Of Toothpastes and Toothbrushes

My last post was about some nonsensical ads on TV. This time I’m talking about some superfluously nonsensical products in the market. For the whole of my childhood, I used the one and only brand of toothpaste available- Binaca. It cleansed, whitened, and kept my teeth strong and germ-free (whatever that means because your oral cavity can never be germ-free, and if it were, you’d not digest your food). I used to love the cute, small plastic toy-animals that were tucked inside each pack of the toothpaste, and the fact that they themselves let off mint smell for many days. If a pack of Binaca was on the shopping list, I’d accompany my mother to the store, just to make sure I did not lose the toy to my brothers. I had a huge collection of such animal-toys, and it was fun to barter the ‘doubles’ with friends. Though this brand changed to Cibaca later on, I don’t really remember any other brand from that era. There was one ‘Forhans’ toothpaste but I used to hate it because it did not produce any foam. I don’t remember when MNC brands like Colgate entered the Indian market, forcing the indigenous but popular brands like Cibaca to merge with it to survive. Till date, you can find a pack of Colgate-Cibaca on the racks of super-stores. Times changed and so did the competition in the FMCG market and these days you can find at least 30 to 40 varieties/brands (there could be more, not less) of toothpastes on the racks of your store- White, red, blue, green; See-through; With glittering flakes; With red /green stripes; With clove, and with salt. Sorry, ‘active’ salt. Thanks for the seasoning, but what’s coming next? Toothpastes with garam-masala? And why must toothpastes have calcium in them? The tooth enamel is the strongest substance in the human body with lots of calcium. It does not need any more of it, least from its cleansing agent! Then there are toothpastes for the diabetics- sugar-free- as if we don’t brush with the pastes, we eat them for breakfast!

If there are so many varieties of toothpastes, toothbrushes can’t be far behind. Apart from the ‘normal’ ones (you know which ones I’m talking about), you can find the curved ones; Angled ones, conical ones; Flexible ones, flexible from in-between ones; Rotary ones; Ones with straight bristles, criss-cross bristles; Half straight and half criss-cross bristles; Half for the gums, half for the enamel bristles. The list is endless, and I’m sure some bristles are still on the drawing boards!

Do we really need all these pastes and brushes? Ha Ha to that!