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Comment by ntoskrnl | Hacker News Reader

You're also not allowed to have the best toothpaste in the world. Toothpaste with Novamin can't be sold in the US. Thankfully the internet makes it easy to get the good stuff anyhow.

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Did some googling and found a study that doesn’t corroborate that.

“…concluding that there are no significant difference of remineralization process obtained by using traditional toothpaste and Novamin.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7068624/

Well it worked wonders for me, when nothing else did. Data size of 1, but still a datapoint.

That's a single metareview paper which was started by an undergraduate. Maybe people find that valuable, but other studies on the topics that used actual experimentation present somewhat mixed reviews trending towards clinical relevance.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jbm.b.34737

This is no longer the case. I read the link jkubicek posted and it mentions you can get it on amazon.

Sensodyne repair & protect with novamin (pack of 6): https://www.amazon.com/Sensodyne-repair-protect-novamin-pack...

That's a store in India selling what they were able to purchase in India. Sensodyne doesn't sell it to retailers in the US.

For those that are curious, here's[1] a mildly deep dive into the history of Novamin sales in the US.

[1]: https://medium.com/@ravenstine/the-curious-history-of-novami...

Discussed here:

The curious history of NovaMin toothpaste (2018) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26644350 - March 2021 (37 comments)

In case someone goes down this rabbit hole, Nanohydroxyapatite and fluoride seem to prevent caries best together, better than either alone.

Japanese apagard is what I use. Novamin has an analog of hydroxyapatite in it.

In addition to choosing the toothpaste, it’s important to use the right brushing technique and schedule, which is critical since toothpaste does the bulk of the work after the physical process of brushing is done: don’t rinse with water (just spit instead) and arrange brushing so that you don’t eat or drink afterwards.

Where do you buy it from?

I check a few places but this amazon seller tends to always have it cheapest.

https://www.amazon.com/Apagard-Premio-toothpaste-nanohydroxy...

I just picked up some CariFree CTx4 Gel 1100. It has Nanohydroxyapatite, Fluoride, and Xylitol.

I'm actually quite annoyed that none of the half dozen dentists I've seen in the last 15 years have mentioned Nanohydroxyapatite as a compliment to fluoride.

Thanks for the recommendation, I had never heard of it. And I had the same experience in regards to the hydroxyapatite. No dentists told me, I just discovered it on pubmed and then went googling like crazy.

BioMin is supposedly an equivalent substance that is approved in the US.

https://drcollins.com/products/biomin-restore-toothpaste

I believe novamin was approved but they can't sell it combined with fluoride. Since this product is fluoride-free it's allowed.

"NOTE: BioMin® F is not currently available for sale in the US. Although the Fluoride levels in BioMin® F are well below OTC levels in normal toothpaste, Flouride is classified as a drug in the US and has not yet been approved by the FDA."

Crazy...

How well studied is Novamin safety wise?

BioMin is every bit as good as Novamin. You are allowed to have comparable toothpaste in the US.

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