To think branded toothpaste is not superior -any dentists able to confirm?

[EachPeachPearNectarine]

I have sensitive teeth, have done for years. I was chatting about this to my dentist at my appointment yesterday, and she asked what toothpaste I used. I told her I used the Superdrug sensitive one at the moment.

She told me only actual Sensodyne is any good. I thought the ingredients were all the same so it would make it difference branded or not? Is she just paid by Sensodyne to say this?

AIBU to think that own brand sensitive toothpaste is just as good? I've used both over the years and haven't noticed any differences but obviously I'm not a dentist!

A dentist once told me that as long as your toothpaste contains fluoride, it doesn't make any difference what brand, packaging, additives and so on are present. Fluoride is key. However, my most recent dentist told me the other week to stop using Colgate Advanced Deep Clean because it was probably responsible for some gum erosion and consequent sensitivity. I guess the lesson is to use whatever products suit your needs, not somebody else's.

My dentist recommended Sensodyne to me as well but I did a few home trials years ago for Sensodyne and it always made my teeth worse! When I had my impacted wisdom teeth removed by a Maxillofacial surgeon, he said he never recommends using sensitive toothpaste because it can hide issues?! 😳 I’m currently using Oral B Sensitivity & Gum Calm toothpaste and have switched back to using a soft manual brush and this has really reduced the pain in my teeth (electric brush even with a sensitive head and settings, was causing shooting pain in my teeth when brushing).

Different brands of desensitising toothpaste use different desensitising ingredients eg arginine, strontium, arginine , stannous fluoride ,csp etc. People find different toothpastes work better for their sensitivity.

However , in general, no toothpaste is better than any other (with the exception of dentist prescribed high fluoride toothpastes only to be used on prescription) . Own brand cheap as chips toothpaste , as long as it has fluoride and if it's for sensitive teeth works for you, is perfectly fine.

What is not great is whitening or stain removing toothpastes. No toothpaste can legally contain enough hydrogen peroxide to whiten and all whitening /stain removal toothpastes are either acid or abrasive or both and will remove enamel as well as stain and make sensitivity much worse.

This is true only if you have no real dental health issues and just want to keep decay at bay.

For example, sodium laurel sulphate is an ingredient which causes the foaming that people like but it can affect the absorption of the active ingredient which helps sensitivity and can exacerbate mouth ulcers.

The answer OP is “it depends”.

Other issues with all meds are that the fillers can affect the efficacy- cheap fillers (despite same active ingredients) can slow down or reduce e the impact.

FWIW, I bloody love McLeans 99p from home bargains, I was a dentist for 20 years before I’d had enough!