Boka Ela Mint Nano-hydroxyapatite Toothpaste

A fluoride-free paste that names all 26 ingredients, at about $2.91 an ounce. A 2025 independent lab test found trace lead, arsenic and mercury in it, and Boka does not say how much hydroxyapatite it contains.

Best for People who want an inexpensive, fully labeled fluoride-free paste and accept trace metals and an unstated hydroxyapatite strength.

Our rating: Fair (3.2 of 5)
Price range: Mid-range
Size: 4 oz tube (two tubes about $21.99, three about $31.99)

approx. $11.62 for a 4 oz tube

See it on Boka’s site → (opens in a new tab)

We are not affiliated with Boka. This link goes to the maker’s own page, with no tracking code. How we're funded.

Also sold at Amazon ($11.62) .

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How we evaluated it

How it scores Our rating, metric by metric Fair, 3.2 of 5

Ingredients 40% of the rating 3 of 5

No fluoride, SLS, artificial sweeteners or dyes, and all 26 ingredients are named, but the list is long, with three sweeteners, a preservative and a sarcosinate cleanser.
Active ingredient 20% of the rating 3 of 5

Nano-hydroxyapatite is the active ingredient, but Boka does not state the percentage, and we found no trial of this paste.
Independent testing 15% of the rating 2 of 5

Lead Safe Mama's lab found lead 32 ppb, arsenic 21 ppb and mercury 10 ppb in this paste: far under the 10 ppm lead level FDA’s draft guidance sets for cosmetics, but not clean, and we found no other outside test.
Trust 10% of the rating 3 of 5

We found no recall, Prop 65 notice or lawsuit; Boka has not published the hydroxyapatite percentage, and it runs a commission affiliate program without saying who is paid.
Value 15% of the rating 5 of 5

About $2.91 an ounce ($11.62 for 4 oz), among the cheapest hydroxyapatite pastes here.

The rating, 3.2 of 5, is the weighted average of these scores. See how we rank oral care and our standard.

Where to buy Stores and the prices we saw 1 store

Amazon (opens in a new tab) approx. $11.62. The 4 oz Ela Mint tube, sold by Boka LLC (the brand’s own Amazon store) and shipped by Amazon.

Prices as we saw them on October 23, 2026. They change often. These links carry no tracking code and earn us nothing.

What’s in it Every ingredient, in label order 26 ingredients

Water (Aqua/Eau)
Glycerin
Hydrated Silica
Sorbitol
Silica
Hydroxyapatite (nano)
Sodium Benzoate
Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate
Mentha Piperita (Peppermint) Oil
Mentha Viridis (Spearmint) Leaf Oil
Illicium Verum (Anise) Fruit/Seed Oil
Gaultheria Procumbens (Wintergreen) Leaf Oil
Xylitol
Xanthan Gum
Stevia Rebaudiana Leaf/Stem Extract
Dimethyl Sulfone
Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice
Sodium Bicarbonate
Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract
Cucumis Sativus (Cucumber) Fruit Extract
Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Fruit Extract
Mangifera Indica (Mango) Fruit Extract
Menthol
Elettaria Cardamomum Seed Oil
Potassium Chloride
Limonene

Who tested it What each test found, and who paid for it 3 tests

Independent Lead Safe Mama, LLC (crowd-funded; the site earns affiliate income) January 2025

Ela Mint toothpaste sent to SGS North America through SimpleLab (AOAC 2015.01): lead 32 µg/kg (0.032 ppm), arsenic 21 µg/kg, mercury 10 µg/kg, cadmium not detected. The group says to avoid any detectable amount and advised stopping Boka pastes until more are tested. Open ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Independent Lead Safe Mama, LLC (crowd-funded; the site earns affiliate income) March 2025

Boka Kids Orange Cream, a sibling paste and not this one, sent without the brand name to Purity Laboratories (ICP-MS): lead 27.4 ppb, mercury 8.2 ppb, arsenic below 10 ppb, cadmium below 5 ppb. A second lab and method, with the same trace pattern as Ela Mint. Open ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Maker’s own test Boka (reply quoted by a reader under the Lead Safe Mama article) January 2025

Says every raw material is tested to be within California Prop 65 limits for heavy metals and that the results sit well under FDA's cosmetics levels. We could not confirm the reply came from Boka, and no Boka test report is published. The reply's lead and arsenic figures are ten times higher than the lab report's (0.32 and 0.21 ppm, against 32 and 21 ppb). Open ↗ (opens in a new tab)

Who paid, and why it matters

Independent The tester took no money from the maker for it: a consumer group, a journalist, a university or a regulator.
Paid certification An outside lab or certifier tested or listed it, and the maker paid for that.
Maker’s own test A lab report or certificate of analysis the maker commissioned and published.

A certification is a floor, not a verdict: it checks what its program checks and nothing else. We weigh tests by someone with no stake in the result most.

What people ask Worries raised online and elsewhere, and what we found 4 questions

Does it contain lead, arsenic or mercury?: Yes, at trace levels. Lead Safe Mama's lab report (opens in a new tab) shows lead 32 ppb, arsenic 21 ppb and mercury 10 ppb, with cadmium not detected. FDA’s draft guidance for lead in cosmetics is 10 ppm (written for lip products and externally applied cosmetics, with no separate toothpaste figure), about 300 times higher, which is the point Boka’s reply makes. Lead Safe Mama still advises avoiding any detectable amount, and says hydroxyapatite and calcium carbonate may be sources. Only eight of the 73 pastes on its 2026 chart (opens in a new tab) had all four metals not detected, and none of the hydroxyapatite pastes it tested is among them. A second Boka paste, Kids Orange Cream, had lead 27 ppb and mercury 8 ppb in a different lab. Results are for the tubes tested.
How much hydroxyapatite is actually in it?: Boka does not say, on the product page or in its comparison guide (opens in a new tab), which also warns readers not to treat “nano” as a shortcut. The ingredient list ends mid-footnote at “*Nano”. We are asking Boka for the percentage and the particle form.
Does a paste without fluoride prevent cavities?: Boka makes no cavity claim for this paste. Our nano-hydroxyapatite guide finds hydroxyapatite likely matches fluoride for remineralization in short studies, while long cavity trials are few; see the 2021 meta-analysis (opens in a new tab). If you get cavities often, talk to a dentist first.
Are the people who praise it online being paid?: Some are. Boka's affiliate page (opens in a new tab) invites creators to earn a commission on sales made with their code, and we found no list of who is paid. Boka also lists an Oral Health Advisory Committee (opens in a new tab); the page does not say whether its members are paid. We could not read Reddit, so we could not check what people say there.

Why we chose it What put it on our list 4 points

All 26 ingredients are on the product page, including each mint and spice oil. There is no fluoride, SLS, artificial sweetener or dye.
The cleanser is sodium lauroyl sarcosinate, not sodium lauryl sulfate. The sweeteners are xylitol, sorbitol and stevia leaf extract.
At about $2.91 an ounce it is among the cheapest hydroxyapatite pastes here, against about $5.44 for Dr. Jen’s.
We found no recall, Prop 65 notice or lawsuit against Boka.

Trade-offs What to weigh before you buy 4 points

A 2025 independent lab test of this paste found lead (32 ppb), arsenic (21 ppb) and mercury (10 ppb). The levels are tiny next to the 10 ppm lead level in FDA’s draft cosmetics guidance, but the testing group advises avoiding any detectable amount.
Boka does not state the hydroxyapatite percentage. Our guide says to look for 10% or more, and the in situ study it cites used 10%. Hydroxyapatite is listed sixth, after water, glycerin, two silicas and sorbitol, so the order does not tell us the amount.
The label is long: 26 items, with three sweeteners, sodium benzoate and limonene. Shorter pastes exist.
It has no fluoride. If you get cavities often, talk to a dentist before switching.

What to know Details worth knowing first

Boka is one of the best-known nano-hydroxyapatite toothpastes, and our nano-hydroxyapatite guide names it. Ela Mint is its mint paste: fluoride-free, SLS-free, with a 26-item label that names every oil and sweetener, at about $2.91 an ounce.

Two things hold its score down. Boka does not say how much hydroxyapatite is in the tube, so we cannot tell whether it matches the research. And the one independent lab test we found, by Lead Safe Mama in January 2025, detected lead, arsenic and mercury at parts-per-billion levels. Those are far below FDA's guidance for cosmetics, but they are not zero, and none of the hydroxyapatite pastes that group has tested came back clean.

We are asking Boka for the percentage and the particle form, as the notice above says. If you get cavities often, talk to a dentist before dropping fluoride.

What we checked Each claim, and how sure we are of it 7 checks

How Boka Ela Mint Nano-hydroxyapatite Toothpaste measures up against our oral care criteria
What we checked	What we found
An active ingredient with evidence Not verified	Nano-hydroxyapatite, concentration not stated. No fluoride. We found no trial of this paste.
Every ingredient listed Maker’s claim	All 26 ingredients are named, including each oil. The footnote after the list is cut off at “*Nano”.
Gentle formulas Maker’s claim	SLS-free. The cleanser is sodium lauroyl sarcosinate, a different surfactant. It contains peppermint, spearmint, anise and wintergreen oils, menthol and limonene.
Honest claims Maker’s claim	The page describes nano-hydroxyapatite as “a biomimetic mineral” with “a wide variety of potential benefits”. It makes no explicit cavity claim for this paste.
No triclosan or artificial dyes Maker’s claim	Neither is listed, and the maker says no artificial colors.
Heavy metals (independent lab test) Verified	Lead 32 ppb, arsenic 21 ppb, mercury 10 ppb, cadmium not detected (Lead Safe Mama, SGS North America, January 2025).
Recalls, Prop 65 notices and lawsuits Verified	None found for Boka in California's Prop 65 notice search or in a federal docket search on 2026-10-23.

What the labels mean

Verified We opened an independent record that confirms it: a certifier’s listing, a regulator’s list or a lab report. It is linked under Sources.
Maker’s claim The maker says so on its own page or label. We read it but found no independent record.
Not verified We looked and could not confirm it, or the maker does not say. Treat it as unknown.

Sources Where our facts come from 11 sources

Boka Ela Mint Nano-hydroxyapatite Toothpaste: product page. Maker’s page. Ingredients, price, size and claims, seen 2026-10-23. Open ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Amazon: Boka Ela Mint Nano-hydroxyapatite Toothpaste, 4 oz. Independent source. $11.62 on 2026-10-23 ($2.91 an ounce), sold by Boka LLC and shipped by Amazon. Open ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Boka: Hydroxyapatite Brands Compared. Maker’s page. Tells readers to check whether a brand specifies nano and to read the full list. It gives no percentage for Boka. Open ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Lead Safe Mama: Boka Nano-Hydroxyapatite Toothpaste (Ela Mint) tests positive for lead, arsenic and mercury. Test report. Includes the original SimpleLab and SGS report (AOAC 2015.01, reported 27 January 2025) and a reader's copy of Boka's reply. Lead Safe Mama is an advocacy group funded by donations and affiliate income, not by makers. Open ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Lead Safe Mama: Boka Kids Orange Cream toothpaste, lab report. Test report. Purity Laboratories report, ICP-MS, completed 14 March 2025. A sibling paste. Open ↗ (opens in a new tab)
FDA: testing of cosmetics for arsenic, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, lead, mercury and nickel. Certifier or regulator listing. FDA’s draft guidance recommends a maximum of 10 ppm lead as an impurity in lip products and externally applied cosmetics. FDA sets no separate figure for toothpaste; Boka and Lead Safe Mama both use 10 ppm as the reference. Open ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Lead Safe Mama: toothpaste and tooth powder chart, 2026 update. Test report. Lists the toothpastes tested and the eight with no detected metals. Open ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Boka: affiliate program. Maker’s page. “Earn commission by promoting a product you believe in.” Open ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Boka: Oral Health Advisory Committee. Maker’s page. Names the members. Does not say whether they are paid. Open ↗ (opens in a new tab)
California Attorney General: Proposition 65 60-day notice search (Boka). Certifier or regulator listing. No notice naming Boka found on 2026-10-23. Open ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Limeback, Enax and Meyer 2021: biomimetic hydroxyapatite and caries prevention, systematic review and meta-analysis. Independent source. Cited in our nano-hydroxyapatite guide. Open ↗ (opens in a new tab)

Alternatives Other options to compare 1 option

RiseWell Hydroxyapatite Toothpaste States 10% micro-hydroxyapatite and cleans with a soap instead of a sarcosinate. About $3.53 an ounce.

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How we evaluated it

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