National Medical Products Administration: Toothpaste is not a Medicine
- Chaileedo Press
- Jul 6, 2022
- 3 min read
National Medical Products Administration has released an article warning that toothpaste is not a medicine and cannot treat diseases; Cosmetics Supervision & Administration Regulation also stipulated that toothpaste products should be supervised according to the regulation of normal cosmetics.
On July 5 China Standard Time (the dates in this article are all based on this standard), National Medical Products Administration released an article on popular toothpaste science reminding people that whatever the reason is, fallen or injured permanent teeth will not be able to regrow. Brushing your teeth with fluorine-containing toothpaste can enhance the teeth's anti-carious capacity, but it cannot reverse the decaying progress of caries. In addition, it requires professional oral examination, diagnosis, and treatment, if the long-term gum disease destroys gum tissue and leads to losing teeth.
National Medical Products Administration also suggested that it is unproven by science for the advertising saying of using toothpaste to brush teeth can repair cavities, close teeth slit, and stabilize the losing teeth.
CHAILEEDO has searched “toothpaste” in China’s e-commerce platforms and found that there are many kinds of toothpaste claiming that they can eliminate mouth odor, repair tooth enamel, and prevent helicobacter pylori, be edible, and so on. Their price is ranging from a few dollars to tens of dollars. Besides that, some of these kinds of toothpaste are even advertised with the words “suitable for your whole family, free to refund if ineffective”.
For example, a toothpaste brand BIYOUTING has claimed that its toothpaste has a 99% cleansing rate for colon bacillus, staphylococcus aureus, and porphyromanus gingivalis. When CHAILEEDO asked its customer service whether this toothpaste can be effective for these three groups of bacteria, they advised that it can prevent Helicobacter pylori.
While in January this year, National Medical Products Administration has particularly released an article to warn consumers that the toothpaste’s advertisement for anti-Helicobacter pylori lacks science foundation, and toothpaste is not a medicine, it cannot replace medicine for disease treatment.
Similar to that, in February this year, the Administration for Market Regulation in Jiading district Shanghai City issued a written decision of administrative penalty which showed that Shanghai Likang Disinfection Hi-tech Co., LTD (short named Shanghai Likang) has been fined 3000 dollars for false advertisement.
The decision of penalty suggests that Shanghai Likang TaoBao online store Youluoshaxing Flagship store has sold and advertised a product named “Youluoshaxing hp toothpaste refresh mouth eliminates mouth odor removes bad breath family online official flagship store 90g*5”, included words of “eliminate (the original Chinese word is ‘qu’) mouth odor and remove bad breath” in its title.
But as the inspection report of this toothpaste shows, the product only has the function of alleviating bad breath. According to Xinhua Dictionary (a reputable Chinese dictionary), the advertised Chinese word “qu” means to eliminate. While the toothpaste sold by Shanghai Likang doesn’t have the effect of eliminating bad breath, it’s against the fact as it is advertised as eliminating.
Eliminating bad breath belongs to the function scope, but the executing standard of Youluoshaxing Toothpaste is normal toothpaste, which means it isn’t produced according to the Standard of Functional Toothpaste. Therefore, the advertising of eliminating bad breath is on the brink of the law, which can cause misleading for consumers.
“Neither toothpaste nor cosmetics can be advertised as having therapeutic effects, the advertising cannot contain any spurious or misleading information and should not beguile or misguide consumers. It is explicitly stipulated in Advertising Law that those behaviors are suspected of violating the consumer’s the Right to Know and the Right to Select.” Chen Yinjiang, the deputy secretary of China’s Consumer Protection Law Society, has suggested.
Cosmetics Supervision & Administration Regulation implemented from January 1 of 2021 has also stipulated that toothpaste products should be supervised under the regulation of cosmetics.
If the toothpaste has undergone function evaluation according to China’s national standard and industry standard, it can be advertised as preventing cavity, dental plaque, dentine hypersensitivity, alleviating gum problems, and so on, but it cannot say explicitly or imply that it has medical functions.
In addition, a departmental law of the Measures for Supervision and Administration of Toothpaste specifically targeted at toothpaste regulation will be launched soon, to that time the toothpaste industry will be put under strict supervision.
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