There is also Nano-Hydroxyapatite toothpastes, from Japan. From my naive understanding, it is better than NovaMin and Flouride generally - there has been a lot of research on it.
The qualitative analysis showed no occlusion of the dentinal tubules in Group A (control group) and Group B (nano-hydroxyapatite) showed 98.1% tubule occlusion. Group C (Novamin) and D (Proargin) showed 83.1% and 69.1% tubule occlusion respectively. Quantitative analysis showed a statistical significant difference between Group B and D (p< 0.005) and no statistical significant difference between group B and C (p= 0.235). Similarly, there was no significant difference between Group C and D as (p=0.235).
Conclusion
It was concluded that all the three desensiting agents were effective in the dentine tubule occlusion. In addition efficacy of nano-hydroxyapatite toothpaste was greater compared to the other desensiting agents.
Is that the same as zinc hydroxyapatite? In Italy it's pretty well known under the brand name BioRepair (which is how I discovered about it, and personally I'm very satisfied with it)
But zinc-hydroxyapatite in BioRepair may not be some Zinc-nano-Hydroxyapatite.
They are the same compounds but the size of the crystals are not the same.
BioRepair is advertised as "microRepair".
The size of the crystals seems to matter : smaller crystals are better as they allow to get inside smaller holes to fill them, but probably also more expensive to produce.
Source : https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jnm/2009/746383/
>"It can be supposed that the application of CHA nanocrystals 20 nm sized allows a better mineralization in the lower surface fissure, because the interprismatic and prismatic enamel structures appear totally hidden. Using an equal time of treatment, the application of CHA nanocrystals 100 nm sized produces the formation of a homogeneous coating which hides interprismatic and prismatic enamel structures when examined with SEM."
Toothpaste is kind of a complex mixture that also depends on the PH and the interaction with saliva to work. Therefore probably only specific studies between the full products using a microscope could tell the better products.
As a final note, the tooth mineralization is a tug-of-war (dynamic equilibrium) between demineralization and remineralization, this means that using more effective products should be used carefully and not as an excuse to compensate for bad behavior like excessive soda consumption throughout the day.
I bought a tube of this ("Boka" brand). I can't personally vouch for its efficacy (not a dentist), but I find it extremely pleasant to use.
It has a much milder, non-minty flavor (I picked the ginger); the instructions indicate that you use it at night, and don't rinse, just spit. It doesn't taste "toothpastey" at all, actually quite nice, I don't mind leaving on my teeth overnight at all. I use a normal fluoride in the morning.
