Fix Scratched CD Toothpaste

by Rob
(New Beford, Massachusetts)

I have a scratched CD (on the base or non label side) that will not play properly in my drive. Can I use toothpaste to repair or fix the scratched CD or is this remedy for fixing scratches simply a homemade remedy that has no repair value?

If you have a CD that is not playing properly either because of scratches or some other reason, the first thing you should do is try playing the CD in another drive. Some drives play discs better than others. If it plays well, then make a copy. If other drives still do not play the disc well, then you need some sort of disc repair in order to make the CD fully playable again.

One remedy that has been proposed to fix scratched CDs is toothpaste. Toothpaste has been suggested because it is essentially an abrasive polish. The theory is that the toothpaste will polish out the scratch so that the reading laser light will no longer be affected by the scratch. Although the toothpaste may lessen the effect of a large scratch, what often occurs is that numerous smaller scratches are created which may cause even more problems than you had initially. Your chances of success using toothpaste to fix scratched CDs or DVDs are slim. However, if you have no other option available to you, it might be worth a try, keeping in mind that you may be worse off.

The most successful scratch repair remedies (that do not necessarily work well all the time) involve sanding the disc and then repolishing the plastic using specialized equipment so that it is one hundred percent transparent once again. This is one of the problems with the toothpaste method, since it is difficult to polish out the additional scratches and restore transparency to the plastic after rubbing the toothpaste on the CD.

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