The Funny Things About Toothpaste

Toothpaste is an essential part of oral hygiene, as you may have heard from your South Loop dentist. It helps to fight plaque and tarter buildup and cleans away leftover food particles. Some toothpastes can even help in the whitening of teeth and freshening of breath for certain periods of time. However, you might find it interesting to know that toothpaste has a fascinating effect on other things as well. Because of certain properties within it’s formula, toothpaste has the ability to change the way you taste certain foods. It can also polish, clean and even deodorize other things besides your mouth. Here is a list of six fun facts about toothpaste that are not as widely known.

1. Toothpaste and Taste Buds

Have you ever noticed how breakfast food items, especially orange juice, doesn’t taste as good when you brush your teeth right beforehand? This interesting alteration in your taste buds happens because of a particular ingredient in toothpastes called sodium lauryl sulfate. This ingredient works as a detergent in your mouth to increase foaming and provide a stronger feeling of clean. As it cleans your mouth, this detergent also disrupts the fatty membranes of your taste receptors, causing an alteration in the responsiveness of your tongue. This alteration reduces your ability to taste the sweetness of your breakfast food items. Also, when this element of toothpaste is mixed with acid, such as oranges, it creates an unpleasantly bitter taste inside your mouth. With all this in mind, you might want to hold off brushing your teeth until after breakfast.

2. Toothpaste and Silver

Though, you may not have of this before, it makes total sense. If scrubbing your teeth with toothpaste can give your smile a polished shine, then it can certainly polish other things, too. Using a soft cloth or soft bristled toothbrush you can remove tarnish from silver trays, spoons, ornaments, tea sets, candlestick holders and even jewelry. You do have to be a bit careful, however, because although toothpaste can make even your diamonds sparkle, it can also scratch and damage pearls and opals.

3. Toothpaste and Skin

Toothpaste can help relieve your skin from bug bites and pimples. Just dab a small amount of toothpaste onto the irritated part of your skin. You should feel immediate relief from a bug bite or sting and you should see your pimple cleared up after a good night’s sleep. Toothpaste also works as a cleaner and can be very effective beneath fingernails. It can also remove odors like fish smell, onions and other heavy smells from your skin. You just rub a small amount of toothpaste to your hands like soap and then moisturize your skin with lotion after washing.

4. Toothpaste and Walls

When it comes to your walls, toothpaste can be your best friend. Toothpaste does an incredible job at removing crayon from walls and filling small holes made by pins or nails. For the crayon clean off, all you need to do is rub white toothpaste over the crayon marks with a damp cloth and then wash away the residue. For the filling of holes, simply apply small amounts of white toothpaste over the holes and wipe away the excess amount. Toothpaste also makes a wall-friendly adhesive to hold up your posters without any damaging effects.

5. Toothpaste and Fabric

Forget the expensive stain remover for your laundry, use toothpaste instead! With a small plop of toothpaste you can remove some of the most difficult of stains from your favorite articles of clothing. Such stains that can be removed are lipstick stains, spaghetti sauce splashes and juice spills. Just apply a small amount of toothpaste directly on the stain and rub vigorously before throwing it into the washing machine. A quick heads-up: don’t use whitening toothpaste on colored clothes unless you want a bleach spot.

6. Toothpaste and the Bathroom

Just as well as it polishes silver, toothpaste does a great job cleaning and shining bathroom sinks, faucets, mirrors and glass shower doors. The next time you accidentally drop a glob of toothpaste into your sink, rub it around like soap with a soft cloth to keep it shining. As your rinse your sink, your toothpaste will deodorize your drain as well. You can also use tiny amounts of toothpaste to clean and polish your chrome faucets and bathroom mirror every now and again. For really stubborn soap scum on glass shower doors you can smear a squeeze of toothpaste and let it sit there for a little while and then scrub it off with water and a cloth.

As you can see toothpaste is certainly not limited to just teeth cleaning. With its cleaning and polishing properties, toothpaste can be used all around your house. You can use it to scrub down your bathroom, simplify your laundry, restore your ill-treated walls, remedy your irritated skin and much more. Let us know what other ways you use your toothpaste. Share in the comments below.