Toothpaste Abrasive & Fluoride Patents: Who Leads, Gaps 2026
- 82.8% of the field sits with five filers. 125 of 151 records in scope belong to the top five assignees, with one leader alone holding 58 — a filing pattern with almost no open middle tier.
- Filing has cooled from its 2022 peak. Output peaked at 10 records in 2022; the tracked span from 2021 to 2024 shows a 50% decline, though 2025-2026 figures are still filling in due to publication lag.
- A61K and A61Q dominate; inorganic chemistry classes trail far behind. 86.8% of records touch medicinal-preparation claims and 76.8% touch cosmetic-use claims, while non-metallic compound chemistry (C01B) appears in only 20.5%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (2 records) with 2024 (1) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 151 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Toothpaste abrasive and fluoride system patents cover the chemistry that keeps a dentifrice both cleaning and therapeutically stable: precipitated silica abrasives engineered to avoid quenching soluble fluoride, stannous formulations that resist oxidation and discoloration over shelf life, and the rheology and flavour-compatibility work needed to make those systems manufacturable at scale. The search underlying this page combines toothpaste abrasive and fluoride dentifrice terms with the specific stability and performance problems — radioactive dentin abrasion testing, silica particle design, fluoride availability, stannous stability, paste rheology and flavour compatibility — that separate a patentable formulation from a routine one.
The 151 records in scope run from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cut-off, spanning six major receiving offices. The picture that emerges is one of a mature, narrowly held field: a small number of assignees built the foundational abrasive-fluoride compatibility chemistry decades ago, and recent filing activity is comparatively thin.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 151 records: how filing volume moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
A field past its filing peak
Annual output rose to a peak of 10 records in 2022, then fell; the 2021-to-2024 window shows a 50% decline. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures are not yet complete and should not be read as continued decline.
Concentrated in two adjacent classes
A61K (medicinal preparations) and A61Q (cosmetic use) together anchor the field at 86.8% and 76.8% of records respectively, since most dentifrice claims are dual-purpose therapeutic and cosmetic formulations. Inorganic chemistry classes — C01B, C09K, C09C — describe the abrasive particle and mineral-additive side and appear in a smaller, more specialised slice of records.
Shares are the percentage of the 151 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Toothpaste Abrasive and Fluoride Systems with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about toothpaste abrasive and fluoride systems and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe patents everyone in this space cites
US4421527A — High fluoride compatibility dentifrice abrasives and compositions
Novel precipitated silicon dioxide abrasive compositions which can be incorporated into therapeutic toothpaste compositions containing both soluble fluoride salts and soluble phosphate salts are disclosed. The abrasives comprise low structure precipitated silicon dioxides which have been reacted with about 10 to 300 parts per million alkaline earth metal ion, particularly calcium. Reaction with the alkaline earth metal ion minimizes abrasive interaction with the fluoride ion source in therapeutic toothpaste. Also provided are methods for preparation of the novel silicon dioxide abrasives and resulting toothpaste formulations containing such abrasives.Filed by J. M. Huber Corporation, granted 1983-12-20 — part of a three-patent family that anchors fluoride-compatible silica abrasive claims industry-wide.
View full filing| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4340583A | High fluoride compatibility dentifrice abrasives and compositions | 1,207 |
| 2 | US4420312A | Method for production of high fluoride compatibility dentifrice abrasives and compositions | 243 |
| 3 | US4421527A | High fluoride compatibility dentifrice abrasives and compositions | 230 |
| 4 | US20070025928A1 | Stannous oral care compositions | 215 |
| 5 | WO2008041055A1 | Stannous oral care compositions | 133 |
| 6 | US20090186090A1 | Oral Care Composition to Reduce or Eliminate Dental Sensitivity | 101 |
| 7 | US4357318A | Dentifrices with improved soluble fluoride availability | 98 |
| 8 | US6419174B1 | Abrasive compositions and methods for making same | 75 |
| 9 | US6403059B1 | Methods of making dentifrice compositions and products thereof | 66 |
| 10 | US5589159A | Dispersible particulate system for desensitizing teeth | 63 |
Citation counts favour older records simply because they have had longer to accumulate them; treat this as a map of influence, not of current filing activity.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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The concentration and class data point to a field where the foundational chemistry is locked up and recent activity is thin — useful context before committing search or drafting budget.
The field has almost no open middle tier
With 125 of 151 records held by five assignees and one leader alone holding 58, freedom-to-operate work in core abrasive-fluoride compatibility claims should assume dense prior art from a small set of holders, not a fragmented landscape.
Filing has slowed from its 2022 peak
Output peaked at 10 records in 2022 and the 2021-2024 window shows a 50% decline. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this should be read as a real slowdown through 2024 rather than evidence about 2025-2026, which are still incomplete.
Particle chemistry is the smaller, more specialised slice
While A61K and A61Q claims dominate as the therapeutic and cosmetic-use framing common to nearly all dentifrice filings, the inorganic compound chemistry that actually defines abrasive particle behaviour (C01B) sits in only 20.5% of records — a narrower, more technical layer beneath the broad formulation claims.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to toothpaste abrasive and fluoride systems, with the prior art for and against each one.
A field led by legacy formulators
The ranked assignee list is dominated by long-established oral care and specialty chemical companies; recent-year momentum has gone quiet across the board.
One assignee holds more than a third of the field
The top-ranked assignee's 58 records, against a total of 151 in scope, sets the scale for what a new entrant is filing against in core abrasive and fluoride-compatibility claims.
A steep drop after the leader
Fifth place holds 5 records and tenth place holds 2 — the ranking falls off quickly after the top few names, leaving a long tail of single- and low-digit filers rather than a deep competitive middle.
Momentum has gone quiet across leading names
Recent-year momentum tracking shows several of the historically largest filers, including the field leader, recording zero filings in the latest year — consistent with the broader 2021-2024 slowdown rather than any single company's retreat.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Colgate-Palmolive Co. | 0 | — |
| J. M. Huber Corporation | 0 | — |
| Procter & Gamble Co. | 0 | — |
| NOVAFLUX INC | 0 | — |
| Richardson-Vicks Inc. | 0 | — |
| COLONIAL CHEM INC | 0 | — |
| Block Drug Co., Inc. | 0 | — |
| SCHNEIDERMAN EVA | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The numbers above describe the field as it stands at the 2026-07-31 cut-off. Turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means going deeper on specific claims and specific holders.
Map claims against the leader's portfolio
With one assignee holding 58 of 151 records, any new formulation work in this space should start by identifying exactly which claims in that portfolio overlap with the intended composition.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTest draft claims against the under-claimed branches
Stannous stability and silica particle surface treatment show lower filing density than the core abrasive-fluoride claims — a reasonable starting point for claim language that avoids the densest prior art.
Run a claim novelty check in EurekaFrequently asked questions
The ranked list covers 28 companies and is led by a single assignee holding 58 of the 151 records in scope, which is more than a third of the entire field. The next four ranked assignees bring the top-five combined total to 125 records, or 82.8% of all records in scope. After the top five, the ranking falls off quickly — fifth place holds 5 records and tenth place holds only 2 — so the competitive picture is one dominant leader plus a long tail of smaller filers rather than a broad, even field.
No, filing activity peaked at 10 records in 2022 and has since declined; the tracked window from 2021 to 2024 shows a 50% drop. That said, publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, so the 2025 and 2026 figures in this dataset are still incomplete and should not be read as continued decline. Based on the complete years through 2024, the honest read is that the field has slowed from its early-2020s peak rather than that it is accelerating.
US4421527A, assigned to J. M. Huber Corporation and granted in 1983, covers precipitated silicon dioxide abrasive compositions reacted with 10 to 300 parts per million of an alkaline earth metal ion, particularly calcium, specifically to minimize the abrasive's interaction with fluoride ion sources in therapeutic toothpaste. It is one of the most-cited records in this field, with 230 citations, and sits alongside two closely related Huber filings (US4340583A and US4420312A) that together anchor fluoride-compatible silica abrasive claims across the industry. Anyone formulating a calcium-treated or alkaline-earth-treated silica abrasive for fluoride compatibility should review this family closely.
The lower-share IPC classes point to the open areas: C09K materials (7.9% of records), C09C inorganic pigment treatment (3.3%), C08K polymer additive use (2.0%) and D01D filament spinning (2.0%) are all present but far less densely claimed than the core A61K and A61Q formulation classes. In practice this means stannous stability additive chemistry, silica particle surface treatment, and paste rheology modification sit outside the densest prior art and are reasonable starting points for new claim drafting, though a proper freedom-to-operate search is still required before filing.
Among the offices tracked in this dataset, the United States leads with 27 filings, followed by the European Patent Office with 21, Australia with 17, the WIPO PCT route with 14, and Canada and India each with 12. This spread suggests that applicants in this field are pursuing broad multi-jurisdiction protection through PCT alongside direct filings in the largest oral care consumer markets, rather than concentrating on a single home jurisdiction.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.