toothpaste tablets is largely indistinguishable from the experience you’d have with toothpaste squeezed from a tube; the primary difference is in how you use the Bits. You place the toothpaste tablets directly into your mouth, chew, and then use a wet toothbrush to distribute the toothpaste and brush your teeth.

The toothpaste tablets offered by Bite contain all-natural ingredients that help strengthen the enamel and reduce sensitivity. You can choose to order Bits that contain fluoride or Bits that are fluoride-free. Fluoride-free Bits rely on ingredients similar to those found in other fluoride-free toothpastes to strengthen enamel and fight bacteria, including hydroxyapatite, zinc citrate, and xylitol. Both Bits with fluoride and fluoride-free Bits are free from artificial dyes, flavors, and preservatives, making them a great choice for the environmentally conscious toothbrusher.

Bite offers fluoride-free toothpaste Bits in three flavors: Mint, Mint Charcoal, and Berry Twist. However, the Bits that contain fluoride are only available in the Mint flavor. I tested the Mint bits and experienced the flavor as mildly overpowering in the moments after I first chewed the Bit, but found that it normalized as soon as I started brushing.