An effective whitening toothpaste should have sodium lauryl sulfate in it if it ever wants to be a contender for being the best. Yes, that means SLS is helpful in making them work better and without them, your teeth wouldn't whiten as well.
How SLS helps whitening toothpaste
All whitening toothpastes that are worth their salt should have SLS in them because it assists in stain removal and also in spreading the whitening agent across the teeth.
Stain removal: It lowers the surface tension by penetrating and loosening up surface deposits (food and plaque) on teeth. This causes the deposits and stains to be emulsified or suspended, which facilitates its removal when brushing.
Spreads whitening agent: As with all detergents, the SLS assists in foaming, lubrication, and spreading of material and in this case, it helps spread the toothpaste.
What this does is help the toothpaste get into every nook and cranny of your teeth so that it can whiten them.
Without it, the toothpaste may have a difficult time reaching some areas of your teeth.
The combination of both of these effects are what makes it a very helpful ingredient to have.
An analogy would be if you wanted to clean a dinner plate without detergent. That would certainly make it much more difficult to remove food off the plate right? The same can be said about stains on teeth, without a detergent you'll have a difficult time whitening them.
Effect of SLS-free whitening toothpastes
A whitening toothpaste without SLS will not be as effective in whitening your teeth because it would lack the stain removal benefit as well as the assistance in spreading the bleaching agent.
Ultimately what that means is your toothpaste will not be as potent or helpful as it could be. Therefore if you've been using a toothpaste that alleges it whitens but you're not seeing much progress, this could be a potential cause.
Perhaps you should consider switching to a better product.
Exception: Sodium lauryl sulfate is but one surfactant/detergent which is used in toothpaste. That means there are other types that could be used as a substitute for SLS.
Examples of other surfactants in toothpaste:
Cocamidopropyl betaine
Cocamidopropyl hydroxysultaine
Disodium cocoyl glutamate
Lauryl diethylenediaminoglycine hcl
Polyethylene glycol
Polysorbate 80
Potassium cocoate
Sodium cocoyl glutamate
Sodium methyl cocoyl taurate
Please be aware that while there are many alternatives and substitutes available, SLS is the most potent one out of them all.
Best whitening toothpaste has SLS
In case you were wondering, yes the best whitening toothpaste on the market does contain SLS in it and it is called the colgate optic white pro series.
The SLS in the formulation helps the whitening abrasives mechanically remove stains from your teeth. It also helps the hydrogen peroxide spread across your dentition to bleach off the stains.
Our dentists in Long Island City highly recommend using this toothpaste because it contains all of the quintessential ingredients to help make your teeth whiter by brushing. However, if you wanted an alternative we recommend looking for a product that has SLS with hydrogen peroxide whenever possible. Although if all else fails, you can always schedule a professional whitening appointment!
