Tom’s of Maine Cavity Protection Baking Soda Toothpaste

The Tom’s of Maine may have been one of the first eco-friendly products I came across years ago. Now I’m happy to have tried one of their products and hopefully many more. It was their Natural Peppermint Cavity Protection Baking Soda Fluoride Toothpaste, wow that’s a mouth full (pun intended). My previous toothpaste before trying this Tom’s was Crest Pro-Health. I’m telling you this because I was very happy with my previous toothpaste. It even had some “grit” to it, reminding me of the polishing that comes with a professional dental cleaning. So trying this natural toothpaste was a huge change for me.

At first try I thought this toothpaste had no flavor, to me it was barely detectable in comparison to the bursts of flavor from Crest. But you know what? That lack of overpowering flavor grew on me and I enjoyed that it had a subtle flavor, that wasn’t trying to mask chemicals that Crest uses. There was no “grit” in this toothpaste and it wasn’t some unnatural color like blue or purple – just a natural white. The baking soda does seem to make it a bit more flavorless than you may be used to at first but it is well worth it to bypass chemicals.

As is hoped for, a little goes a long way. No need to fill up your toothbrush as the commercials and advertisements show. It is just fine to use a pea sized amount, it’s more than enough foaming action. After checking out the ingredient list, mainly the inactive ingredients, I was a bit bummed to see Tom’s of Maine using xylitol as a sugar substitute. Though it is naturally occurring in many plant materials, it bugs me that they choose this ingredient because it is likely cheaper than using actual sugar. I thought Tom’s was just trying to make the product cheaper for themselves, but in reality once I found out what benefits xylitol had I was happy they used this product. Besides being a sugar substitute, it helps prevent tooth decay, unlike actual sugar. Though I still put xylitol in the same category as Stevia (also made naturally from plants) and these chemicals like names just seem to make me question them at first.

Overall I did enjoy the Tom’s of Maine toothpaste. Though the tube is smaller in size than mainstream brands, I still find it goes a long way. I’m looking forward to trying their other flavors and teeth protection products. Especially their alcohol free mouthwash, it isn’t even dyed blue or green! Check out Tom’s of Maine deodorant I’ve already reviewed here.