Dental hygiene aficionados have surely noticed a new format battling for a share of the oral hygiene market. Toothpaste tablets are dry, pressed-powder pills about the size of an aspirin or a pea.

Among the bathroom-related design woes out there, there are few as frustrating as the toothpaste tube. Even when we know it’s gone, we act like there there’s always just a little more toothpaste to be ...