Any claims that toothpaste makes about preventing decay, whitening teeth, etc., are totally fallacious, Dr. Reiss told me, because the FDA can’t and won’t allow the ingredients necessary to perform those chores in an over-the-counter product that children can easily get hold of. (That’s why he recommends an antibacterial product like Gly-Oxide, a fairly foul-tasting but apparently effective means of killing the bacteria that cause decay.)
