As I drink a lot of tea during the course of a day quite possibly more than I should eventually my teeth can get a little stained which I am not that pleased about because I know that it doesn't matter what condition they are in, good or bad people will often notice your teeth.

In an effort to counteract this problem and return them to a whiter condition I would often use some of the toothpastes that claim to have whitening properties or special crystals that can restore the original colour of your teeth. These can often be expensive even when on promotion and in my experience even though my teeth were never in a really bad state I could never really see that they had done anything out of the ordinary and made them look any cleaner or whiter. I could be being very harsh on some of these brands but I decided it was my best bet to wait until I have my regular check up at my dentist and get him to polish my teeth which afterwards they always look good.

Recently I have been using Aquafresh Fresh & Minty in a 100 ml tube which currently seems to cost around a pound and five pence on the Boots website but I am sure I purchased mine at Tesco on promotion for less than a pound. The tube comes in a cardboard box that can be instantly recycled and the paste is easy to squeeze out of the tube. I advise you to always clean the opening on the tube and replace the cap after use because otherwise after time the excess paste can become dry and makes the paste more difficult to flow from the tube.

The toothpaste has the famous three stripes of red, white and blue which contribute to triple protection. It aids with healthy gums, strong teeth and fresh breath. The paste has a strong minty smell and taste, I accidentally swallowed the whole amount I had put on to my toothbrush and I realised just how strong the mint taste was but when used with water to brush your teeth it is pleasant. It definitely leads to fresh breath and the other two areas are harder to judge but I can definitely say that my gums don't hurt or bleed which I assume means they are fairly strong and healthy and my teeth are experiencing no pain or problems at the moment.

For the price and especially the fact that it seems to give my teeth a nice clean feeling and keeps my breath fresh when used to brush twice a day I am happy with this, if the whitening pastes had worked better for me then I would definitely use them even if they were massively more expensive but I think they are just a bit of a myth and not worth the extra money.