...to be so confused by toothpaste

[5Foot5]

Or at least why there has to be so many, many varieties.

I just nipped in to the supermarket to but some more toothpaste, usual brand (comes in a red box). It suddenly struck me as I was dithering over which one to get, how many choices there are and how impossible it is to know what distinguishes them all from each and which to get.

Just taking my usual brand as an example (also begins with a 'C') I counted no fewer than 17 different options with names that all seemed to be some permutation of "Total", "Advanced", "Whitening", "Sensitive" or "Fresh" together with the odd maverick variation like "Gel" or "Stripe". I mean can someone tell me what the actual difference is between "Total Whitening", "Advanced Whitening", "Total Advanced Whitening" and "Deep Clean Whitening"?

I can feel a letter to the manufacturers coming on!

And that is just one brans; the others all seemed to have many varieties to but to a lesser degree.

Does anyone know why?

I thought Triclosan was very controversial?
I loathe Colgate. It's the only brand I always avoid. Burns my mouth like crazy.

See I love Colgate because others burn my mouth. Haven't dabbled in a no frills toothpaste for a while though so tempted to give it another try. I absolutely HATE toothpaste adverts with their oh-so-scientific evidence. They piss me right off. They're all the same. Either 'dentists' telling you to use them or toothpaste users telling you how amazing they are. Couldn't tell you which one was which as I get the rage and throw the remote at the TV switch over whenever they're on.

as long as its 1000 pppm flouride any old toothpaste will do, i have never heard a dentist recommend anything else, sensodyne does work on sensitive teeth though, so just choose what flavour you like :)

Ooh I'll have to try the bicarb toothpastes. Wonder if you can get them here, I'm in Germany.

Maybe you could brush once a day with flouride and once a day with bicarbonate toothpaste to get the best of both worlds

What brands are there other than Colgate now?

I used to buy Crest, MentadentP, the marvellous red gel Close-Up and even Euthymol back in the day. You can't get any of them any more.

I fear Colgate has a monopoly, bit like Walls with ice creams.

This puts me off toothpaste altogether

adage.com/article/news/colgate-triclosan-total-toothpaste-brand/148408/

myrtle my dentist knows I don't use toothpaste and says fluoride is not necessary

Bicarb toothpastes usually have fluoride, too.
It's bicarb out of your cupboard that won't have fluoride.

You can still buy MentadentP and Euthymol! Not sure about Crest. Other brands - Aquafresh, Oral-B, Beverly Hills - can't think of any more

iwantmysun - on what basis does your dentist tell you that you don't need fluoride?

MsUumellmahaye - I've done a lot of research with dentists, and a great many of them do recommend specific brands.

I hate the taste of all toothpaste except sensodyne pronamel. The regular not the whitening (as that one makes my gums itch). Toothpaste is the only thing that i buy which i pay a premium for to get a specific one and that's only because the taste is easier for me to stomach!

i'm a dentist i generally do not recommend brands, for most people a standard fluoride toothpaste will be fine it is brushing technique that is way way more important that the paste 90% of the population
do not brush properly all of the time

fluoride may not be necessary if there is fluoride in your water and if your brushing technique is brilliant you have few or no fillings and are defined as low risk of decay for 99% of the population this would not be true but it may well be true for iwantsun her dentist knows her and the oral hygiene but it would not do for everyone

i advised someone the other day on mumsnet whose DD hated the taste of all pastes that brushing with water alone was much better than not brushing because of paste refusal

sensodyne definitely helps with genuinely sensitive teeth

no toothpaste is legally allowed in EU to contain more than 0.1% of the tooth whitening bleach, you need at least 6% to work this is only legally available from a dentist so commercial whitening toothpaste is verging on homeopathic doses it does however help with avoiding stain build up it will not make your teeth 1, 2 or more shades whiter

I don't use any, can get by without toothpaste if you brush properly

Really? I bloody hate the taste of toothpaste. I have wanted one that tastes of nothing for years. Is this actually true, because I don't want to jeapordise my dental health if it's not?

Thank you for that post TeacupDrama really useful. That is exactly what my dentist said, people put too much emphasis on the paste and not on the technique.

I have very little tartar since I gave up using toothpaste, also save money too

Yes ladypete ask your dentist and Teacup who is a dentist has just posted saying technique is more important than paste

Trouble is, most people don't have good brushing technique.

Toothpaste can't help teeth that are not brushed properly. Even Colgate won't help

agree with BIWI most people do not brush properly and do not live where there is fluoridated water and also eat too much sugar so higher decay risk, there are a handful of people that I genuinely feel do not need extra fluoride

if someone is counting the pennies value toothpaste rather than value brush the 10p brushes are really useless but there are some ones that are ok at about 99p at our practice we sell brushes at cost at £2.35 same brush in asda will be £1 more ( obviously asda sell cheaper brush but am comparing exact product)

Mintyy you can definitely get Crest and Euthymol. Otherwise, there's Aquafresh, Macleans, Arm & Hammer, Sensodyne, Oral B and then more specialised ones like Corsodyl and smokers' toothpastes. Also the Tesco website has MentadentP on it, might be limited to bigger stores though.

I personally like the Colgate Max Fresh one because I like a really strong minty gel type.

Ugh at the idea of toothpastes having triclosan in. Glad I've managed to avoid that.

I had lots of mouth ulcers and read somewhere that avoiding SLS in toothpaste might help. That narrowed down the options to just one in my local Boots! It's a Sensodyne one called Daily care I think. I normally avoid all the ones with complicated claims and TV adverts.

I'm quite fussy about the taste and before this I'd been using Maclean fresh mint for years as it was the only one I liked the taste and texture of. I don't like the Sensodyne taste as much and it seems to have lost its flavour by the time my two minutes are up but I've not had any mouth ulcers since I switched. Could be a coincidence of course, but prior to that I had several at any given time for several months.

I did make my own toothpaste once with bicarb, glycerine and peppermint essential oil, if I remember correctly. It tasted nice but I didn't like the texture and couldn't work out how to store it as hygienically as a tube.

Oops, forgot to say. YANBU, there are far too many options to make an informed choice, certainly without hours of research!

I second everything that teacup says.

So many people swear blind that they brush for two min twice a day. It's when I ask them when they last are popcorn that they start to realise us dentists can tell this stuff as we retrieve easily identifiable bits of food from upper molars

Technique is everything. Like washing dishes, if you just threaten the dishes with the scouring pad it doesn't matter whether you use fairy liquid or a 99p version.

RahRah might be worth checking out the really cheap supermarket value toothpastes? They usually have a smaller ingredients list.

I haven't had a filling for 30+ years. My dc have never had one, although I don't ban sugar. We must be doing something right, I guess. I use an electric toothbrush and am v fussy.

According to my old boss, who was an ex-product manager for some Proctor & Gamble toothpaste, the big manufacturers produce so many varieties to saturate the market so that smaller firms are less able to get a fot in the door. Up to a quarter of of consumers change their toothpaste type each month just because. If there are alternative toothpastes owned by the same company for them to swap to then the money stays with them. With so many for a consumer to swap to only a small percentage would try a brand new type each month and so it is hard for a new entrant to build up enough market share to be successful.

So it's all about making it look like lots of choice so you don't actually stray too far from the fold.