# Toothpaste and Orange Juice

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toothpaste-and-orange-juice/180306>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 7, 2003, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toothpaste-and-orange-juice/180306 "2003-06-07T17:29:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Bradjam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Bradjam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bradjam)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2003, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toothpaste-and-orange-juice/180306/1 "2003-06-07T17:29:39Z")

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How come orange juice has a bitter taste if you drink it shortly after brushing your teeth with minty toothpaste?

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2003, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toothpaste-and-orange-juice/180306/2 "2003-06-07T17:49:27Z")

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The sodium lauryl sulphate (SDS) in toothpaste desensitizes your sweet-sensing tastebuds. That leaves just the sour and bitter ones working. This search provides [more info](http://www.google.com/search?as_q=toothpaste+%22orange+juice%22+lauryl&num=10&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&safe=off), if you want it.

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2003, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toothpaste-and-orange-juice/180306/3 "2003-06-07T20:26:06Z")

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Speaking of searches. . .  
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=6427](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=6427)

Chances are most questions you can think of have already been asked, either on the SD archives or the SDMB. Doesn’t mean that anyone had a satisfactory answer, but a lot of times some interesting info comes out.