UK’s largest independent survey by Product of the Year reveals oral care trends driving the market

18 Oct 2022 --- According to a nation-wide online poll by Product of the Year UK, key oral care concerns among British citizens are decay prevention (55%), trumping breath freshness (22%), sensitivity (22%) and whitening (1%) when buying a toothpaste product.

Conducted in October 2022, the poll was part of a series aiming to better understand the state of oral care in the UK.

“Oral care continues to be a big area of innovation,” says Helga Slater, MD, Product of the Year. 

“Technological advancements and scientific discoveries have led to all manner of new products that solve our oral care issues. We anticipate a big presence from this category in the upcoming awards.”

Dental hygiene maintenance
Questions about toothpaste additive ingredient preference revealed that most of the respondents are traditionalists at heart, with baking soda taking over two-thirds of the votes (60%), and more experimental options including charcoal (38%), hemp (1%) and cinnamon (1%) lagging.

“The first toothpaste product to reach mass markets contained baking soda and hydrogen peroxide and were first put into tubes in 1892. Nearly 150 years later, baking soda remains a core ingredient in many oral care products,” according to Product of the Year.

Additionally, when asked what kind of toothbrush they used, over half of the respondents opted for electric (56%), with basic plastic toothbrushes ranking in second place (31%), bamboo in third (10%) and recycled in last place (3%).

“When it comes to toothbrushes, we’ve come a long way from early civilization techniques, which once included using twigs,” says the company. 

Toothbrush innovation has led to many choices regarding maintenance of dental hygiene.

Conducted in October 2022, Product of the Year poll was part of a series aiming to better understand the state of oral care in the UK.Oral care trends
According to Innova Market Insights, globally, toothpaste remained in the top subcategory in oral care, accounting for 74% of new oral care launches tracked in 2021.

However, new formats in the oral care category, like toothpaste tablets, mouth sprays and foams that can be used on the go, added convenience to the product, making it easy to use anytime and anywhere.

The company also reports that mint led the flavor of the new toothpaste launches in the US, with 75% opting for it. In contrast, lesser-known flavors such as eucalyptus, daiquiri, corn, blue raspberry and American Gumbo each amounted to 1%.

Cavity protection
Knowing dental plaque acidity levels can help dentists and patients determine which areas of a tooth are more vulnerable to cavities. Researchers from the US-based University of Washington developed the O-pH system to help with the same.

It is a prototype optical device that produces LED light on the FDA-approved chemical dye which coats the teeth. The device measures the reactions of the light. The test is non-invasive as the probe that transmits and gathers light while hovering over the surface of a tooth is attached to the end of a length of cord while the dye is applied to the teeth.

In other dental health developments, PersonalCareInsights previously reported an alternative therapy to root canal treatments through tissue regeneration, backed by a US$3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Researchers from the New Jersey Institute of Technology in the US created an injectable hydrogel to extract a person’s dental pulp stem cells directly to the disinfected cavity after a root canal.

The American Dental Association recommends using a toothbrush and flossing daily to avoid cavities. However, according to a National Natural Science Foundation of China-funded study, these techniques do not work well in whitening teeth.

They introduced a hydrogel treatment that removes biofilms that cause cavities while whitening teeth without harming the enamel.

By Radhika Sikaria

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