Try reading the label on your toothpaste. What you’ll get is a very long list of ingredients and complicated names like trisodium citrate dihydrate or xantham gum. Some toothpaste even include preservatives such as methylparaben and Sodium benzoate. To keep it simple, let’s break these ingredients down into different categories; first, abrasives.

They are the building block of your toothpaste (30-60% of your final product). Abrasives are essential if you want to scrape food or plaque off your teeth, to prevent cavities or dental disease.

It’s been a while since Leonard Maraffino invented the first striped toothpaste; but since then, its popularity has only grown. Getting the stripes, as complicated as it may seem at first glance, is a very simple thing. After mixing, the toothpaste is sent to the filling station. One end is capped while the opposite end is left open for filling. The filling pump consists of three or four nozzles that inject a different color into the tube at the same time. Once the tube is filled, the machine crimps the end; so now you can pack the tubes in boxes and ship them.

Around a tenth of a toothpaste tube is water in the liquid phase. Concerns about water use and transportation costs are spurring innovative products in the form of tablets. The formula typically includes anti-bacterial sweeteners like xylitol and an abrasive like precipitated calcium carbonate. Mix the base ingredients ratios of the formula. Bind the powder particles with a wet or dry agglomeration system to facilitate the processing of the toothpaste tablet. Agglomerates prevent sticking when the formula is sent for compaction and punched through the dyes.