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I've been using Tartar Control Crest Fresh Mint Gel for a while now.  I
like the mint taste and the gel formulation is less gritty to me than
the regular.  The tartar control part has been successful according to
my dental hygienist, who has been keeping records of the condition of
my teeth--apparently the use of TC toothpaste does help a lot in
reducing tartar and in making my cleaning sessions much shorter.
Doesn't seem to bother my teeth (fortunately).

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My mother and I both have sensitive teeth, and our dentist recommends
Colgate.  Sensodyne leaves a slimy coating on your teeth, which other
toothpastes don't.  If you can't stand slimy teeth, sensodyne works
great.  If not, a *mildly* abrasive toothpaste isn't supposed to aggravate
sensitive teeth.

i just started using 'rembrandt' because i want to
try to get rid of the coffee/tea/cola stains. it also
has flouride and baking soda.
once i heard that abrasive toothpaste is bad becausae
it damages your gums.
does anyone know if it is true?

  I heard ol' Denise on Ch 7 touting a new toothpaste with Stannis Flouride.
Actually, SF is an old ingrediant that some toothpaste makers are bringing
back to help cure gingivitis. 4 out of 5 dentists and all that jazz, but no
word on when that 5th dentist will cave ;)

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  Probably a little too much Sodium Laureth Sulfate. Mine did that too when
I made my own (Ok, I was a curious teenager) ;)

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Been a while since i asked my brother-in-law in that field (DDS *and*
dental public health ABD), but i think that 5 minutes was what he gave
as optimum brushing time.

But if your teeth really are clean sooner, you can use a fluoride rinse
and save the wear & tear on your gums.

Valerie: regarding brushing for two minutes - We got an electric (sonic)
toothbrush as an anniversary present which has a timing device in it.  It
makes a little buzz at half minute intervals and stops after two minutes. 
Now, I brush each side of the tops and bottoms for half minute a piece
totalling 2 minutes.  I KNOW I never brushed for that long before.  The
buzzing noise makes it easy to do.  Also, I can walk around the bedroom while
brushing now, so I don't get bored.  I do other stuff while brushing my teeth.
I have had the machine over a year and my checkups have been much better, my
professional cleanings take far less time and discomfort.

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Yeah, stop mouthing off about that.  :)

Well, the old wive's rule of thumb was that you'd lose a tooth for every
kid you had (presumably due to calcium depletion).....

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Well, about ten years ago what I heard from my dentist was that pregnancy
tended to change the saliva composition a little, making the mouth a little
more welcoming to the germs that cause periodontal disease, but not attacking
teeth directly.  (Lots of calcium is a Good Thing, anyway)

Sodium laureth sulfate is the major ingredient of baby shampoo.  Presumably
it is put in because people expect toothpaste to foam, or perhaps to clear
solid fats from your mouth if there is something wrong with your mouth
enzymes.  I don't know if the tooth powders contain it.  We brush without
toothpaste and it seems to remove the dirt just fine, the brush is
sufficiently abrasive by itself.  We also floss daily.  

sodium lauryl sulfate. It is an anionic detergent. 

Sodium lauryl is used in adult shampoos, sodium laureth in baby shampoos, I
think it is either milder or has a more neutral pH.

There is no chemical name "sodium laureth sulfate". It must be a trade
name for SLS or some other surfactant, or a mixture of SLS with something
else. Sodium lauryl sulfate is neutral, by the way. I've noticed that on
shampoo bottles the lists of ingredients include a lot of proprietary
names (not standard chemical nomenclature).

A   variation of SLS is SODIUM LAURETH SULFATE (Sodium Lauryl Ether
   Sulfate- SLES). It exhibits many of the same characteristics and is a
   higher-foaming variation of SLS.
   
(found at a website when I searched on Sodium laureth sulfate).

Some anti-SLS hype is at
http://web.cyberis.net/vhosts/ecopax.com/neways/sls_sles.html which may be
the site you are referring to. It is not written in the objective language
of science. Some of the chemical statements on nonsense. The page includes
a link to an MSDS on SLC, at
http://www.chem.utah.edu/MSDS/S/SODIUM_DODECYL_SULFATE_(SDS), but does NOT
give a link to an MSDS on "sodium laureth sulfate". I interpret this to
mean someone is trying to slip one over on you. The MSDS for SLS might
well give the impression of a dangerous compound, but this is the nature
of MSDSs. You should look at the MSDS for sodium chloride! 

Interestingly, the page at http://www.successteams.com/p0000321.htm damns
*both* SLS and SLES, attributing the same "irritating" and "carcinogenic" 
properties to both! Both sites like to refer to the use of SLS as a
"garage floor cleaner" (jeezle-peezle!), but this page considers SLES to
be in the same category. The page, incidentally, is a *marketing* site
from NEWAYS. However it does give a hint in referring to SLES as an
"ethoxylated version of SLS". The plot deepens.... 

There is a product manufactured by the Stepan Co. as "sodium laureth
sulfate"  [http://www.stepan.com/products/gfsl610a.asp], which they call
"Steol 4N". I downloaded the Steol 4N product bulletin, where I found the
chemical formula. I would name it "lauryl ter-ethoxy sulfate". Its main
advantage over SLS is improved foam stability in the presence of soaps.

The "bottom line" is, you were caught in the marketing battle among
shampoo manufacturers. 

Yes, the website I excerpted that from was rather nonsensical but it was the
first of about 400 that came up when I searched on Sodium laureth sulfate,
so the name does indeed exist, along with the compound.  I had read that the
laureth was used in baby shampoos because it was milder, that may have been
in the Stepan information (we bought 50 gal of two of their dry products).
Anyway, the lauryl and laureth seem to be different compounds.  What we bought
was sodium lauryl sulfonate or something of that sort, sulfonate rather than
sulfate, which does not turn into a gel at temperatures below 60 like the
lauryl sulfate did (mixed with water first, of course).  My bathroom is in
the basement and tends to be 50 in the winter (until I run a heat before
showering) and the sulfate just would not come out of the bottle.

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