I haven’t finished my previous tube of toothpaste, but I was too excited to wait: I found Burt’s Bees toothpaste in the grocery store! From my searches online, I was expecting it to be more than $10 per tube, but it was less than $6. AND they had a kids formulation that was orange flavored. Mmm… orange…
At first, brushing with this toothpaste worried me because it’s really thick. It was like putting silicone sealant in my mouth. But after a few strokes of the toothbrush, the toothpaste dissolved. It is delicious! It is the best fruit flavored toothpaste I’ve ever tasted! Yum!
I declare Burt’s Bees Kids Orange Wow toothpaste a winner and give it an unreserved bradaptation recommendation. It tastes great, it doesn’t have sodium saccharin, it does have fluoride, and it doesn’t cost $10 per tube. It even has sparkles!
It’s been a long time since I tried a new toothpaste. My last three or four tubes of toothpaste have been Biotene. I like it. It works. No problem.
But then I saw a new Tom’s of Maine flavor called “Wicked Fresh”. How could I not buy it? My difficulty with Tom’s of Maine paste is that it has kind of a weak flavor. The gel formulations are stronger, but I never see them in stores. So when I saw a formula that was specifically made to be stronger-tasting, I was excited. When I saw it was peppermint, I was less excited. It’s not my favorite.
The toothpaste is good. It is very strong-tasting. It foams well. And it has fluoride. I won’t stop using it (as I have some other test subjects). But once it’s gone, I think I’ll go back to Biotene. Unless I find something else in the meantime.
I’ve had sore gums for a week or so. It hasn’t helped that I keep burning the roof of my mouth either. I thought maybe if I swished with some mouthwash before bed, that might help speed the healing along.
But there’s a problem: all mouthwashes seemed to contain sodium saccharin. Sodium saccharin is my bitter enemy. Any toothpaste containing this ingredient will leave my mouth feeling gummy, sticky, metallic-sweet. And, I’ve found out by experience, so will any mouthwash containing this ingredient. I went looking at the drug store anyway, hoping that there might be at least one mouthwash that did not contain sodium saccharin.
I found one! But it was yellow Listerine. I’d heard all kinds of bad things about yellow Listerine about it tasting terrible and medicine-like. I got it anyway. Guess what? It’s AWESOME! Yes, it has the horrible burniness of regular mouthwashes, but once you spit it out, there is no taste at all. AND no gummy, sticky, metallic-sweet flavor. Cool! I LOVE yellow Listerine. Thank you for leaving out the sodium saccharin, Listerine people!
And my gums feel much better, thank you.
The last time I was at the tree-hugger grocery store, I checked out the toothpaste aisle. There were a ton of non-traditional selections there. First I disqualified any toothpaste that had saccharin in it. Only a few dropped out. My next check was for fluoride. I don’t want to use a toothpaste that doesn’t have fluoride. Otherwise, what’s the point? I might just as well be swishing water around in my mouth. After the fluoride check, there were only three or four toothpastes left to choose from, so it came down to flavor. JASON brand had an orange on the label. It said “orange, cinnamon, and mint” flavor. Intriguing. I got it.
After finally using up my previous toothpaste, I’ve finally tried the JASON. The flavor is really more mint than anything, but I can taste the other flavors. It foams well. But I do have a bit of an odd aftertaste in my mouth after using it. I’ll keep using it. Maybe the aftertaste is from all the TUMS that I’ve been chewing before bed.
Now if I could just figure out what J/A/S/O/N stood for…
I was away from home and experiencing an acid stomach. I decided I should probably have some antacids in my truck. I decided to stop at a drug store. It was one I’ve never been in before, so I had trouble finding the antacids. The big sign in aisle fourteen that said “Antacids” completely eluded me, so I had to ask. But in my wandering, I went through the dental care aisle and saw a brand of toothpaste I’ve never seen before. And it didn’t have sodium saccharine! Ehhxcellent.
The brand is called Natural Dentist. It has what I require in a toothpaste: it contains fluoride, and it has no saccharine. The flavor is peppermint, which I normally wouldn’t go for, but I really wanted to try this new brand. It actually tastes pretty good. It has sorbitol and xylitol, so it’s plenty sweet and foams nicely. “Foams nicely?” you ask? Some non-saccharine toothpastes don’t have enough foaming action and it feels like you’re brushing your teeth with flavored water. It’s quite unsatisfying. So it’s good that this Natural Dentist stuff foams.
I give Natural Dentist toothpaste a thumbs up. It will go in to my rotation along with Tom’s of Maine gel and Biotene. And my search for other toothpastes will continue.
