A dental hygienist is going viral on TikTok after dropping a surprising truth bomb about toothpaste: It isn’t actually doing what you think it’s doing.
“Toothpaste doesn’t clean your teeth,” says Jessica Potter (@jesspotter_xx) at the start of her jaw-dropping video. “So stop spending so much money on it!”
A lot of people in the comments were equally stunned.
“I literally have patients that come in and have spent $9-12 on their toothpaste, and I’m like, ‘Why? They are all the same. Just get a cheap one,'” she says.
According In The Know by Yahoo!, the ideal way to clean our teeth is to use an electric toothbrush, some floss and interdental brushes in between the teeth where the brush can’t reach. The main objective here is to remove any plaque build-up that might form on or between our teeth.
So why do we even have toothpaste, then? Apparently, its true function is less about cleaning our teeth and more about protecting them.
“The reason we have toothpaste is because it has fluoride in it,” says Potter, who explains that the naturally occurring mineral actually protects our teeth against both decay and acid erosion over time.
And adding to that: if you use "sensitive" toothpaste, rather than spend big bucks on brand names like Sensodyne, reading the ingredients will show you that there are cheaper brands--some nearly half the price--with the same ingredients! You're likely just paying for advertising (and those tubes are smaller than the ones charging less!) By the way, the company that makes Sensodyne also makes Aquafresh, same incredients, half the price!
Photo: Getty Images