Titanium dioxide is a white pigment.Go to an art store and ask for white oil paint and you will see that they give you titanium dioxide.It is used as a whitener.It is probably added to toothpaste to make it white. It's amazing how the toothpastes commercially sold do so many bad things,but I don't know of any other effect it would have.We need a good toothpaste that does not contain all this.