Good news: the US Patent and Trademark Office has granted the first ever patent for a toothpaste specifically designed for your veneers to MyntSmile. Better news: you don’t need it.
That’s right: you don’t need a special toothpaste for your veneers. You can brush your teeth with any toothpaste we’d recommend for your natural teeth.
Let’s take a look at the claims made by this new toothpaste and you’ll see why.
Low Abrasiveness
One of the big advertising claims of this toothpaste is that it has low abrasiveness, which makes it good for cosmetic dentistry restorations. Low abrasiveness is a good idea for your toothpaste, no matter what. However, this toothpaste is not particularly remarkable in this regard.
Abrasiveness is measured in terms of what is called “relative dentin abrasiveness” (RDA). This is a measure of how much dentin (not enamel) will be worn away using a particular toothpaste. Although enamel is harder than dentin, the RDA still serves as a good reference for how abrasive a toothpaste is.
In general, an RDA of less than 80 is recommended for your teeth and your cosmetic restorations. So, MyntSmile’s RDA of 52 is good. However, there are many major toothpastes that fall into this range, including toothpastes by Arm & Hammer, Tom’s of Maine, Sensodyne, Rembrandt, and more. So while this is good, it’s not exclusive.
MyntSmile tries to represent itself as being specifically proven as better for your restorations than conventional toothpaste, and they back it up with a clinical trial. However, the clinical trial compares MyntSmile with just one other toothpaste: Crest Pro-Health, which is one of the most abrasive commercial toothpastes out there, with an RDA of 155! No one would recommend this toothpaste for your veneers, and few would even say this is a good choice for your natural teeth.
Glossy Veneers
MyntSmile claims that it can help your veneers to look better in part because it removes stains and in part because DiaMynt helps the porcelain look glossier. However, there are no clinical studies on their website showing that the toothpaste actually makes veneers look glossier at all. The only one referencing ceramic restorations is the study on abrasiveness. Clicking around the links takes you into a small loop of pages that refer to each other, each one promising to explain how this benefit works, but none of them giving the promised information.
Cavity Protection
It is important to protect your teeth when you get veneers. Modern veneers are very strong, and, of course, they don’t get cavities. However, the tooth behind or under the veneer can develop cavities. When this happens, the veneer might be lost as well.
On its website, MyntSmile claims to reduce cavities “27% better then most commercially available toothpastes.” And it has a clinical study to back this up.
However, if you look at the clinical study, you will see that it’s comparing an experimental dentifrice (fancy word for toothpaste) with fluoride (presumably Myntsmile) to a commercial toothpaste and no treatment. While the experimental dentifrice with fluoride does reduce cavity depth by 27%, that’s compared to no treatment, not to the commercial toothpaste, which also reduced cavity depth by 22%. While the two toothpastes seem different, the difference isn’t statistically significant for the purposes of this study. In other words, the company offers no real evidence that their toothpaste is better than a commercial toothpaste.
Veneers Are Easy to Care for
Let’s be clear: we’re not saying MyntSmile is bad. We’re just saying that it doesn’t offer any evidence that it’s better for your veneers than many other toothpastes you might buy. And there’s a good reason for that: veneers don’t need a lot of special care. Being easy to care for is one of the benefits of veneers.
You should treat them as you would treat your natural teeth as if you wanted them to last for a lifetime. Brush (with an appropriate toothpaste), floss, and make regular dental visits.
Don’t use your teeth as tools, don’t bite nonfood objects, and if you are a bruxer, you should wear a night guard.
If you want to learn more about the proper care for dental veneers before you get them, please call today for an appointment with Scripps Ranch cosmetic dentist Dr. Ramin Goshtasbi.