A simple question with what I expect is a somewhat complex answer. I know there are brands that offer different flavors, but everywhere I’ve looked, the default is wintergreen. Why is this? I realize the toxicity means that you don’t want it to taste like something that people (especially kids) will want to swallow, and I suspect tradition plays a huge role, but with both of those factors, wouldn’t you be better served by using, say, a heavy dose of mint?
I actually just spent a few minutes researching whether “wintergreen” is the same thing as “spearmint” because I’ve never heard the word wintergreen in a UK context and almost all our toothpastes are flavoured with spearmint. There are quite a few food terms that are different in the UK and the US, so I thought maybe this was one of them.
Seems not. It looks like wintergreen and spearmint are actually different things, but used in similar ways at least when it comes to toothpaste. Sometimes other mints are used, but spearmint is by far the most common. Wintergreen and spearmint must be similar, though.
My daughter (who is mildly autistic) hates brushing her teeth. It’s most likely a sensory thing but we’ve tried other flavours just in case. Nothing else really works, in that whatever you put in toothpaste has to be a flavour that can linger. Kids’ toothpastes are often strawberry or whatever flavoured, but they are also too low in flouride for an adult. The only other flavour we’ve come across for toothpaste is fennel, which is a damn strong flavour and it’s not suprising that my daughter hates that more than mint.
It’s probably really hard to find a flavour that can linger as well as combine well with the major ingredients in toothpaste. That’s aside from the fact that, if you get used to a particular flavour or colour for something, it’s very hard to change your tastes.
There was an experiment once with green ketchup and it didn’t work out well, because we are accustomed to seeing ketchup as red (even though naturally it would be green) and it looks wrong enough to make it actually taste wrong, perhaps because we are attuned to things “looking wrong” meaning that they’re rotten. Cod-science but with good logic behind it.
Same applies to toothpaste - you brush with something that tastes like what you’re used to and you feel clean.
The effect woud be multiplied there since toothpaste, unlike ketchup, is vaguely medicinal, and there’s a huge familiarity effect when it comes to medicines. People often choose a known brand over a generic despite them having the exact same constituents because it’s what they’re familiar with. I have asthma and am fine with any brand of salbutamol inhaler but I know some people who insist on Ventolin because it’s what they’ve had since childhood, and that’s just a different name for the same drug.
I don’t think that there could be a placebo effect when it comes to whether your teeth rot or not, but in making you brush for long enough to be effective? Maybe. Tastes good enough to keep in your mouth for the length of time you need to brush, too, unlike that horrible fennel stuff.
Actually, most of them ARE mint, although yes wintergreen is also fairly common.
I think a lot of it is tradition, although some of the earliest recipes for tooth cleaner used cinnamon. Given the “flavor” of some of the other ingredients used at the time (baking soda, crushed brick, etc.) what you wanted was a strong, cheap flavoring agent.
Other flavors are becoming more common
Why would ketchup by green 
it’s normally made from ripe tomatoes, which are most commonly red. Brownish I can see, from spices and vinegar, but I can’t we where the green would come in.
But yeah, in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, spearmint seems to be the default, with a few fennel and ‘herbal’ (generally hippy fluoride free ones, I’m not sure what the taste is) ones, and the odd strawberry kids’ one. My mother hates spearmint, but uses the toothpaste anyway, because it’s such a faff getting any other flavour.
This thread has me baffled. I’ve NEVER tasted a wintergreen toothpaste. I’d say that, in the US at least, it’s not common at all. Toothpastes have a variety of flavors, but spearmint is by far the most common, and used to be probably the single leading flavoring.
The active ingredient in wintergreen is methyl salicylate ester (which can be very easily made in the laboratory – I did I in high school) The active ingredient giving the flavor to spearment is the wholy unrelated Carvone, which isn’t even an ester ( Carvone - Wikipedia )
Wintergreen life savers taste like methyl salicylate. Wintergreen Altoids taste like — I don’t know what, but not methyl salicylate. Or wintergreen leaf, for that matter.
The only mint flavor I like is wintergreen, but along with what CalMeacham said, I’ve never seen a wintergreen flavored toothpaste. Can you tell me a brand?
I will also admit that I’m not adventurous with toothpaste. It’s usually Crest, Colgate, or Aquafresh.
Oddly enough, boring old Crest has the largest number of flavor choices on the shelf at the store where I work, including cinnamon, vanilla, citrus/orange, and chocolate (though I think that’s actually chocolate mint).
I agree with Sam. I fell into the “it’s always gotta smell sweet” camp with showering soaps. And it wasn’t until one time that Id run out and was forced to share with my husband, that I’d forgotten the visceral response of how it felt to feel and smell a certain kind of clean. Sure, you are with the other stuff, but as posited, being conditioned to one thing (like as a kid) certainly helps. So, that crisp, refreshing taste would seem to be the reason for me.
If I’m remembering right, Crest came in two flavors when I was growing up: “regular” (with a red triangle on the package) and mint (with a green triangle). Could the “regular” have been flavored with wintergreen? I just remember it tasted a little odd if I used it after getting used to the mint variety.
Canine oral rinses/toothpastes are overwhelmingly cinnamon flavored. When I looked into why, I found out that it covers up the chlorhexadine (active ingredient) taste most effectively.
Mint is the reason I generally hated brushing my teeth from a small child on, and mintish flavours generally make me vomit ---- however the alternative being fennel, an analogue of aniseed tainted dog-crap ( in itself quite rare ) and the default British establishment attitude of ‘people [ manufacturers, politicians,police, voters etc. etc. ] know what they’re doing’ means such things never change unless there is an opportunity to make more money by changing. Which is true of most things I suppose.
There are fewer health stores in towns now, particularly fewer small independents, so less places to buy alternatives, even if such alternatives are as corporate as Toms of Maine. Most toothpaste tubes here for the masses are made by Colgate, Glaxo, Proctor & Gamble etc., and Toms of Maine is owned by Colgate.
The amount of money made by catering to those — no matter how large a percentage — who dislike an ingredient will not be greater than the costs of using alternatives, since most of those who dislike it will knuckle under to the norm since there is no alternative. Even some people not buying one’s product at all is less of a threat to corporate giants than adopting alternative changes.
A quick search shows that Crest, Colgate, and Rembrandt have had wintergreen flavored versions. I can’t say that I recall any of them.
One reason I HATE spearmint mints and gum is that I associate the flavor with toothpaste.
I’m kind of horrified to learn that there is fennel-flavored toothpaste. I can’t ever recall seeing such, and have no idea why anyone would want the stuff. ick.
Original Crest toothpaste was wintergreen/licorice flavored. I remember when the mint-flavored version came out. It tasted much better than the original! I think another reason I never liked Crest was that its color was too close to original Zest bar soap (that’s all we ever had), and I had some imagined synesthesia thing going on. Such is the mind of a child-
When I was pregnant fennel toothpaste was the only thing the kept me from gagging while brushing my teeth. We used Tom’s of Maine brand. It’s just about the only toothpaste my son will use. He detests mint in all forms and hated all the kid flavored toothpaste. Currently he has fennel and I am using cinnamon clove flavored.
As for wintergreen flavored, I haven’t seen that in ages. I would love wintergreen. I’m not so much a fan of spearmint.
It was specially colored by the manufacturer for, I think, St Patrick’s day. There have also been purple and blue ketchup, but they likewise didn’t sell.
The only wintergreen toothpaste I’ve ever encountered is Pepsodent.
Huh, I see from wikipedia that Pepsodent is actually flavored with sassafras. Well, I’ve always thought it was wintergreen. It tastes like those pink disk candies to me.
I hate mint, so I’m always trying to find other flavors of toothpaste and mouthwash. I use the Crest cinnamon. I think it still has mint in it (it has a bit of that “cool” feeling of mint), but I can’t taste it, and I try not to think about it. (I had a mintcident as a child and the smell and taste of mint makes me nauseated.)
Those “pink disc candies” don’t taste to me at all like wintergreen, or like methyl salicylate. I don’t know WHAT their flavor is, and I wish they’d stop marketing them as wintergreen.
(chanting)
Details! Details! Details!
I can see why SciFiSam’s daughter wouldn’t like brushing her teeth; I hate the mint flavoring – it’s so strong that it’s uncomfortable for me. (Yes, I’ve told my dentist and doctor.)
I may need to try the vanilla or citrus/orange.