Value toothpaste or brand?

calleyw

I hate going to the dentist so anything that will make sure that when the dentist does a scale and polish is less painful I will do.

And that means not using value brand toothpaste. I have found using either a brand name or own better brand of either tesco's or Asda's and an battery toothbrush means less tears for me come scale and polish time.

For a clean during the day it might be ok to use. But for my morning and evening clean I would use a better brand. And since doing the above my dentist says that my teeth and gums are ok. And a lot less scale.

Yours

Calley

Rebob

My parents used to use bicarb when they were younger. My dad has a full set of his own teeth and he is now 75! He likes the detox one. This is about £2 in supermarkets but can be found in poundland.
Me and hubby use own brand TOTAL paste as the total ones leave a cleaner feeling.

Ted_Hutchinson

What is the most effective toothpaste Dentist's advice

SnowyOwl_2

As mentioned above it's apparently technique rather than toothpaste which is good for your teeth. It makes perfect sense to me that getting the debris and accumulated sugar etc off every tooth surface is the aim of brushing, and the nice minty taste is really just a pleasant side effect.

A lot of toothpastes, maybe most, have artificial sweeteners in them so if you're trying to avoid those then you're a bit snookered unless you switch to some of the "natural" ones sold in health food shops.

I learnt from a posting by Toothsmith some time ago that it is recommended to wait for at least 20 minutes after eating before brushing your teeth. Apparently tooth enamel is softened during eating so scrubbing at it immediately after a meal could wear it down.

Unfortunately I suffer from sensitive teeth due to receding gums on one side and have been recommended to use Sensodyne. It's not the nicest tasting but it has greatly reduced the amount of pain I suffer so I am not keen to switch.

aliasojo

Dentist tells me its the 'ppm F' bit that's important. Can't remember exactly what it stands for...parts per miligram or something vey similar. It's all to do with the amount of flouride anyway.

My eldest 2 (22 & 16) have never had any problems whatsoever with their teeth, but the youngest has. She alway hated 'nippy' toothpaste so we used to buy her the 'Milk Teeth' toothpaste which is supposed to be ok until the age of 6, or the 'My First Colgate Toothpaste' which does till age 7.

Her teeth started to show signs of rot in 4 areas the same week she turned 5 and I was gutted as I'm big on looking after your teeth when it comes to the kids. Dentist tells me it's because the toothpaste we were using just wasn't strong enough. I'm annoyed because Colgate and Macleans are 2 well known brands and I trusted what their bumph said.

On the advice of our dentist, we switched her onto our toothpaste, which she's having to get used to like it or not, and there's been no more problems thankfully.

So it would seem that it's not so much the brand that's important but the 'ppm F' bit in the smallprint. Colgate Total for example is 1450 ppm F.

chardonnay_2

i must be weird, i actually quite like going to the dentist. probably because i never need anything done. i haven't had a scale or polish for almost 3 years, everytime i go the dentist says my teeth are perfect and don't need it. must be doing something right.

we tend to use brands but really buy anything thats on offer

Lillibet_2

My dentist tells me that value brand toothpaste is fine, in fact he recommends the cheapest toothpaste & cheapest toothbrush money can buy & having a new toothbrush every 6-8 weeks, he reckons this is far more effective than brand names. I dab my toothbrush in regualr bicarb before putting the toothpaste on to help keep my teeth white. Apart from one root canal job I have never had any work done so something must be working!

When I first got pregnant & was suffering really terribly with nausea & brushing my teeth made it MUCH worse, also my gums bleed most of the tiem (A side effect of pregnancy). Both my dentist & hygenist advised me to stop using toothpaste, brush the gums as best I could even if it wasn't every day & forget about my actual teeth. As soon as the nausea passed, (after around 26 weeks) my gums reverted to normal & I had a dental check up last week & my teeth haven't suffered at all from the lack of toothpaste or brushing.

HTH

calleyw

SnowyOwl wrote:

I learnt from a posting by Toothsmith some time ago that it is recommended to wait for at least 20 minutes after eating before brushing your teeth. Apparently tooth enamel is softened during eating so scrubbing at it immediately after a meal could wear it down.

I read that it was at least an hour after eating or drinking you should clean your teeth.

I have now got in a habit of dry cleaning my teeth then having breakfast. As otherwise I can eat anything for ages because of the minty taste left in your mouth. Puts me right off food.

Yours

Calley

bgp8000

I learnt from a posting by Toothsmith some time ago that it is recommended to wait for at least 20 minutes after eating before brushing your teeth. Apparently tooth enamel is softened during eating so scrubbing at it immediately after a meal could wear it down.

This is somewhat true - it completely depends on the food. Some acidic foods, like orange juice, coca-cola (well, all fizzy drinks actually) definitely 'soften' enamel and brushing straight after these is very bad for your teeth. It will 'wear them away' - if you did it every day for 10 years (eg brushing after orange juice at breakfast) you are going to end up with weakened teeth, prone to decay and sensitivity. Waiting 20-30 mins in this situation would hugely reduce the problem.

Most foods are OK though and don't soften enamel. If they did, our teeth would not last us very far into life. Brushing after meals is usually beneficial, as it removes the food debris and all the sugars which the bugs in plaque use to grow and then cause trouble.

(I'm an oral health scientist, in case you hadn't guessed!)

Skint_Catt

A while ago Tesco whitening came top in a Which report and its half the price than most others (79p IIRC) so I use that from now on! Sometime I buy Pearl Drops from the Poundshop, but not often.

Catt xx