I discovered yesterday that a lot more goes into toothpaste that I originally thought. Limestone, rock salt, silica, saccharin, glycerin , sodium fluoride, chalk, and baking soda could all be scrubbing your teeth. Makes me regret eating a small tube of Crest Kids toothpaste on a dare when I was in middle school. Stupid kids… but I digress.
The roman’s toothpaste included urine, so I guess chalk is better than that. The Chinese were warned in 2007 that antifreeze was being used to produce their toothpaste. Not surprising- the Chinese seem to enjoy poisoning everything.
Mint flavored toothpaste is the most popular, but there are other bizarre flavors like bourbon, pine, apricot, etc.
Source: How it’s Made or similar Discovery Channel or Science Channel type show, some help from wiki and this site was remarkably helpful in my quest to find more details on what toothpaste is made of.
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Speaking of Middle School Dares…
I ate an entire dollar bill once.
I was helping inflation… well, we see where that got us.
Thanks a lot Adam Greenspan.
I grew my hair out really long and gave up on school to focus on my music career.
Wait, that wasn’t in response to a dare.
i really hope you’re kidding.
If not, mockery will ensue.
Dude. The Color Crayons were on their way to the big time.
Then Jimmy quit. Jody got married. Should have known, I’d never get far.
When I look back now, that summer seemed to last forever.
And if I had a choice, I’d always want to be there.
Those were the best days of my life.
Back in the summer of ‘69.
so that was back when you guys used like abacuses and dinosaurs roamed the earth, right?
I hate to interrupt your conversation, but while we’re talking about toothpaste, I’ll add something Beakman taught me.
Why does orange juice taste so bad after brushing your teeth?
Basically, one of the ingredients in toothpaste is a detergent which is what makes the toothpaste foam up. When it gets on your tongue, it interrupts your “sweet” taste buds, which is to say your taste buds which sense sweet tasting things. So if you drink OJ before your taste buds recover from their detergent-ing:
OJ – the sweet taste = terrible.
I can’t find the Beakman link, but here is another one with the same (or better) info:
http://health.howstuffworks.com/orange-juice-toothpaste.htm