There are whole aisles dedicated to toothpaste in stores, as well as hundreds of toothpaste commercials on television. This can make it very confusing to decide which toothpaste to buy.

All toothpastes have a few main ingredients: water, abrasives, surfactants and fluoride.

Abrasives polish teeth by helping to scrape food and some stain off your teeth.

Surfactants are a fancy word for a foaming agent. The foaming helps to spread the toothpaste over your teeth more easily.

Fluoride is the active ingredient in toothpaste. Although controversial, it has been proven in numerous peer-reviewed studies to reduce dental cavities.

Whitening toothpastes are very popular right now, and some can be very expensive. What allows toothpaste to be called “whitening” is that it contains abrasives (which most toothpaste already have) and/or tripolyphosphate, which is an ingredient that helps break down or dissolve stains. Most whitening toothpastes do not actually contain the active “teeth bleaching” ingredient, a form of hydrogen peroxide, in their mixtures.

Tarter control toothpastes are also popular, and the active ingredient in these toothpastes is sodium pyrophosphate. This ingredient does not break down existing tarter that is already attached to the teeth. It does, however, help to prevent new tarter from building up on the teeth by bonding with any unattached tarter and dissolving it.

Most major toothpaste brands also carry sensitivity toothpastes now. The active ingredient in these toothpastes is potassium nitrate, which blocks the tubes that run from the outside environment to the inside of the teeth that contains tooth nerves. It also helps soothe nerve endings inside teeth. Most whitening products and whitening and tarter control toothpastes can cause sensitivity in people, so sensitivity toothpastes are widely used.