Like buying coffee and cereal and feminine hygiene products and shampoo FFS… sigh. “You’ll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent!” That was all ya needed to know. Now, fluoride or not, charcoal or not, peroxide or not, sodium laurel sulfate or not, special for sensitive toofies, gel, paste, squeeze, pump, mainstream brand, “natural crunchy granola,” etc., etc.
Years ago a friend of mine told me that her dentist said you don’t even need toothpaste. He told her to just brush her teeth with a dry (spit-moistened) brush, which she did thereafter in the morning in the car on her way to work.
Okay, what toothpaste do you use and on what authority? (Documentation and Real I.D. may be requested.)
I use Ultra Brite. At some point the toothpaste I was using was discontinued, and I knew I wanted something to help with whitening (I drink a lot of tea, and my teeth are not the whitest), so I googled “best whitening toothpaste” and found a Consumer Reports article that said that Ultra Brite was the best value. It’s made by Colgate, but for a cheaper market, and can be found for $1.00 a tube at Walmart and other discount stores.
My teeth aren’t the gleaming white of a toothpaste commercial, but they look fine to me, and I haven’t had a cavity in decades.
Whatever’s cheapest. Choice paralysis is a constant threat in the grocery store and I defeat it by assuming that if there’s a multitude of options, they must all work equally well, since the aggregate will of the shoppers has not coalesced around a few options.
I’ve been using the original, paste version of Colgate for years. The last time I had to buy more, I looked at some of the many variants (whitening, breath freshening, plaque removal, etc) and noticed that for virtually all of them, the only “active ingredient” was the same sodium monofluorophosphate as in the base product. All of the whitening, breath-freshening, plaque-removing ingredients were listed as inactive ingredients. I understood that to mean they don’t really do anything useful.
What I’ve been having an issue with lately is Act mouthwash since their mint fluoride, despite being nearly the same packaging as before, now has an alcohol-ish tang to it despite still having no alcohol. I tried a Target knock off brand and it is much closer to the original Act, yet if I leave it in my mouth too much it gives me a tiny bit of a anaesthetic-spray numbness. But that’s what I’ll be using until they change their formula in turn.
I grew up on Crest and once in my 20s had to switch to Colgate for some reason - must have been on sale for an irresistible price, or Crest was out of stock or something.
It seems to me that if you are used to the taste of Crest, Colgate is too harsh, and if you are used to Colgate, Crest is unpleasantly bland. Anyway, by the time I was done with the Colgate I found the Crest yucky, so it’s been Colgate for me ever since.
A friend with very white teeth uses Arm & Hammer Advanced White so I tried that for a while. It tastes hideous and didn’t make my teeth whiter, so I went back to Colgate.
I use alcohol-free mouthwash because my mouth seemed incredibly dry when I was using regular Listerine. Uncle Google suggested that alcohol-based mouthwash can contribute to dry mouth, so I switched. Haven’t had a problem since.
I used to use whatever was cheapest, which was always Aim – found way down on the bottom shelf of the toothpaste aisle for $0.89 per tube.
However, I developed some tooth sensitivity recently and my dentist recommended that I start using Sensodine. It is significantly more expensive but does seem to be helping. For all I know it could be a placebo effect, but it seems to help.
I look for the kinds that have stannous fluoride instead of sodium fluoride. Ever since I started using it a couple years back, my gum health has gotten much better.
I use Crest Pro Health Advanced, on the recommendation of my dentist. He said there are two kinds of people, those prone to decay, and those prone to tartar buildup. I am the latter, and he said Crest PHA interferes with tartar buildup and makes it easier to remove. It is more expensive, but I’m worth it.
I use Arm & Hammer because I like the taste (a little salty, not overwhelmingly minty), but my main criteria in choosing a teeth cleaner is that it be paste, not gel, preferably white.
I’ve had extensive dental reconstruction due to a car accident. I use Sensodine, also. At this point I could probably go back to Crest, old habits die hard.
We have well water so I kept a prescription flouride treatment gel for the kids when they were small as well as Crest. It helped keep the dental caries beat back. I still have some. I use it about once a week. And…I floss everyday!
Yup, this. I choose Aim because it’s always the cheapest option (even when others are on sale) and it’s approved by the American Dental Association just like all the other brands.
Then, store’s own brand for mouthwash.
Finally, floss is floss is floss. I cannot imagine how the more expensive waxen string is more effective than the others.
I’ve been using Colgate Total, ever since my periodontist gave me a free sample. She said it’s the best toothpaste for prevention of plaque buildup. And I have to use a special brush to get down below the gum line.
Crest mint flavored, and I’ve come to the habit of buying only the small tubes; the travel size or dentist sample size. Less cost effective but I value the finite amount of real estate my medicine cabinet possesses more than coin.
I don’t know about that. The cheap stuff has the tensile strength of a spider web and is abraded too easily by my sharp edged choppers. I’ve come to find and like the stuff I currently use: a tough and very thin rubbery floss. Doesn’t break, and it doesn’t get stuck.