Rx toothpaste with sodium fluoride? I’d thought all the Rx rinses/pastes came with tin (AKA stannous) fluoride. Some months back, I googled the difference. Turns out that tin fluoride is much more effective at remineralizing teeth, but worse for your joints if you swallow some. It can also temporarily stain your teeth. It also blocks the ‘tubules’ in your teeth, making potassium nitrate unnecessary. Oh — and tin fluoride is more expensive to manufacture.

In the midst of figuring that out, I ran across comments about NovaMin (a bioglass originally developed to help soldiers with shattered bones heal). It was available as a Rx to dentists. GSK (the Sensodyne folks) bought the NovaMin company (and, if not the patents, definitely the trademark) and are marketing it overseas. It’s not available in the US for much the same reason you can’t get high-concentration fluoride paste in the US (FDA treats toothpastes as a drug, not a cosmetic). The Sensodyne ‘ Repair and Protect’ paste sold in the US has tin (stannous) fluoride. Their ‘ Repair and Protect’ paste sold outside the US has NovaMin and sodium fluoride.

I’ve been using the overseas version with decent results. I’ve recently been reading about BioMin, which adds fluoride as part of the bioglass.

When I run out my stock of overseas NovaMin Sensodyne, I’ll probably try that.

Disclaimer: I am NOT a dentist, just someone who got curious about this stuff we’re putting in our mouths.