A holistic dental practitioner with 40 years of clinical experience on why more people are quietly opting out of fluoride, and what they are choosing instead.
I want to be clear about something before we go any further.
I am not here to tell you fluoride is poison. I am not here to frighten you about your toothpaste. What I am here to tell you is that there is another way. A well-evidenced, clinically sound alternative to the routine you were handed as a child. And that more discerning people than ever are quietly making the switch.
That is a story worth telling.
For four decades I have worked with patients who arrived at my practice not because something had gone wrong, but because something felt off. They were doing everything right by conventional standards. Brushing twice daily. Seeing their dentist. Using the products their GP recommended. And yet they wanted to understand more. They wanted to know what was actually in the formula, what it was actually doing, and whether there was a cleaner option that worked just as well.
There is. And it has been hiding in plain sight.
Hydroxyapatite. Specifically nano-hydroxyapatite, or nHAP. The mineral compound that makes up approximately 97% of your tooth enamel. It is, quite literally, what your teeth are made of.
It was developed in the 1970s by NASA to help astronauts maintain bone and tooth density in zero gravity. Japanese dentistry adopted it as a clinical standard decades ago. Japan does not fluoridate its water. It has some of the lowest rates of dental caries in the developed world.
Independent randomised controlled trials comparing nHAP directly against fluoride toothpaste have found equivalent or superior remineralisation outcomes. This is not emerging or contested science. It is a well-established body of evidence that simply has not made it into the mainstream dental conversation. At least not yet.
The reason nHAP works is straightforward: it remineralises enamel by replenishing the exact mineral the enamel is made of. Rather than a chemical interaction, it is a structural repair. Your teeth recognise it because it is, in the most literal sense, the same substance.
This is the mechanism behind My Green Routine's Natural Toothpaste Tablets. Formulated around 10% nHAP, the concentration used in the clinical research, alongside xylitol at therapeutic dose and natural SCI instead of SLS. No fluoride. No synthetic detergent. No plastic tube.
See full ingredient list at mygreenroutine.earth
Sodium lauryl sulphate is the foaming agent in the vast majority of conventional toothpastes. It is what creates the lather people associate with a thorough clean.
It is also an indiscriminate surfactant. It does not distinguish between the bacteria you want to remove and the commensal organisms that form the healthy baseline of your oral microbiome, the 700-plus species that compete with the small number of pathogens responsible for decay and gum disease.
SLS is the most commonly cited cause of recurrent aphthous ulcers in clinical literature. A significant minority of people who experience recurrent mouth ulcers find they resolve entirely when they switch to an SLS-free formulation. Most have never been told there might be a connection.
This is not a reason to panic about your existing toothpaste. It is simply a reason to know what is in it, and to understand that there are alternatives that clean just as effectively without it.
"A holistic approach to oral care means choosing products that support the system rather than working against it."
Marc Mortiboys, The Dental Shaman
Your oral microbiome is not a separate system. It directly influences your gut microbiome, your immune response, and your inflammatory baseline. Chronic low-grade oral inflammation is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, and cognitive decline. What happens in your mouth twice a day, every day, for decades, is not a trivial variable.
A holistic approach to oral care means choosing products that support this system rather than working against it. Remineralise the enamel with what the enamel is made of. Support the microbiome rather than disrupting it. Use botanical antimicrobials that target pathogenic bacteria specifically, rather than broad-spectrum agents that clear the field indiscriminately.
This is not alternative medicine. This is applied biochemistry. The evidence base is substantial and growing.
I am selective about what I put my name to. When I reviewed My Green Routine's formulation, I found it aligned with what I actually recommend in clinical practice. The nHAP at 10%, xylitol at therapeutic concentration, no SLS, no preservative load, no plastic. That is not a standard many products in this category meet. I would give these to my own family. That is the only standard I apply.
My Green Routine Natural Dental Care · Zero Plastic · Zero Toxin
Over the years I have been approached by a number of brands in this space. Most remove the ingredients people are moving away from and replace them with ingredients present for marketing rather than function. That is not a meaningful upgrade. My Green Routine's tablets are different for specific, verifiable reasons.
"I have been fact-checking clean oral care brands for two years. This is the first one where the cited science actually matches what is on the label. No greenwashing."
D.K. · Verified Buyer"The toothbrush and the tablet brings so much comfort knowing I am not filling my body with fluoride. Lifesaver."
Robert B. · Verified MGR Member · 3 days ago"I have had recurrent mouth ulcers for fifteen years. Three weeks off SLS and they are gone. I did not expect that to be the thing that changed. But here we are."
J.H. · Verified BuyerMy Green Routine has made their full ingredient list and the research behind each component available for review. If you want to verify what is in the formula against the clinical evidence Marc describes, you can do that before you buy.
View ingredients and cited research →I want to come back to where I started.
I am not here to tell you that what you are currently doing is wrong. Conventional oral care has served a lot of people well. But for those who want to understand what they are putting in their bodies, for those who prefer to know the mechanism, check the evidence, and make an informed decision, a well-formulated fluoride-free alternative now exists that is clinically backed and practically superior in a number of respects.
That choice is available to you. The science supporting it is solid. The products that deliver it properly are, finally, catching up.
For a long time in my practice I watched people make peace with products they had mild reservations about because they believed there was no credible alternative. There is. There has been for some time. I simply want more people to know it exists.
"I simply want more people to know it exists."
Marc Mortiboys, The Dental ShamanFor those who have made the decision to switch, this is the most straightforward way to make that change once and not think about it again.
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Advertorial disclosure: this page is paid content produced in partnership between My Green Routine and Marc Mortiboys (The Dental Shaman), who is a compensated partner. Scientific claims are based on peer-reviewed research and publicly available institutional documents. This is not medical advice. Individual results may vary. 90-day money-back guarantee applies to the 12-month annual supply.