We reach for it twice a day — without thinking about the decades of research and engineering that went into that squeezable tube of minty goo. Zachary Crockett extracts the last bit.

• SOURCES:
  • Stephan Habif, chief technology officer at Colgate-Palmolive.
  • Sergio Leite, global head of Oral Care R&D at Colgate-Palmolive.
  • Peter Miskell, professor of international business history at the University of Reading.

• EXTRAS:
  • "History of Toothpaste" (Delta Dental of Arkansas, 2019).
  • "Cavity Protection or Cosmetic Perfection? Innovation and Marketing of Toothpaste Brands in the United States and Western Europe, 1955–1985," by Peter Miskell (Business History Review, 2011).

• RESOURCES:
  • "9,000-Year-Old Dentistry," by WIRED Staff (WIRED, 2006).