This is embarrassing to say, but I will say it anyway... I have never taken as much care with my teeth as I should have. I was never made to get into the habit of frequent brushing and flossing as a child and so I just never made it a routine. Mix that with my faulty memory and you have someone with a really bad sense of dental responsibility. Add someone with poor dental practices to four young children, and well... you get four young children with bad teeth. So very sad but also so very true.
Recently, I saw Baby Bee smile and noticed some tartar build-up by her gum line. So I went to scrape the tartar away and was shocked to see chips of tooth fall off the front of her teeth. I had unveiled a discolored pit in her front teeth and I felt terrible. I felt terrible for not brushing her teeth for her and also for scraping it off so carelessly. I never would have imagined that her teeth would be so bad at just barely two years old.
We went and saw the dentist. They contributed it to night time nursing without wiping her mouth out afterward. WIC told me that there was no way it could have been that because of how far back in her mouth the milk would have been. So who knows what caused it to be so very bad. Maybe it's the last few sips of soda she always steals from me when my bottle is running close to empty. Maybe it was the nursing. Maybe it was just that her genes make for brittle teeth in the first place.
Whatever it was, I was ashamed and I was concerned. Here she is, only two years old and already needing fillings on her baby teeth. We have a referral to a place a couple hours away to get her fillings done. The likely hood of getting there in this economy any time soon is unlikely. That is possibly the most scary thing. To get there, it would cost us $35 and 5 hours. Doesn't seem like a lot, but lately it seems like we scrape just to get gas for work the next town over. So I know it will be weeks before we can afford to go and in the mean time, I want to make sure her little teeth don't fall apart on me.
So I went looking for help at Tom's of Maine because I love that they are local to me. And by local to me, I mean slightly further away from me than Falmouth is, lol. But they are a Maine company none the less and so my loyalties must lie with them. As I was browsing through their products, I saw one that instantly caught my eye. It's called Silly Strawberry Children's Anticavity Fluoride Toothpaste. It struck my fancy because Streaker is so sensitive to mint that she will cry, so strawberry flavoring sounded like a great option.
I was thrilled when Tom's of Maine allowed me to try some to help protect Baby Bee's teeth. It came super quick. I first let the Big One and Baby Bee try it. They both had very different opinions of it. It should be known that whenever I seem excited about something, the Big One makes it a point to be very unexcited. Her very word to describe it was "horrible". *eye roll*
Baby Bee however, seemed to be completely indifferent. She didn't dislike it, nor did she seem to love it. So I tried it on Streaker and she adores it! She loved that it wasn't minty and didn't hurt her tongue. She thought it tasted just like strawberries. I thought it had a nice taste, it wasn't too strong or too subtle.
The toothpaste itself is a light peachy cream color, an off-white. I don't know why that surprised me seeing as how it's an all natural toothpaste, but it did. Every ingredient in the toothpaste serves a purpose. The glycerin is a moistener, the water and calcium carbonate are for consistency and mild abrasion. The silica is for stain removal and the natural flavors are obviously for the taste. Two more ingredients act to thicken and to be a dispersant. Did you know that some natural flavors in other products can mean something as gross as anal gland juice? Yeah... you've probably eaten anal gland juice *gag*. That's why I am so glad that Tom's of Maine uses natural flavors from actual strawberries and other plants, NOT animals.
You can find a list of all the ingredients that they use here, along with what the ingredient is used for. How awesome is that? You can also check out what other products and options that they have. For instance, this same toothpaste which also comes in Orange-Mango comes in fluoride and non-fluoride varieties. Tom's of Maine toothpastes also have the option of being ordered SLS-free. On top of that, they make soap, deodorant and floss too!
There are so many awesome things to say about Tom's of Maine that I just couldn't say it all here. From the volunteer work, to their eco-friendly strides... Tom's of Maine is what every company should strive to be. I am so proud to say that I am state-mates with such a wonderful group of people. Please check them out of Facebook, Twitter, Youtube or their Good Matters Blog.
Except for the product(s) given to me for the purpose of reviewing, I
received no compensation for this post. All opinions are 100% my own.
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