Is there a non-whitening toothepaste that doesn't have foaming agents?

Well, today I realized the pain in my front bottom teeth wasn’t going to stop on its own, so I started a long painful saga of trying to get an emergency dentist appointment on what is evidently Dentist Day at the golf course. (I swear, nobody’s open on Fridays!) Finally my dentist’s wife called me back and called the guy who’s taking his calls when he’s on vacation, and that kind man agreed to see me in his office even though he, also, is closed today. (Couldn’t get a tee time, I assume.)

He said it was a tissue issue rather than a tooth issue, that I needed a cleaning, but that it probably has something to do with a reaction to my toothpaste. I use the Rembrandt for canker sore sufferers, as it’s the only one I’ve found that doesn’t have sodium laurel (or is it laureth?) sulphate. Since I switched to the Rembrandt I only have a fraction of the canker sores I used to have. I get maybe four or so a year now (always when I’m traveling, for some reason) instead of almost constantly like I used to. He said the whitening toothpastes are drying to the teeth and you can have issues like this where they get oversensitive, I think. I don’t care about the whitening in Rembrandt, I care about not getting canker sores! I should have asked about that specific ingredient, but I didn’t think to, so I’m asking the Dope. All I want is a regular toothpaste that doesn’t have that particular foaming agent in it.

PS - he gave me some packets of peroxide rinse, said to switch for a bit to a toothpaste for sensitive teeth, and said it would probably stop hurting in a few days.

I have trouble with canker sores, too, and the stores around here stopped carrying the Rembrandt canker sore stuff :(. I’ve been using stuff from this company and have found it to be fine: http://www.jason-natural.com/products/oral_care.php.

It’s usually carried in natural/health food type stores.

I’m a Rembrandt canker sore toothpaste user too. Their website (www.rembrandt.com) isn’t cooperating with me right now to prove it but I am pretty sure that the canker sore version of their toothpaste doesn’t have the whitening stuff in it. You can buy their toothpaste on-line if you can’t find it in stores in your area.

The only other non-sls toothpaste of which I am aware is Biotene.

Yes there are, though good luck finding any of the stuff you see advertised. I use the Jason toothpaste from above and have good luck with it. There’s also Dr Burt’s which I used to use. I get mine from Whole Foods if you have one around, or possibly any of the natural stores in your area. If that doesn’t work you can use baby toothpaste as that doesn’t have the SLS in it, though that tends to cost a bit more and you don’t get much.

The only thing I don’t like about the Jason brand is that the tube will sometimes get real messy, and I’ve had one break on me. But I’ve been using it for a year or so now.

The metal tubes were a pain, but the last couple I’ve bought were in plastic tubes, like regular toothpaste.