This list includes both tablets with and without fluoride.
Fluoride is generally recommended by dental professionals, and leading governing bodies like the Australian Dental Association.
Despite dental professionals advising fluoride be a key ingredient in toothpaste products, we understand that for some the personal choice is to opt for a fluoride free option.
1. Denttabs
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Environmentally considerate packaging | More expensive than regular toothpaste |
Contains fluoride | More expensive than regular toothpaste |
Low abrasivity — RDA 30 | |
Just under 2 months supply | |
Travel friendly (no liquids) | |
Vegan and cruelty free |
One of the most widely stocked toothpaste tablet options available today.
They taste good, clean well and leave a long lasting freshness.
A more practical alternative for many to regular toothpaste, they contain fluoride, so you will get the approval of most dental professionals. Although there are options to purchase the fluoride free versions.
They are certainly more expensive than a regular tube of toothpaste. But this is the price you pay for a more eco-friendly and convenient option. That said, Denttabs tend to be one of the most cost effective options of all toothpaste tablets today.
Where to buy
2. PopTabs
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
2 months supply per tin | More expensive than regular toothpaste |
Contain fluoride | Available from select retailers only |
Vegan | No refill option |
Palm oil free |
Manufactured in New Zealand (but with shipping to Australia available) Pop Tabs are a toothpaste tablet that include fluoride.
Coming supplied in an aluminium tin containing 125 tablets, enough for 1 person for 2 months.
Suitable for vegans, palm oil free and cruelty free too, these are another great choice for a zero waste approach to your oral care.
Unfortunately, there appears not to be a refill option, only the choice of buying a complete new tin each time, which is a shame.
Where to buy
3. Lush cosmetics toothy tabs
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
More natural ingredients and less chemicals | Taste — some flavours not to everyone’s liking |
More environmentally friendly than regular paste | Shelf life |
Travel friendly | More expensive than regular toothpaste |
Low abrasivity | Not that easy to source |
Interesting flavours | |
Suitable for vegetarians and vegans |
Lush is a very popular cosmetics brand who have gained global recognition for their more considerate approach to cosmetics.
Doing away with what many would consider the 'unnecessary' ingredients, their range of toothy tabs are one of, if not the largest with an array of flavours, some of which will appeal to more than others.
Fluoride free, the tabs come in small plastic bottles, which can be easily reused or recycled, in fact, the bottle is made from recycled plastic.
Each bottle offers just under 2 months supply of tabs.
Where to buy:
4. Chews / Dr Robb toothpaste tablets
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Made in Australia | Only 1 month’s supply |
Developed by dentists | More expensive than regular toothpaste |
Option to subscribe | One of the more expensive toothpaste tablet options |
Environmentally considerate packaging | Not that easy to source |
Contains fluoride | |
Vegan and cruelty free |
Chews stand out because they are designed by dentists and made in Australia.
Packaged in what they call 'Earth Bags' they are biodegradeable, so the packaging is as good for the planet as the tablets themselves.
This means you will need your own jar or tin to store them in, although Chews do sell their own fairly stylish tin.
As you might expect these minty fresh tablets do contain fluoride to help protect the teeth.
62 tablets are provided in each bag which is a months supply for 1 person.
They are a great alternative to any of the other toothpaste tablets on offer, but they are too one of the more expensive options. A months supply of Chews, costs the same as 2 months of Denttabs.
What Chew does offer too though, is a certain convenience thanks to their subscription programme, something no other toothpaste company in Australia seems to offer.
Where to buy
5. Bite toothpaste bits
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Environmentally considerate packaging | Low abrasivity |
Fluoride option available | More expensive than regular toothpaste |
No harsh chemicals | Not that easy to source |
Plant derived organic ingredients | Shipping in a glass jar isn’t eco-friendly |
Travel friendly | |
Suitable for vegans |
Created by Lindsay McCormick, in California, USA, Bite toothpaste bits area great natural option when it comes to brushing your teeth.
Frustrated by the regular toothpaste packaging and its impact on the environment, Lindsay set out to create a more eco-friendly and ingredient conscious product.
With no harsh chemicals and plant derived organic ingredients, these tablets are suitable for vegans and are very importantly great to use on a daily basis.
There is a nice fresh minty taste, without the dusty, chalky and clumpy texture that can come with some other products.
It is Bite who have perhaps drawn the most attention to this new type of toothpaste product thanks to gaining the attention of leading publications around the world.
Given their model of sending refills in biodegradable packaging (you re-use the original glass jar that they come in), this makes them a good fluoride-free zero waste toothpaste option, although they do need to be shipped from the US.
Where to buy
6. Georganics
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Environmentally considerate packaging | No fluoride |
2 months supply | One of the more expensive toothpaste tablet options |
Refill option available | More expensive than regular toothpaste |
Variety of flavours | Not that easy to source |
Suitable for vegans, these cruelty free toothpaste tablets from Georganics are available in a number of different flavours to suit you.
Choices included English peppermint, spearmint, orange and there is too a charcoal option.
Supplied in a glass jar with aluminium lid, you get 2 months supply, of 120 tablets, all of which are fluoride free.
When the jar needs refilling, you can purchase a refill pack meaning no extra glass jars are accumulated.
They are one of the more expensive options available, but they Georganics are a reputable brand.
Where to buy
Buyer's guide
Learn all you need to know about toothpaste tablets. Find out what they really are, how they work and why you might want to make the switch from regular paste.
What are toothpaste tablets?
Toothpaste tablets are essentially a solid version of regular toothpaste.
They are not a liquid nor are they a paste, they are generally a compressed powder.
Often they are small, circular shaped tablets, like paracetamol or aspirin, might be.
Achieving the same thing as regular toothpaste, the idea is that you chew, brush and go.
When bitten into, the tablet breaks and reacts to the moisture in your mouth, foaming up to create a paste which you can brush your teeth with.
Other names for toothpaste tablets
Toothpaste tablets is a broader name to describe a toothpaste that is made into a small, chewable tablet.
Different companies and brands give their own names, but just some of the variations on toothpaste tablets I have seen include:
- Toothpaste Tabs
- Toothpaste Bits
- Toothy Tabs
- Toothpaste pills
- Zero waste toothpaste (in some cases)
- Chewable toothpaste
- Solid toothpaste
Unless explicitly stated, they are essentially the same thing, just with a different name.
What do toothpaste tablets replace?
The tablets are designed to replace the regular tubes of toothpaste that most of us know and are familiar with.
According to Denttabs, one of the pioneers in toothpaste tablet production, conventional tubes of toothpaste consist of 50% water.
In order to produce a paste to stabilise it and make it preservable, you need many chemical ingredients.
In a tablet form, there is no water and less need for chemicals to stabilise and preserve them.
They are also better for the environment.
How?
A typical 100ml tube of toothpaste actually weighs around 130g.
If toothpaste is around 50% water, roughly 75g of that weight is water.
A pot of Lush Toothy Tabs weighs 50g and you get approximate 100 tablets (2 tablets weigh 1g).
Over the course of a year, you would require 730 tablets, which would weigh in at 365g.
Roughly speaking you would need 4 tubes of toothpaste a year. At 130g each that is a total weight of 520g.
Therefore the tablets weigh 155g less.
155g of weight saving a year might not sound a lot, but you need to think about the scale and volumes at which toothpaste is produced.
Consider how it is made by a company, shipped to a warehouse and then to stores around the country.
Typically, the packaging for tablets tends to be smaller and made from recyclable plastics or card. There is also no water used, saving resources, weight and volume in packaging and shipping containers.
Although squeezable toothpaste tubes are made from plastic, they are difficult to recycle and it is unusual for councils to collect them as part of your recycling collection scheme.
In the Australia alone, there are 25 million people.
If everyone used toothpaste tablets, in 1 year alone, by my calculations that is over 3,813 tons of weight that could be saved each year. That means fewer lorries moving product about and lower carbon emissions.
The following video is put together by Women's Health magazine and is dedicated to Bite, a brand of tablet toothpastes. It gives a good overview of the situation and why they have come about.
Bite has a model whereby it ships refills to you in biodegradable packaging, thus saving on waste. Your first purchase comes as a jar filled with tablets, and from there on the idea is you simply refill the jar.
This makes it a good zero waste toothpaste option.
Unfortunately at the moment, it is not possible to buy refills as a one-off purchase — you need to subscribe to a recurring plan, which sends them every four months.
Ideally, we would like to see an option whereby you can simply buy Bite in biodegradable packaging as a one-off purchase, thus reducing packaging further.
That being said, this model is head and shoulders above plastic toothpaste tubes going in the bin.
Benefits of toothpaste tablets
The benefits of toothpaste tablets are:
- Eco-friendly/packaging - Toothpaste in a tablet form does not contain water, making them lighter and more compact in comparison to tubes of toothpaste. The packaging tends to be recyclable unlike toothpaste tubes.
- Zero waste options - One of the brands we have mentioned, Bite, operates a model for zero waste toothpaste, reducing pollution.
- Ingredients - Although it varies from one brand of tablet to another, there tends to be less chemical ingredients, so less total ingredients. They are often more natural and better suited to vegans.
- Travel/TSA approved - Small and compact, you can take what you need, rather than what a shop bought tube limits you too. The tablets do not generally count to your carry on allowance, making them TSA approved.
- Abrasivity - Tend to be less abrasive and more gentle on the teeth.
Negatives of toothpaste tablets
Of course there are some potential negatives associated with toothpaste tablets, these are:
- Availability - They are a more niche product at this time and only select retailers and online stores sell them.
- Shelf life - The shelf life of the tablets tend to be less than a regular tube of toothpaste because they are no or less preservatives included.
- Price - Tubes of toothpaste are cheaper, given the competitive and mature market. Tablets are more expensive for the benefits they bring.
- Often fluoride free - Check the packaging, but often the tablets are missing the vital tooth protecting ingredient, fluoride.
Are they better than regular toothpaste?
Whether they are better or not will be a personal opinion.
For some, they will be better because they tend to be made of more natural ingredients and more environmentally friendly.
Others will consider them better as they are lighter and less bulky than regular tubes of toothpaste, which is particularly useful when travelling.
From a cleaning the teeth perspective, they are designed to be equivalent to regular tubes of toothpaste.
To my knowledge, no clinical studies have compared toothpaste in a tablet form against a regular tube of toothpaste.
How to use toothpaste tablets
The directions given by toothpaste tablet manufacturers will differ slightly, but most tend to suggest:
- Place a single tablet in the mouth.
- Bite / chew the tablet to break it up (a tiny bit of water or saliva in the mouth is useful)
- Wet the head of a toothbrush.
- Brush as normal.
Ingredients
Every manufacturer of toothpaste tablets will use different ingredients to achieve the taste and results they want.
What is common however, is there are much fewer if any chemicals used to stabilise and preserve the tablets.
In most cases, the tablets are made of natural products and will often be suitable for vegans.
Where man-made substances are used, in most cases these tend to be those that are considered 'safe'.
For example, in Lush cosmetics Limelight toothy tabs, there are 25 ingredients.
Those natural ingredients are:
- Cream of Tartar
- Kaolin
- Lime Oil
- Lemon Oil
- Spearmint Oil
- Almond Oil
- Baobab Fruit Powder
- Gardenia Extract
- Citric Acid
- Titanium Dioxide
- Citral
- Limonene
The safe synthetic ingredients are:
- Dicalcium Phosphate Anhydrous
- Sodium Bicarbonate
- Lauroyl Sarcosine
- Sorbitol
- Silica
- Malic Acid
- Synthetic Fluorphlogopite
- Tin Oxide
- Sodium Saccharin
- Flavour
- Colour 19140:1
- Colour 42090:2
- Colour 77491
It is worth noting that many do exclude fluoride.
I am not here to discuss the pros and cons of fluoride and whether toothpaste should include it or not. There is plenty of discussion on the internet about this already.
However, fluoride within toothpaste is the recommendation of leading dental and health bodies around the world so if like me you would prefer to take the advice of dentists you will be pleased to know that there are a few tablets that do include fluoride.
Cost — are they worth it?
Toothpaste tablets are more expensive.
As demand increases, I expect prices will fall, but for the foreseeable future, you will be expected to pay a premium.
As I have shown, most toothpaste tablets are made from more natural ingredients and more environmentally considerate. But this is one of the biggest appeals of these toothpaste alternatives.
As it stands at the moment, you often have to pay a premium to obtain such.
Whether you feel it is worth paying this premium will be up to you, ultimately it is a personal decision, but one often justified by the benefits.
Tubes of toothpaste can range from about $3 through to $15+ for those 'special' tubes of paste.
In most cases, a standard toothpaste will cost around $3 for a 100ml tube.
With 4 tubes a year you are looking at a cost of about $12.
If you were to buy a 2 months supply of Denttabs form ecoteeth they would cost you $16, or $8 per month.
Therefore over the course of a year, the cost is $96, $84 more expensive than a tube of paste.
However, if it is the more natural ingredients that appeal to you, products like Tom's of Maine natural toothpaste sells for around $6 a tube.
Therefore over a year, you would pay $24.
Compare this to Lush Cosmetics toothy tabs and it would cost you $95.60. Therefore there is only a premium of $71 per year for the tablets.
FAQ
The following are a number of frequently asked questions surrounding toothpaste tablets.
What do they taste like?
This depends on the individual toothpaste tablets. Some brands have designed their products to be minty, as is common with most regular toothpaste.
Other brands specifically make tablets with different flavours to make them different and appeal to different users.
Where in many tubes of toothpaste the flavouring can be artificial, with tablets, it tends not to be.
All the ones I tried have a bit of a powdery taste for the first few seconds as it reacts with water/saliva to create a paste.
Personally I have found the worst tasting tablets to be those without fluoride, with a more powder/clay like taste.
Are they messy?
No.
The tablets are not really messy. You can get a little dust from the pot or of course if a tablet is cracked/smashed when not in the mouth a small amount of mess will be created, but it is easy to clean up.
Do they foam when bitten?
Yes and no, it depends on the tablet and what it contains.
Some foam up more than others.
Foaming is not a sign of how good a toothpaste is and is for the most part a placebo effect that toothpaste manufacturers have used to make it look like the paste is working better.
So a tablet/paste does not need to foam, but some will more than others.
Are they suitable for vegans?
Many are yes. However, it is worth checking the specific product/company to confirm this. Lush cosmetics are an example of a company who do produce vegan toothpaste tabs.
Should I rinse after use?
No. Always spit out the excess, but do not rinse out after brushing, this removes the good left behind by the paste and brushing.
Are toothpaste tablets safe for kids?
Yes, they are.
However, you need to be aware of a few things.
Firstly, your child needs to be old enough and capable to chew and tablet and use it as a paste rather than chewing and swallowing, like they might a sweet. They need to understand how it works. Children aged 6 years or above will likely understand this, but it will be parental discretion.
Many tablets do not contain fluoride which is the recommendation of dentists. You should research the pros and cons of this and seek professional advice in deciding what to opt for.
Those that do contain fluoride tend to contain enough for an adult, the equivalent to 1000-1500ppm.
According to the Australian Dental Association, children aged 18 months to 5 years should use a toothpaste with 500-550ppm fluoride.
Children 6+ years through to adults old should use a paste containing 1000-1500ppm fluoride.
How do I care for my toothpaste tablets?
Treat your tablets like you would dry food. Keep them in a cool dry place and away from moisture. A seal bottle (like most come supplied in) is ideal.
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