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

That's interesting to hear you say that Mina, as I detest the taste of toothpaste. I always find that I forget I need another cup of coffee in the morning, brush my teeth and ruin the coffee with the disgusting combo of spearmint and coffee.

I think that toothpaste and shampoo manufacturers have us nicely taped. We find a brand that we like, we use it for a month or two - get complacent and then when we go to replace it we find it's got "new" "improved" on the packaging or it's been just plain replaced. That lovely shampoo or toothpaste we'd got to trust is no longer available and so we have to do a lucky dip with one of the zillion alternatives.

I get them home - hate them and leave them on the shelves, go out buy another - hate that too and so on. Then I have a bathroom with all sorts of shampoo, conditioners, sprays, shower gels, mouthwashes, makeup removers, and of course toothpastes that I don't use. Nobody else in the family likes them either and they just hang around in perpetuity.

Oh, and I actually found myself nearly in tears in the supermarket recently when my favourite coffee was "new improved". Honestly, I am not exaggerating. I loved my coffee the way it was thank you.

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

Did her teeth fall out?

I'm not so fussed about toothpaste - we buy the brand that (apparently) German dentists recommend which is actually 2 tubes one for morning one for evening.
So we have those two, then for Gruesome #1 I have some sensitive stuff from the same manufacturer.

What really really bugs me about toothpaste isn't the quantity and variety (although that is a little annoying) it's the flipping packaging. A few years (oh, maybe 15?) here there was a big move to reduce packaging and the law was changed so that all shops have to take back all packaging you don't want to schlepp home with you.

At the time toothpaste seemed to be a bit of a posterboy for the excess and the manufacturers started selling it merely as a tube with a security seal over the actual opening (once you'd taken the top off)

Now they're back to boxes, and they're all shiny and plastic and difficult to recycle.

The last... current toothpaste I have, must* be really* good... I've no idea what brand/sort it is, it was whatever was on offer last time I did a shop, and it tastes absolutely revolting.... stomach wretching awful this is... really foul... so, following traditional logic, the more awful it tastes, the better it must be... quite why its not just mint flavour like every other one I've ever Had I've no idea, I actually feel physically sick when I use it But, being a tight-arse, there ain't no way I'm going to throw it out until I've used the entire damn tube of the revolting stuff
I'm seriously considering replacing mouthrinse though, its so expensive for what it is, I may try experimenting with gargling vodka in the morning instead... asides anythign the alcohol content oughta help kill nastys in teh mouth, and of course there isn't any need to spit it out, like actual* mouthrinse...

I really don't understand the 'faulse appearance of choice', which shops insist on... Especially the newish, small 'supermarket' shops, which seem to spring up everywehre these days... they've got limited space... so, why do they still insist on having such a huge range of toilet rolls, kitchen towels etc..... when they could just have a couple of each, maybe each in two sized packs... seems weird, and of course this psudo-choice extends to food and other items in the shop too yet, on other items, E.G., cheese, they don't seem to have much a choice at all

What gets me with toothpaste is the difference in price, not just between own-brand and branded, but within the range of a particular brand. A tube of bog-standard branded toothpaste goes for less than £1 (about 85p, I think). Toothpastes that do more (whitening, tartar control, whatever) cost nearly 3 times as much. Toothpaste for sensitive teeth costs about £5.

I've spoken to my dentist about these toothpastes, and about the various mouthwashes. Her response was, 'Don't waste your money'. Most mouthwashes aren't anything special, neither are the all-singing, all-dancing toothpastes. If you really do need some toothpaste for sensitive teeth, your dentist will sell you some. It will be more expensive than the stuff you get in the shops, but it will do the job.

Still, at least we've moved on since Tudor times. Back then they cleaned their teeth with a mixture of brick dust and alabaster or, worse, a cloth dipped in honey! I suppose the brick dust and alabaster weren't that bad when you consider that we clean our teeth with sand, but honey!?!

I get my all singing, all dancing toothpaste from the pound shop

Honey might have been good for your gums I suppose, and as sugar was absent from the diet, it might have had a slightly beneficial effect?


Do they really have morning and evening toothpastes in Germany as a general rule?

"as I detest the taste of toothpaste" Try Fennel. yummy!

I don't think my Gran had dentures, I'll have to ask my mum.

Brick dust and alabaster doesn't sound so bad...brick dust and brunel would be awful, though.

RF

not as a rule, Lanza, but it's a very popular brand. They make a children's toothpaste which my two loved (mostly because it had sesame stickers in the pack)

There used to be a brand here, not sure if it's still around, that was herb flavoured instead of minty (not that mint isn't a herb) I think it had fennel in it.

I brushed my teeth with barlesque once, as an experiment.... tasted great.... but didn't actually function at all correctly in terms of actually clenaing my teeth, and it left a bit of an odd after-taste...

I needed to floss after brushing with goo. Something was caught in my teeth.

I think it was all the apostrophes from barlesque - they hang around for ages.

is anyone big into electric toothbrushes? I have a rechargeable one...and my goodness me it does vibrate..apparently at some fantastical number of times per second. I like it..with whatever type of toothpaste I may have accidently bought.

Yeah... women and electric toothbrushes ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgW94GLyEjc

Tehre are, allegeridly.... some web-sites, which may give instructional information on modification of certain electric toothbrushes, to harness their vibrationism into an alternative use... or, at least, so I've heard...

And I suppose one could turn those actual true vibrational things into toothbrushes if you had a big enough mouth.

Similarly, you can use a modified disc sander to clean bathroom tile.

Don't try brushing your teeth however.

wow... that gives me a great idea... involving a electric drill and a scrubbing brush.... man.... this is going to make cleaning those tiles on teh bathroom floor a breeze.... I think

wow... that gives me a great idea... involving a electric drill and a toilet roll