I recently watched an interesting video from Bryan Johnson about a certain famous green powder company. You know the one. In it, he talks about ‘pixie dusting’—where brands pack their ingredient lists with all sorts of impressive-sounding nutrients, but at levels so low they might as well not be there. It creates the illusion of a powerful formula, even when key ingredients are present in ineffective amounts.
It got me thinking: oral care is also guilty of this.
The Problem With Ingredient Claims in Toothpaste.
More and more brands — both disruptors and legacy players — are rolling out products boasting about ingredient X or ingredient Y. But without telling you how much of the ingredient is actually inside, they might as well be waving a magic wand and saying, "Trust us." It’s impossible to know if these products are genuinely effective or just riding the hype train.
Without telling you how much of the ingredient is actually inside, they might as well be waving a magic wand and saying, "Trust us."
This is even more concerning when brands are replacing tried-and-tested ingredients, like fluoride, with newer alternatives. Take hydroxyapatite (HAP)as an example—a powerhouse ingredient for strengthening enamel and reducing sensitivity. But here’s the catch: it needs to be at 10% or more to work as well as the research suggests. If a brand says they’ve swapped fluoride for HAP but won’t tell you how much they’ve actually included… well, you see the issue.
Even brands that state high percentages are sometimes misleading. They will speak of “ingredient X solution”, but often that solution itself only contains 20% of that active ingredient. In the case of HAP, even brands that claim 10% HAP are often actually using a way smaller percentage of active ingredient.
Trust in Science, Not Buzzwords.
This isn’t about bashing next-gen ingredients. If formulated correctly, they could be even better than their predecessors. But formulated correctly is the key phrase here. At Nura Teethcare, we don’t just sprinkle in the right ingredients for marketing appeal; we use them at levels that actually do something. That’s why we’ve partnered with world-leading researchers to rigorously test our products and publish the results for anyone to see. No smoke. No mirrors. Just science.
Lessons from Skincare.
The skincare industry has already been through this reckoning. Brands like The Ordinary and Medik8 won people over by ditching the marketing fluff and being brutally transparent about their formulations. Consumers now expect to see the percentages of active ingredients on the label—because that’s how you make informed choices. The days of pseudo-science jargon and in effective ingredient dusting are (mostly) over, replaced by real science and actual results.
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Nura Teethcare: No Pixie Dusting, Just Science
At Nura, we’re here to set a new standard in oral care. No pixie dusting. No sneaky marketing tricks. Just powerful, science-backed ingredients at concentrations that actually work. And we don’t just say it—we prove it.
Teethcare deserves the same level of scrutiny as skincare and supplements. It’s time for the industry to move beyond old fashioned marketing and towards real, transparent formulations. We’re leading the charge—because your teeth deserve better.
