Bubble Gum? · 16 September 2017
Bazooka Gum
By Parka Lewis at English Wikipedia
licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
Who thought it was a good idea to make toothpaste taste like bubble gum?
I was surprised when I used the toothpaste that came from the dentist’s office. One of those little tubes that the dentist gives after each visit. I did not read the label. I just tasted a sickeningly sweet taste. It was the unmistakable taste of bubble gum. Yuck.
Now I am not against bubble gum. As a matter of fact, the taste was very reminiscent. I was immediately taken back to my childhood and that hard bubble gum that had a comic inside the wrapper. Like I said, the taste was unmistakable. But it was not what I expected.
Normally, I would be happy to have a memory from my childhood. The thing was that it came at the wrong time. Happily chewing bubble gum with my friends and family just hanging out would certainly be a time to reminisce, but the taste was unwelcome when brushing my teeth. For as I tasted the taste, I could feel the sugar coating my teeth. It could not have been there, but it sure felt like it. The memory that the taste brought back was so strong that I just knew I was brushing sugar all over my teeth. I knew I was just spreading cavity catalyst all over my mouth. Yuck.
I am not sure that mental images have as much to do with oral hygiene as they do with overall health, but if they have any impact at all, I am sure those images that day set my tooth health back a few days. Or months.
Looking back, I can appreciate how exact the taste was. I just wonder at the logic of it. Sure, the toothpaste is made for kids so that they will brush longer and more often, but might they have the opposite reaction later in life. Might they think that chewing bubble gum with granular sugar in it could be cleaning their teeth? Think about it. If I had the thought that I was spreading that granular sugar around my mouth because my first memory of that taste was of sugary bubble gum, wouldn’t it be logical that kids whose first memory of that same bubble gum flavor in toothpaste think the opposite?
Regardless of the psychology of the whole thing, I am still reeling from the nostalgic taste. I do not know that it is healthy for me mentally to use such sweet tasting toothpaste when cleansing my teeth.
When it comes right down to it, I suppose using sweet tasting toothpaste is okay. It is just strange. I for one am not a fan. And for the record, I would like to say that I do not think it is a great idea to make toothpaste taste like bubble gum.
© 2017 Michael T. Miyoshi
| Share on facebook | Tweet |
|
Comment
Commenting is closed for this article.
| What? The Truck? | On On Writing |