What Do the Color Codes on Toothpaste Boxes Mean? Certainly Not What You Think.

Toothpaste is an essential household product that you hopefully use twice a day. With that in mind, there’s an aisle full of toothpaste options for you to choose from at supermarket and big box stores. You’ll see many appealing features in toothpaste, such as ingredients, health benefits, and even flavor and colors.

One thing you may not be aware of, or it might have crossed your mind once or twice, is that there is a colored rectangle or square at the bottom of each toothpaste package. This color can either be red, blue, green, or black, depending on the product. What do these colors mean? Many consumers have been longing to find out the real purpose of these colors.

Debunking an Internet Rumor

For quite a while, there have been fake claims making waves on the internet about what these colors mean. You’ll find images of these colors next to what they allegedly describe. Black means “all chemical” or “pure chemical”, green means “all natural”, red means “natural and chemical”, and blue means “natural with medicine”. Though if you simply view the ingredients of a toothpaste marked with a green or blue rectangle, you can easily see that is not true at all.

This common claim easily makes a misconception is that there is a fine line between “natural” and “chemical” toothpastes. What your Kitchener Waterloo dentist can remind you is that everything on the planet is basically a chemical. This includes all-natural products. Toothpastes are known to contain tough, effective chemicals, so even certain toothpastes that claim to be “all natural” actually may contain chemicals that contribute to making the product more effective on your teeth.

The second mistake from this claim is that there is no definite understanding on what “medicine” is being referred to. The only types of medicine that are remotely associated with teeth are painkillers such as aspirin, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen, and these are not ingredients found in any type of toothpaste. The only toothpaste ingredient that us dentists consider to be medicine is fluoride, the mineral that you can find in many types of toothpaste that protects teeth from decay.

What do These Colors Truly Mean?

The color codes do not have anything to do with the toothpaste inside, but rather they are simply marks’ that were formed when the packaging is manufactured. These marks are picked up by light beams, which give signals to machines for where to cut, fold, or seal a package.

Why are each of these marks a different color? They are simply different because they are used by different machines, sensors, or kinds of packaging that companies use. As a matter of fact, you could also happen to find more colored squares instead of just the four mentioned, such as orange or purple.

How Do I Find an Indication of What Toothpastes Contain?

If you want to know what is in a certain tube of toothpaste, you could always read the ingredients on the package. Common types of toothpaste ingredients include sweeteners, flavor agents, humectants, surfactants, abrasives, binding materials, and, of course, fluoride. Each of these types of ingredients are included to give the paste different purposes and properties, whether to improve its cavity-fighting abilities, making it better to taste, or making it last longer in the tube.Summary

The truth about toothpaste color codes is that the internet pictures making the round are actually hoaxes. The color codes are actually marks’ from when the toothpaste’s packaging was made. When finding out what toothpastes contain, always review its ingredient label.