h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Whenever I buy new toothpaste I'm overwhelmed by the sheer variety of claims each makes. I never know which to select. I end up buying a different one each time, I think being seduced by the latest claim for what they will do. Are they really all so different?

Yes obviously the 'sensitive' ones are. But apart from that?

I visited Russia right at the end of the Soviet era. They had just one type.

Nope, they're pretty much all the same. Same for shampoos and conditioners.

I just buy whichever is on offer that week.

I was baffled simply by the sheer variety of different types of Colgate (other brands are available). More than 15 at last count.

B

Its the sheer variety of claims that get me. It's like if you want plaque targeted you miss out on whitening, and vice versa.

I saw an ad on C4 for a specially designed toothpaste to go with a certain electric toothbrush..what's that about?

I was told by someone who knows somebody who is friends with a person who found out first hand, that sometimes the exact same product is put in different-claims packages. (It was shampoo: the same product could be sold as, say, dry-hair or coloured-hair stuff).

There was an interesting show on the BBC the other week which looked into the contents of toothpaste (That blonde woman from Grumpy Old Women was presenting it)

The abrasive agent is nothing more than silica - beach sand.

My question is- how is it that it tastes sweet???

That must be a Canadian thing. My problem often is how 'biting' the mint is on the tongue.

yes i often find toothpaste has a sort of burning sensation

Are you maybe confusing it with the Ralgex in the morning?

UK toothpaste doesn*t have a bit of sweetness? It does here and a quick google revealed it*s almond oil or artificial sweetners.

How odd.

And....how do you know that Ralgex is sweet?

I recently joined a conversation where some girls were talking about using beech ash for cleaning teeth where you have sensitive gums. One girl (whose teeth are impeccable) said she had been using beech ash (her sister gave her a bagful from her grate) for about 6 months and it really does help. So this was really first hand information.

Other things that are supposed to be just as good as toothpaste are baking powder and mashed up strawberries, so I have heard. But the mashed strawberries are only available at certain times of the year and, unlike ash or baking powder, obviously can't be kept for long periods.

Here in Germany we also have far too many types of toothpaste on the shelves and the number available seems to have exploded in the past months.

My Colgate tastes like Mentholyptus. Most odd.

It's a crime that we pointlessly get so many different varieties of such products, when the very same shops don't sell us any of the huge variety of fruit and veg which exists. I think there are (or were) EU regulations stipulating which varieties can and can't be sold, can anyone confirm this?

Sigh ... well there are currently four different types of toothpaste in our bathroom, and only five of us live here. We have at least now graduated away from children's toothpaste (where there are different sorts for different ages). But some grown-up toothpaste is 'too minty' for my nine-year-old, husband likes toothpowder, and I keep a spare tube in the bathroom so that if one of the girls is going off to a sleepover and takes a tube with them, there's still some of the grown-up minty stuff for those of us left behind.

I can't abide spearmint, so given the choice I would remove 50% of toothpaste from the shelves straight off. But then, my dentist can't abide peppermint, and annoying him would be a Bad Thing.

Because of the spearmint thing, I have used the same toothpaste for many years, because once I'd found one that did *everything* (white teeth, fresh breath, 12-hour protection, healthy gums, etc etc) and didn't make me retch, I thought I might as well stick with it.

Mol

> one that did *everything* (white teeth, fresh breath, 12-hour protection, healthy gums, etc etc) and didn't make me retch,<

That might have been the *one* they sold in the Soviet Union when I visited? I wonder how many they now have in modern Russia though?

Presumably it now comes in small, medium and large.

I do find the choice bewildering when I'm in a large supermarket - not just toothpaste, but *everything*. It's one of the reasons that before I shopped on-line, I was shopping at my local 'good with food'. If I felt I needed a jar of pesto, they would generally have *a* jar of pesto in stock. Go to a place where every little helps, and I would find an aisle the size of my local small store, stocked with every conceivable brand and variety and size. And then I would have to hunt for the actual jar I wanted.

Choice is a wonderful thing, don't get me wrong. But it really does make life complicated.

Mol

I completely agree choice is good - but its meaningful choice. I get really head spun by excessive, a marketing person's idea, of choice. It's not about what's real, but manipulation.

What gets me in Sainsbury's is that you'll go to buy some eg houmous..and it takes you half an hour to find the actual ordinary homous. There will be just so many flavourings added to make all kinds of gimmicky houmous. And in my experience they taste awful.

If I want to add anything to it..I'll buy it fresh myself and do it. Not that I do its about what accompanies it.

Yeah local shops are good for not doing that.

You don't need toothpaste, just a decent brush to keep your mouth healthy. You don't need to brush your teeth as such, you need to look after your gums which are the bit that get not very well. Eat only your regular meals, no snacks, no constant washing of the teeth in sweet sugary drinks.

And in the real world, just choose any old toothpaste if you can't get out of the habit. Teeth whitening is a stupid fad. Tooth enamel is NOT brilliant white, it's yellowish to greyish. I'd rather keep my slightly yellow teeth nice and healthy than cover them with bleach or whatever else they use. I did try Pearl Drops, but it made no differnce because my teeth aren't stained they are a natural healthy colour.

My Gran used soot from the chimney when she was a girl.