neutral flavor tooth care

September 1, 2016 9:29 AM

I'm looking for a better toothpaste and fluoride rinse, but I hate most flavors. What is available/good?

I want fluoride, but do not want mint, cinnamon, vanilla, anise, or any sweet flavor (bubblegum, strawberry, whatever the kids use). I am generally good with citrus flavors. If there is a savory flavored toothpaste I would be totally down with that.

Do you also hate these flavors? What has worked for you? Alternately, what has a relatively mild version of flavor?

posted by aaanastasia to Health & Fitness (22 answers total)

Tom's of Maine makes a fennel-flavored toothpaste.
posted by holborne at 9:32 AM on September 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Oops, posted too soon, sorry.

Marvis also makes great flavors that aren't especially sweet -- I love their jasmine toothpaste, and they also have a ginger-flavored one.
posted by holborne at 9:34 AM on September 1, 2016

Not joking - have you considered dog toothpastes? They have flavors like poultry, peanut, and bacon. They're made to high standards.
posted by yesster at 9:41 AM on September 1, 2016 [5 favorites]

I am generally good with citrus flavors.

Crest has a 'Citrus Splash' flavor. And Tom's of Maine has an Orange Mango which may still be too fruity.
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:47 AM on September 1, 2016

And here is a completely unflavored toothpaste. It also comes in lemon-lime and cranberry, the latter of which I kind of want to buy now.

EDIT: ok apparently I misread and this does NOT have fluoride, sorry! Geez.
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:49 AM on September 1, 2016

I use Aquafresh and it reminds me of those stickerbook stickers. So there's that.
posted by humboldt32 at 9:52 AM on September 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Breath Palette toothpaste is what you want. They have flavors like espresso, darjeeling tea, vanilla, white peach, bitter chocolate, Indian curry, and Japanese plum. You can get single tubes on Amazon. I like the espresso, myself. Makes it less jarring when you're drinking coffee in the morning and need to brush your teeth.
posted by culfinglin at 10:24 AM on September 1, 2016 [5 favorites]

Aim is the least minty fluoride paste I've found in the drugstore
posted by travertina at 10:32 AM on September 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

Lush cosmetics has come out with several tooth powders and tablets in fruity/citrus/other flavors. If you have a shop near you, they'll be more than happy to provide a sample for you to try. (I just coincidentally went there this afternoon to re-up my shampoo, saw the tablets, and asked to try the Limelight kind)
posted by wells at 10:47 AM on September 1, 2016

The Tom's of Main Strawberry flavor (with fluoride) is quite mild. It tastes a little like strawberry, but almost immediately loses all flavor. Like when you're done brushing your teeth it doesn't have any lingering taste, kind of like natural gum. Looks like the brand also has a citrus mango flavor. If you browse the kids' toothpaste aisle at a well-stocked natural foods store, you'll see a lot of different flavor options.
posted by LKWorking at 11:02 AM on September 1, 2016

It's been a long time since I tried it, but the Arm & Hammer toothpaste used to taste very un-minty to me. You can also brush with baking soda too. Most of the Toms of Maine flavors are pretty mild, even their mint. Some of theirs have fluoride, but not all.
posted by hydra77 at 11:11 AM on September 1, 2016

Gonna throw out Weleda Salt toothpaste, even though it's not fluoridated. Amazon reviews say it has tiny hint of mint, I don't remember the mint, only that it was "weird but I kinda like it!"
posted by yeahlikethat at 11:34 AM on September 1, 2016

I like Desert Naturals Tea Tree toothpaste. It's neutral flavored and smells mildly of tea-tree. Hard to use saccharine regular toothpaste after it.

Your local Indian grocery store probably has a lot of herbal flavored toothpastes as well.
posted by so fucking future at 11:41 AM on September 1, 2016

If you live near a Trader Joe's, pick up a tube of their peppermint toothpaste. It has fluoride and baking soda and is not sweet. It's my favorite toothpaste hands down. I'm similarly icked out my sweet toothpastes. I like this way better than Tom's of Maine toothpastes.
posted by smich at 12:17 PM on September 1, 2016

Aaaand I just reread the question and saw no mint. Scratch my answer.
posted by smich at 12:20 PM on September 1, 2016

I would dip your brush in baking soda. Or maybe Coconut oil first, and then baking soda.
posted by Dressed to Kill at 12:29 PM on September 1, 2016

+1 Tom's of Maine. Even the mint flavors are pretty mild since they don't add sweeteners. Whenever I have to use "normal" toothpaste it tastes cloyingly sweet.

(gonna have to check out that Trader Joe's stuff now)
posted by neckro23 at 1:06 PM on September 1, 2016

Response by poster: Marvis and Breath Palette both sound promising -- I've ordered one of each from Amazon for now *fingers crossed*
posted by aaanastasia at 1:09 PM on September 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

Tom's citrus for kids is pretty fruity, the adult flavor less so (we tried it, because the kid liked the orange mango and I was trying to get him to move to an adult toothpaste - he didn't like it, because the adult one was FAR less fruity and not sweet like the kid's tube)
posted by caution live frogs at 1:12 PM on September 1, 2016

I dislike both super-minty and baking-soda tasting toothpastes, and I recently started using Kirkland Pro Complete (the Costco house brand), which tastes like... nothing. Five stars, would brush again.
posted by psoas at 3:45 PM on September 1, 2016

For medical reasons I need super mild toothpaste and the only one that isn't painful for me to use is Biotene. I've been using this one but I see there's even a gentle version which I've never seen but am going to try.
posted by Room 641-A at 5:46 PM on September 1, 2016

The Tom's of Maine orange-mango (with fluoride) is very, very mild in flavor. Milder than the strawberry. It's basically the only non-expensive toothpaste that I can tolerate.
posted by anaelith at 7:14 AM on September 3, 2016