The Teeth of Battle

The $80 million U.S. dentifrice industry was as fidgety last week as a colony of Lactobacillus acidophilus milling around in a test tube. Its chemists, prodded by sales executives, were feverishly mixing new powders and pastes in their labs.

What made the industry jumpy was the sudden growth of the ammoniated tooth cleansers--and the skyrocketing sales of a newcomer in the big dental field. Amm-i-Dent, the first widely distributed tooth powder to include carbamide (urea) and dibasic ammonium phosphate (TIME, Feb. 14), had climbed, so its makers claimed, to fourth place in sales among all U.S. dentifrices, surpassed only by Colgate, Ipana and Pepsodent. Amm-i-Dent, a dentifrice supposed to head off tooth decay, had indisputably set the trade's teeth on edge.

Father & Son. Amm-i-Dent is made by Jersey City's little-known Block Drug Co., founded 42 years ago and still very much bossed by taciturn Pharmacist Alexander Block, now 67. As chairman, Block cracks the whip over a family team--sons Melvin, 41, who is president; Leonard, 37, who handles the money, and daughter Betty's husband Albert Roberts, production boss. Together they boomed Block Drug to a gross of more than $10 million last year on 25 dental products (Poloris dental poultices, Polident denture cleaners, etc.).

Last fall, a field man reported to President Melvin that several dentists in his territory were excited over ammoniated dentifrices. Researchers at the University of Illinois and at Manhattan's Sydenham Hospital, testing the use of urea and dibasic ammonium phosphate to kill bacteria associated with tooth decay, had reported promising results.

Sound & Fury. The Blocks rushed their Amm-i-Dent powder on the market in November, spent $400,000 on newspaper ads in 60 days, this year will spend $2,000,000 more on advertising. Because paste dentifrices get 85% of the market, the Blocks will spend $150,000 this year researching ammoniated pastes, expect to gross $3,000,000 on Amm-i-Dent powder but to lose money on it--because of the high promotion and research costs--until 1951. By last week the field was getting crowded. Sterling Drug had brought out an ammoniated version of Dr. Lyon's powder; Rexall took full-page ads to announce its AmoRex (a paste). Tide Magazine counted up 29 companies that were either in the field or about to jump in. Soon, it appeared any paste or powder without the new ingredient would be tagged as oldfashioned.

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