Can I carry toothpaste in my hand luggage?

I have 2 tubes of medicinal toothpaste that I have to take on a flight and I only have hand luggage.

They're in standard sized tubes. The box says 51g, which apparently means 51 ml and is less than the 100ml size limit for each container, which should be okay.

Am I right on this? I should be able to take these 2 normal-sized toothpaste tubes without trouble?

If so, why do these tiny, travel-sized toothpastes exist?

Update: I went through with no issues. I had the toothpaste still in its boxes in a little clear plastic bag...which I forgot to take out of my backpack. I didn't even get stopped at the scanner.

Best Answer

This will be absolutely fine.

A simple test is to see if your toothpaste floats in water: squeeze a little toothpaste out of the tube and put it in a glass of water. If it sinks, it has a density greater than water, which is 1g per ml, which means that the volume of your 51g tube is less than 51ml. If the toothpaste floats with half or more of the toothpase above the water's surface, then your tube would have a volume of greater than 100ml. But I tried this just now with two different toothpastes and both sank easily.

The tiny travel-sized tubes exist just for people's convenience. Somebody who's only away for a week might not want to make space in their toiletry bag for a large tube. Or they might want to bring several different liquids in their carry-on and not want to fill so much of their clear plastic bag with toothpaste.