Bite Bits Are the Least Bad Plastic-Free Toothpaste Tabs We Tested

To turn the tablet into paste, you pop one in your mouth, crush it between your teeth, and brush with a wet toothbrush, rinsing as normal. The biggest adjustment for me was getting used to the strange sensation of biting down and chewing on something you’re not supposed to eat. If your palate is at all sensitive to gritty textures or your gag reflex is easily triggered, this experience might not be for you, and they may also be less well suited to children, who might be tempted to swallow.

Toothpaste tablets produce a lot less lather than you might be used to when brushing your teeth. That’s because they usually don’t contain sodium lauryl sulfate, or SLS, which is often used in traditional toothpastes as a foaming agent. Foam helps evenly distribute toothpaste in your mouth and between your teeth so you don’t miss a spot. But some people find that SLS irritates their mouths and skin, which is why some items (including most toothpaste tablets) swap it out for alternatives like sodium lauroyl glutamate and sodium cocoyl glutamate.

According to Dr. Jennifer Plotnick, a practicing dentist at Grand Street Dental in Brooklyn, New York, this shouldn’t make the tablets less effective so long as you’re willing to be extra diligent about spreading the crushed tablet bits around your mouth so none of your teeth get neglected. “If you distribute [the bit] evenly on your teeth, it will probably have a similar effect to toothpaste,” Plotnick said.

For this guide, I only tested toothpaste tablets with fluoride, the sole remineralizing ingredient that earned a seal of approval from the American Dental Association (ADA). But not everyone wants fluoride in their toothpaste—some people find that fluoride irritates their skin. If you want to avoid fluoride, the companies of all three tablets I tested also offer fluoride-free options, but Bite is the only company whose fluoride-free tablets contain nano-hydroxyapatite, which research shows can help prevent cavities through remineralization. In a statement, the ADA stressed that this research is preliminary and that fluoride is a naturally occurring chemical that remains the only anticavity agent recognized by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Although I take oral hygiene seriously, I also find brushing my teeth a chore. I do it because I must, but I take no real joy in it. And the bizarre texture and the learning curve of toothpaste tablets made me enjoy brushing even less.

Still, of all three options I tried, Bite’s tablets created the closest experience to using traditional toothpaste, and they were my favorite of the bunch—and the only one I’m holding onto for travel and convenience. Bite’s tablets were crunchy and light—they crumbled easily on first chew and dissolved quickly. They tasted like classic peppermint, cool with just a hint of pleasant sweetness, and fresh in a way that felt tingly but didn’t burn. They left a cool sensation in my mouth that lingered for about five minutes after brushing—longer than my traditional toothpaste. My teeth felt very clean and I was confident my breath was fresh. The other tablets lost me on the first chomp because they were too chalky and dry or chewy in a way that felt stale.

But the real deciding factor for me was foam. Bite’s bits foamed up nicely during brushing, which made me feel like they were working. It wasn’t quite as foamy as my normal toothpaste—and if you need a good frothy foam to enjoy brushing, toothpaste tablets probably aren’t for you. This was the case for my husband, who couldn’t get over the subpar suds. But I found Bite’s bits had just enough foam to allow me to brush for one minute, spit, and still get the remaining product to foam up again for another minute of brushing. This was miles ahead of Mintly’s and Unpaste’s tablets, which had almost no foam at all.

Bite’s glass jar packaging holds about two months worth of tablets and fits in the palm of my smaller-than-average hand. I was initially a little worried about the idea of subjecting a glass object to the jostling chaos that is the inside of my tote bag for brushing on-the-go, but Bite’s jar is thick and sturdy without being bulky. That said, it would probably break if you dropped it on a hard floor or, say, a porcelain sink, and the aluminum lid is prone to denting. It seals well, though, and stays put when screwed on tightly.

I would not recommend either Mintly or Unpaste tablets based on taste or texture. But if you’re most interested in trying toothpaste tablets for their liquid-free convenience and plastic-free packaging, and you are less bothered by a lack of foam than I am, Mintly and Unpaste do offer a couple things Bite doesn’t.

For starters, Bite’s fluoride tablets only come with a subscription. At the time of publication, you pay about $32 every four months (which works out to $8 per month) and get a refill of 248 tablets delivered to your door. You can cancel at any time, but if you just want to sample tablets to see if you like them or use them occasionally for travel or camping, a subscription might not make sense.

Mintly offers a one-month supply with no subscription that costs about $9, so slightly more than Bite but perhaps worth the price for the flexibility. Like Bite, Mintly’s tablets come in a sturdy reusable glass jar with an aluminum lid, but if you want refills, you need to get the four-month subscription, which is about $1 cheaper per month than Bite’s.

Unpaste offers ultimate flexibility because it doesn’t require a subscription; you just order what you need, as you need it. Unpaste is also the best bang for your buck: Its two-month supply is about $13, or $6.50 per month, and a four-month supply is about $22, or $5.50 per month. (For comparison, a single tube of drugstore toothpaste usually costs $3 to $10 and lasts a few months, depending on the brand and your portion size.) The downside with Unpaste’s packaging is the tablets only come in a compostable paper bag that, once open, stays open—not ideal for travel or storing by a wet sink, but easily fixed if you’ve got an empty container hanging around your home.

Most fluoride toothpaste tablets we’ve seen come in just one minty flavor, and Bite’s fluoride Toothpaste Bits are no exception. If you prefer something else, Unpaste’s fluoride tablets come in cinnamon, and Bite’s nano-hydroxyapatite (fluoride-free) tablets come in berry.

One of the biggest selling points for toothpaste tablets is that their plastic-free and reusable packaging makes them better for the planet. But this claim is never quite as straightforward as it seems.

Using a refillable glass jar cuts down on plastic waste, and if enough people are using jars instead of tubes over a significant time period, that adds up. Bite calculated (PDF) that its sales prevented 75,000 pounds of plastic waste in 2022, for example.

But the trade-off is greenhouse gas emissions, because the manufacturing process for a glass jar with an aluminum lid is more energy-intensive than that of a plastic tube, according to Tom Etheridge, an expert in life cycle assessment and a principal sustainability advisor for EarthShift Global. “It will take a lot of replaced plastic tubes to balance that out,” he said. And he added that compostable packaging may biodegrade but evidence shows that it too requires more energy to produce than just using virgin plastic.

More energy use means more planet-warming emissions, unless that energy is from a renewable source. Neither Mintly nor Unpaste currently uses renewable energy, and Bite did not get back to us in time for publication. Bite and Unpaste claim to be “carbon neutral” through a mix of offsets and vague emission-reduction efforts, but the environmental benefits of carbon-offsetting programs can be dubious and hard to vet from a shopper’s perspective. “Right now there are more carbon credits than there is carbon coming out of the atmosphere,” said Etheridge. “There isn’t a good robust system for making sure two people aren’t counting the same carbon credits.”

If you’re a frequent flier and toss a lot of travel-size tubes, switching to toothpaste tabs will certainly cut your plastic waste. But after speaking with experts, I’m not convinced that this plastic-free swap is environmentally impactful enough for people who dislike toothpaste tablets to suffer through a toothbrushing routine they dislike.

I’ll probably reach for Bite’s Toothpaste Bits when I travel, and pop them into my bag as a reserve for when I’m out and about. But once my supply runs out, I don’t think I’ll renew my subscription. The experience of using tablets isn’t enjoyable enough for me to justify ditching my regular paste entirely, especially if they have little verifiable carbon emissions payoff.

This article was edited by Katie Okamoto and Annemarie Conte.