Colgate Sensation Deep Clean (Colgate Toothpaste)

Member Name: Ric!

Product:	Colgate Toothpaste
Date:	03/03/02 (1293 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Contains Fluoride, Contains Bicarbonate of Soda, Safe and Effective

Disadvantages: Enamel Flecking in Children

Having been brought up on Colagate toothpaste, and never having had a single filling, I have always stuck with this brand. The Colgate trade name is well known and associated with a high standard product.

The Colgate company was founded in 1806 by William Colgate. He was an English immigrant to New York City, where he set up a soap, starch and candle business on Dutch Street. At this time, the company did not even make toothpaste, and it wasn't until 1873, some 67 years later, that they produced their first dental care product! This was an aromatic dental cream sold in jars! A further 23 years later, in 1896, Colgate & Company, as they were known, manufactured toothpaste in the first ever collapsable tube - similar to the tubes in use today.

Personally, I don't mind which Colgate toothpaste I use, and I buy which ever one is on offer when I need some more! This has resulted in me trying out several different types. The one I am using currently is Colgate Sensation Deep Clean.

Colgate Sensation Deep Clean is a fluoride toothpaste with bicarbonate of soda. It comes in a blue box, the tube is blue, and the toothpaste itself is a blue gel. It can take people a little while to get used to toothpastes containing bicarbonate of soda (or baking soda, as it is also known). They have a distinctive taste to them, somewhat powdery in quality, that can leave you frantically washing your mouth out with water. But once you are used to this, you will not notice it, and it will even leave your mouth feeling fresh!

Bicarbonate of soda is an alkaline substance which helps to reduce the acidity of plaque, and thus limit the damage it can do to your teeth.

As I mentioned earlier, this toothpaste also contains fluoride, in the form of Sodium Monofluorophosphate 1.1% w/w (1450 ppm F). European law states that the maximum amount of fluoride allowed in toothpaste is 1500 parts per million fluoride (ppm F), so Colgate Sensation
Deep Clean is almost at this level.

Fluorine is the 13th most abundant element on the earth. However it is never found naturally occuring in its free element state, instead it is found combined with other elements as a fluoride compund. It is found, for example, in rocks and soil, and as water passes over or through them, some fluoride gets dissolved in the water, resulting in it being found in water. It is even added to water in some instances. But why should it be added to toothpaste? Well, it has several mechanisms of action:

1) It reduces the solubility of tooth enamel in the plaque acid
2) It reduces the ability of plaque organisms to form acid
3) It promotes remineralisation of tooth enamel

The third action is perhaps the most important. This means that it can help repair small dental caries by aiding remineralisation of areas that have been de-calcified by plaque acid.

On the side of the Colgate Sensation Deep Clean box and tube is a message reading:
"Children under 7, use a pea-sized amount for supervised brushing to minimise swallowing." No reason is given for this, which could cause alarm about the safety of fluoride, I believe. However, the reason for this is that if small children swallow significant amounts of fluoride on a regular basis, they can get enamel flecking. While their permanent teeth are forming, small flecks can form in their enamel, which appear at around the age of 6-7.

Colgate Sensation Deep Clean is available from most supermarkets and drug stores, including Boots and their www.wellbeing.com website, where the cost is £2.05 for a 100ml tube, or £2.39 for a 100ml pump-action tube (if you're sensible, you won't bother wasting the extra 34p).

Happy brushing, and thanks for reading.....

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