Chocolate Toothpaste: The Key to Healthy Teeth?

Posted on June 30, 2009 in Consumer Goods, Health & Medicine, Parenting

For a killer smile, brush, floss…and chow down on chocolate? Chocolate has received positive press lately for being healthy in small quantities, but now an extract of cocoa powder is being touted as a natural alternative to fluoride in toothpaste.

Arman Sadeghpour, then a Tulane University doctoral candidate, published research in 2007 that claims the cocoa extract is more effective than fluoride. The extract is a white crystalline powder that has similar chemical characteristics to caffeine. The substance also helps harden teeth enamel and makes them less likely to decay.

Manufacturers have been adding fluoride to toothpaste since 1914, but the repurposing of cocoa extract could change the way we brush teeth. Sadeghpour’s research included creating a prototype of peppermint-flavored toothpaste with the extract included. His thesis research compared the extract side by side to fluoride on the enamel surface of human teeth, Soon, we might be getting ready for bed and eating dessert at the same time.