# Toothpaste Usage Poll
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toothpaste-usage-poll/407740
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [June 12, 2007, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toothpaste-usage-poll/407740 "2007-06-12T17:58:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2007, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toothpaste-usage-poll/407740/1 "2007-06-12T17:58:11Z")
A single tube lasts me a couple of months (firguring two brushings per day, that comes out to 120 “servings” per tube). I don’t run the [enormous beads of toothpaste](http://www.insilcoindia.com/Insilco%20Files/Insilco%20Product/unternehmen.navigation_files/Tooth%20Paste.jpg) on my brush like they show in the commercials, but I use enough to get a good foaming at the mouth.
I know somebody who buys two tubes of toothpaste every week. I can’t imagine how much toothpaste I’d have to pile up on my brush to go through two tubes per week.
How long does a tube last you?
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### Author:  [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2007, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toothpaste-usage-poll/407740/2 "2007-06-12T18:01:16Z")
[QUOTE=Patty O’Furniture]
A single tube lasts me a couple of months (firguring two brushings per day, that comes out to 120 “servings” per tube).
[/QUOTE]
Me too.
> [@](#):
>
> I know somebody who buys two tubes of toothpaste every week. I can’t imagine how much toothpaste I’d have to pile up on my brush to go through two tubes per week.
I cannot in any way, shape or form fathom how this is even possible. Is he eating it? Or do they have a really, really, really big family? Or are they buying sample sizes?
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2007, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toothpaste-usage-poll/407740/3 "2007-06-12T18:03:24Z")
Whoa. That seems impossible. I am using less since I switched to an electric toothbrush which doesn’t have room for a large serving. And I brush my teeth once a day. So I guess a tube would last at least a month or two.
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### Author:  [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2007, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toothpaste-usage-poll/407740/4 "2007-06-12T18:08:07Z")
I use as little as possible my once or twice a day–really just a pea but just enough to have some foam-- and I’d say, gosh, every six months or something? Two a week? What the hell?
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2007, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toothpaste-usage-poll/407740/5 "2007-06-12T18:14:14Z")
I brush a lot, but a tube lasts me about a month. I cannot image using two a week.
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### Author:  [@Walkabout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walkabout)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2007, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toothpaste-usage-poll/407740/6 "2007-06-12T18:15:01Z")
I have no idea how long a tube lasts, but it’s at least a few weeks. I use about a 1 to 1.5 cm long bead of toothpaste, and I brush about 3 times a day. I’ve always assumed I use too much toothpaste, since you’re really only supposed to use a pea-sized portion.
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### Author:  [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2007, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toothpaste-usage-poll/407740/7 "2007-06-12T18:26:47Z")
Mine lasts at least three months (I buy a big tube). I can’t imagine how much time you’d have to spend in the bathroom brushing to use up two tubes a week! This person is going to abrade their teeth down to nubs!
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### Author:  [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2007, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toothpaste-usage-poll/407740/8 "2007-06-12T18:45:03Z")
I start the tube at one end of the bristles and run a bead of toothpaste to the other end. Not much different than the photo.
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### Author:  [@Ea\_calendula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ea_calendula)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2007, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toothpaste-usage-poll/407740/9 "2007-06-12T21:54:58Z")
Two tubes twice a week? Are you sure you weren’t being had? I use, I guess, one tube for about 3-4 weeks, but it’s a smallish tube.
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### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2007, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toothpaste-usage-poll/407740/10 "2007-06-12T22:56:55Z")
Maybe the person has OCD. I take 2 months per tube brushing twice a day.
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### Author:  [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2007, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toothpaste-usage-poll/407740/11 "2007-06-13T00:06:56Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Two tubes twice a week? Are you sure you weren’t being had?
I don’t have a car so we carpool every Sunday for shopping and other stops. It was a few months ago when I noticed two tubes of toothpaste on the checkout counter and I thouht, whoa he’s really stocking up! Then the following week, two more tubes. Week after that, two more.
> [@](#):
>
> Maybe the person has OCD.
I suspect that as well, based his **constant** fiddling with the knobs in the car on the way to and from the store. But I didn’t know that tooth brushing could figure into that.
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### Author:  [@Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity_Glomfuster)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2007, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toothpaste-usage-poll/407740/12 "2007-06-13T02:06:19Z")
Does this person have shaded windows? Buy lots of anything else? Have large packages from Rifles R Us delivered to his house regularly? If so, I’d move.
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### Author:  [@Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2007, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toothpaste-usage-poll/407740/13 "2007-06-13T05:13:48Z")
[QUOTE=Patty O’Furniture]
\but I use enough to get a good foaming at the mouth.\
[/QUOTE]
\
That foaming is almost certainly caused by [Sodum Lauryl Sulfate](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_lauryl_sulfate#_note-Chahine_L), which causes canker sores. If you suffer from canker sores, I would recommend switching to Biotene or Rembrandt-Canker Sore, (there’s another one, but I forget.) I got them until I switched.
Sorry for the hijack, but it pisses me off that almost every toothpaste sold in the US (even Tom’s of Maine!) has an unneccesary ingredient which causes canker sores.
\
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### Author:  [@Pithy\_Moniker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pithy_Moniker)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2007, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toothpaste-usage-poll/407740/14 "2007-06-13T13:21:18Z")
My stepfather goes through toothpaste quickly. It’s certainly not a two tube per week habit but a tube lasts him a lot less than a month.
He brushes three times per day (morning, after work, before bed) and takes at least 5 minutes every time. Halfway through, he reloads his brush. He also goes through a lot of toothbrushes.
Seems a tad obsessive to me but then again, he’s in his late 40s and never had a cavity.
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2007, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toothpaste-usage-poll/407740/15 "2007-06-13T13:39:11Z")
About three months but I don’t buy tubes… I searched for pics of the kind of bottle I get but couldn’t find a direct link to one, sorry. If you go to [www.licordelpoloperfect.com](http://www.licordelpoloperfect.com) (cutie pie stupid flashes all over), it’s the kind of stuff they show with the footer “2 en 1”.
I keep one at work and one at home. Normally I brush after breakfast and after lunch, sometimes right before bed or as needed.
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### Author:  [@Belrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belrix)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2007, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toothpaste-usage-poll/407740/16 "2007-06-13T18:40:36Z")
Just a note, too much flouride from frequent tooth brushing with too much toothpaste can lead to [Fluoridosis](http://www.simplyteeth.com/category/sections/Child/4CaringTeethGums/Fluoride.asp?category=child§ion=4&page=7#WIFF), a brown and white mottling of teeth. The linked-to website says “during development of the teeth”, other sites make less mention of that so I’m not sure on that issue.
Boy, googling “Fluoride” reveals piles of crack-pots in rages. Frothing at the mouth, one might say.