Hi,

I know this is no medical forum, but watching TV yesterday made me think about soemthing for which I have no answer:

on the TV I saw an add where a dentist was recommending a patient a certain brand of toothpaste, now in this age with 100s of brands of toothpaste how come the dentists still exist, arent toothpaste supposed to take care of all the dental problems of humans. Do these toothpastes really work, or are we being taken for a ride by the companies? I mean if they really wanted to a toothpaste which really does alleviate all dental problems, wouldnt it be a bane for the dental profession, how cum they havent been eliminated so far??

Because not everyone brushes their teeth and flosses.

Because most people agree that rotten and missing teeth are unattractive. I guess that's why they've been out of fashion since the middles ages...

Now what I want to know is "Why do such ridiculous threads exist"?

now i know 1 brand whose toothpaste had a polishing agent
and dentists did protest against that brand
so, nt all brands r that gud
dats why dentists exist

Now why do spelling checkers exist.. for posts like this one..

oops
sorry
it wouldn't happen in future

Apparently the best thing for your teeth is your own saliva, thats why you are supposed to chew every thing 30 times, although I must admit that is not easy with ice-cream.
Cheese is supposed to be good for your teeth too, but that not easy to get out of a toothpaste tube, and doesn't do anything for bad breath.
So for the best teeth one should eat cheese and gargle with Scotch Whiskey ( but not before driving ).

floppy

I about never brushed my teeth until I was ~8/9yrs old. I got a check up, I had 5-10 cavities. Now I brush more and I have about 5. Other dental things I have done are"fix a chipped tooth (I pushed over my sister, and then she pushed my over, tooth chipped, didn't hert). Things that could be fixed are: overhang, all my front teeth are coverng my bottom ones, I got 2 little white lines inside one of my teeth.

I brush side to side (not circular motion), about never floss, have the good old tooth brush when you move the brush (I hate those creapy new ones, The britles are to hard and it is so noisey and hard, feels like it is going to rip my teeth out.

They want you to waste your money by getting all those expensive tooth brushes, and crowns, and spacers.

All you need, tooth paste, brush, water, check up once in a while for fillings and cleaning. that it

tooth paste has fluoride. Is posinous if swouled. (i bet for your teeth too). So now they make you go to the dentist more to waste your money.

The new toothbrushes have different levels of softness... the smaller the number the softer the bristles are.

Maybe that's part of the reason you have 5 cavities now, even when you brush more.

Actually the amount that you use to brush your teeth would cause NO harm whatsoever if swallowed. A very large amount of touthpaste, say the whole tube would maybe cause some side effects. It is definitely NOT poisonous to the teeth if swallowed, its made to protect the teeth. Also, if you got poisoned by toothpaste you would go to a doctor and not a dentist, so I don't see any money benefit for the dentist here. If anything they'd want to keep you healthy so they have a patient.

Sidenote: If your post was a parody, ignore my post. I know there are some people who actually believe/think what you wrote, so I just had to post....

That was what I was wondering about as well..

Actually, flouride isn't toxic at all (at least not unless you ingest vast amounts of it) Flourine (one componenent of flouride) is extremely dangerous stuff, even gets the nobel (inert) gases to react, ableit slowly.

Many European countries add flouride to the water supply, if i recall correctly, (along with chlorine, which was used as a poison weapon during world war one, but is no threat in tiny amounts). Therefore even if you eat the entire tube you'll not be poisoned.

I really don't recommend doing that though, since a friend of mine once did that on a dare and the mint flavouring of the toothpaste burnt (yes it's acidic) a hole through his stomach, ouch.

As to why these threads exist? Why it's obvious.. it allows people like me to spew out all my old stories.

if any linux user happens to be out of food for weeks(somehow somewhere) , there might be a chance to survive with one or two tubes of toothpaste , some forest ants(somehow somewhere) and raw soots(somehow somewhere) , but ofcourse toothpaste taste better , so do not waste your toothpaste for stupid unnecessities(somehow somewhere) ...

From the back of my toothpaste tube:

WARNING: Keep out of the reach of children under 6 years of age. If you accidentally swallow more than used for brushing, seek professional help or contact a poison control center immediately.

Admittedly, this warning regarding "under 6" consumption involves dental fluorosis. I think you will need to eat quite a bit of tooth pate to kill you though. Fluoridated water is/may_be a different issue:

PRO:
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/iyh/e...fluorides.html

CON:
http://www.fluoridealert.org/

You decide. The issue, regarding drinking water, is really one of, "don't I have the right to NOT have something added to my water if it has the "potential" of being harmful?" In the US, the answer is no.

You can at least choose your toothpaste.

I disagree with the statement that fluoride isn't toxic at all.

Granted, that statement was a bit sweeping and grandiose.

Oxygen is toxic after all, yet we can't live without it.

It's all a matter of the concentration, not the substance. rotten egg smell (hyrdorgen sluphide) is one of the most toxic substances known, yet we don't normally die from smelling rotten eggs. Mostly because the it's also on of the most foul smelling substances, and it becomes unbearable (the smell) in concentrations that are considerably lower then what is required for it to be toxic.

C'est la vie

because we would all look like we came from 1965 london if we didn't have dentists.