khafra comments on Rational Toothpaste: A Case Study - Less Wrong

68 Post author: badger 31 May 2012 12:31AM

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Comment author: khafra 31 May 2012 06:32:18PM 0 points [-]

Hope I don't sound like an advertisement, but I like Squigle toothpaste. It's twice as expensive as normal toothpaste, but they leave out sodium laureth sulfate and there's a flouride-free version. It uses xylitol, an anticavity sweetener. To me, the improvement in taste over dish soap is worth the price premium.

Comment author: wedrifid 31 May 2012 07:55:51PM *  0 points [-]

You had me at "Xylitol"!

Do they include something as a replacement for the Sodium laureth sulfate?

Comment author: rhollerith_dot_com 31 May 2012 07:35:15PM *  0 points [-]

OK, but note that if you use just one drop of Dr Bronner's and take a few seconds at the beginning to spread the soap around all four quadrants, the main sensation is sudsiness or foaminess rather than any taste of soap.

Also, is it chalky like almost all toothpastes?

Comment author: khafra 01 June 2012 03:04:56AM 2 points [-]

Thought-provoking questions. This is my first toothpaste review, but here goes:

Colour: Opaque white

Nose: mint, xylitol

Palate: Something between a paste and a gel, fading to insubstantial and slightly foamy

Taste: Peppermint and wintergreen fades to xylitol, a hint of fennel, and some lingering bitterness.

Finish: N/A, spat into sink.

Thoughts: None of the harsh, palate-scouring astringent acidity of Colgate or other conventional toothpastes. Very little "inedible chemical" impression, although that could be muted if you're not familiar with xylitol.

Rating: 90/100

I accidentally bought a dozen of them on Amazon instead of the one I'd intended on, and only managed to give away six to local friends, so I'd be happy to mail a tube to up to 3 of the dentally dissatisfied here (but it’s the fluoridated version).

Comment author: MaoShan 01 June 2012 10:22:00PM 0 points [-]

I use Tom's of Maine Wintergreen Fluoride-free toothpaste (okay, dentifrice), which sounds almost exactly like what you are describing. It sells in Walmart for about the same price as "regular" toothpastes. I really only buy it because I think that for general consumers in the USA, extra fluoride is unnecessary, so I rebel by buying the only locally available commercial alternative. Anyway, as an additional point to your description of the flavor which probably follows with Squigle too, it tastes "duller" than Colgate, Crest, etc., much like the difference between say, a Diet Coke and Coke Classic. At first it was unpleasant because that's not how my brain thinks toothpaste is supposed to taste, but neuroplasticity saved the day. I don't attribute any special benefit to the toothpaste itself, but I brush only once a day and haven't been to a dentist in the past fifteen years or so, so if I have cavities, they're not bad enough to call attention to themselves.