What’s that stuff? Toothpaste tablets

Dental hygiene aficionados have surely noticed a new format battling for a share of the oral hygiene market. Toothpaste tablets are dry, pressed-powder pills about the size of an aspirin or a pea. With a solid chomp from the molars, the tablet turns into a powder that mixes with saliva to make a foamy paste. From there, the procedure is what most people are used to: brush all surfaces of the teeth and gums for about 2 min—one playthrough of Weird Al’s song I Want a New Duck is about right—then after a quick pass on the tongue and roof of the mouth, spit, rinse, and spit. As of June 2023, toothpaste tablets cost 10-20 cents per bite—nothing that’ll break the bank for most brushers but 5-20 times as expensive as conventional toothpaste. This new dentifrice, a term encompassing anything you rub on your teeth to clean them, came on © 2023 Chemical & Engineering News