![]() Cleaning supplies (rubbing alcohol, stainless steel cleaner).Packaging (glass bottles, caps, labels, stickers, anti-humidity packets, Kraft #000 envelopes, three custom rubber stamps, ink).Uniform (gloves, coat, goggles, face mask).Accessories for the machines (grease gun, food-grade lubricant, dies, dust buster, glass beakers, scoopulas, glass pipettes, glass stirrers, metal trays, wrenches, Allen Key set).Organic ingredients to make the toothpaste.In total, Lindsay’s startup costs were about $6,000 after taking into account the following items: Loose enough that they become powder when you put them in your mouth.These three ingredients (when combined with the seven other hand-picked ingredients Lindsay researched) had the five properties she needed to make an all-natural toothpaste product suitable for oral consumption. She also found something called “Kaolin Clay” as a replacement ingredient for Hydrated Silica and two all-natural sugar alcohols (Xylitol and Erythritol) that protect by keeping bacteria from sticking to teeth. Lindsay found that if you take the water out of the toothpaste, it becomes self-preserving (i.e., it doesn't require any synthetic preservatives to keep it fresh). She found that toothpastes are made up mostly of water and abrasives, Hydrated Silica being the bad one (and also the most popular.) Hydrated Silica is harder than tooth enamel so by using it twice a day, every day you are literally slowly eroding your own enamel. ![]() Or you can call the USPTO office from the contact page on their website.įrom this research, Lindsay discovered that most of the toothpaste tablets and powders on the market are baking soda-based. If you don’t live near the USPTO in Virginia, USA you can go to a USPTO satellite office in Dallas, Denver, Detroit, or San Jose to get help searching the database. The patent database is super confusing to search if you don’t know what you are doing (Lindsay had no idea that missing a comma or where you place a word could totally change her search results), so she got help. When Lindsay had all these realizations, she started researching her own organic non-paste toothpaste product which wouldn’t explode in her travel luggage like this:īy going to the USPTO in person Lindsay, was able to meet with an off-duty examiner who helped explain the patent process. It has a bunch of questionable ingredients, it’s not sustainably made in any way, and sure, it cleans your teeth, but it’s not actually good for you. It will fill you up, and the FDA deems it safe, but just because it’s “safe” doesn’t mean you should eat it every single day.Ĭommercial toothpaste is the same. Lindsay says “commercial toothpaste is like fast food.” Fast food is cheap, chock full of weird preservatives and ingredients that may or may not be good for you but, yeah - it’s food. The thing is, those ingredients cost a little more, and you have to be okay with asking people to try something new (as in using either a powder or a tablet instead of a paste or gel.) Lindsay found that big toothpaste companies are getting away with using the cheapest and easiest (questionably) effective ingredients, even though there are safer and just as effective ingredients available. For example, Hydrated Silica is a commonly found chemical in toothpaste that even dentists agree is not always effective. There is a ton of research and reasons why these chemicals shouldn’t be in our bodies. If you look at the back of a toothpaste tube, stuff like propylene glycol, sodium lauryl sulfate, and diethanolamine are all controversial ingredients that lots of people avoid. She also wanted to make it her mission to stop putting the tons of crap found in toothpaste into our bodies every day. She tried toothpaste powder and toothpaste tablets (from commercial brands and homemade products she found on Etsy), but both were still packaged in plastic that harms the environment.
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