Squigle Toothpaste VS. Colgate Total Advanced Clean Toothpaste

No doubt, you've heard of Colgate Total Advanced Clean toothpaste-but Squigle? When comparing Colgate Total Advanced Clean toothpaste vs. Squigle toothpaste, Squigle wins hands-down on our household. Here's why.

Colgate Total Advanced Clean toothpaste, manufactured by Colgate-Palmolive, Inc., is one of the most popular toothpastes on the market. Sold in major drugstore chains such as CVS, Eckerd, Walgreen's, and Rite-Aid, the Colgate brand series of toothpastes is also found in virtually every grocery store and convenience store.

For years, our family used Colgate Tartar Control toothpaste, on the advice of our dentist. He told us that Colgate tartar Control toothpaste would help with accumulated tartar. When plaque forms on teeth, if you don't brush it away within twelve to twenty-four hours, the plague hardens and forms tartar. Plaque can be brushed away with a toothbrush and toothpaste; tartar cannot. Tartar builds up over time, and the only way to remove it is through a process called scaling. In other words, the dentist or dental hygienist goes in and literally scrapes the tartar off the teeth, going deep under the gum line to prevent the tartar build up going toward the tooth's root.

More recently, however, our family switched to Colgate Total Advanced Clean toothpaste. Our entire family, which includes me, my husband, and our two sons, ages eight and five, have been using Total Advanced Clean toothpaste for a few years. And then, last year, we realized it has Triclosan in it.

Triclosan is the same chemical used in antibacterial soaps. It discourages tartar build-up. But do we really want an industrial chemical designed to kill germs on surfaces in our mouths? Do we want our children accidentally swallowing such a powerful chemical? So we began to search for a toothpaste other than Colgate Total Advanced Clean toothpaste-a toothpaste that would still help us to fight cavities, help fight tartar, but not provide us with ingestible chemicals that might harm our bodies.