Sunday, March 1, 2009

Crest-Fallen

Hello to you Blog Fans

I have a confession to make. I'm cheating! It started slowly, you know? A little look here, a realization there, the "magic" was running out and soon...I was not just thinking about it, I was looking for it. I couldn't help it! I had to move on!! It doesn't matter how long you've been together or how loyal you try to be sometimes...yes sometimes...you HAVE to try something new! And in my case it's completely justified! I couldn't find what I needed anymore in the one I was so use to depending on, so use to USING I'm sorry to say! I swear, no matter where I looked or where I searched...or how much I pushed and tried to squeeze every little bit of what I deserved out of our "relationship" it was gone...my toothpaste...was no more...

Perhaps you think I'm being dramatic and that may be so, but that's how I roll. Ever since I've had teeth, I've been using Colgate toothpaste. I'm normally not a slave to brands, but I have always been loyal to this one. Now when I lived at home I didn't buy my own toothpaste, my Mum did, but I always attributed my perfect non filling-ed teeth to the regular use of Colgate toothpaste. (that and usually being way too good and actually using the 3 minute egg timer my Mum kept in the bathroom for us to use while brushing our teeth.) I felt so loyal to my toothpaste that whenever I spent the night at a friend's house and was forced to use a brand of toothpaste that wasn't Colgate, I would feel slightly guilty. I remember the overwhelming feeling of wrongness I endured whenever we stayed at my Grandparent's place and I was subject to the likes of Aquafresh or AIM! (although and I hate to admit this, but I always thought Aim to be a very pretty colour and if using Aquafresh, I would carefully put it on my toothbrush to look like it did on the toothbrush in the commercial with the tri-colours in a perfect line and the little "curly swoop" at the end...oh for shame!!!)

When I moved out on my own, I still bought Colgate toothpaste and it made me happy that I was hanging onto something that I felt was "part of our family". I gave up things like, making my bed on a regular basis, washing my colours separate from my whites or doing my dishes everyday (that's what large microwaves to hide said dishes in when company comes over are for), but the Colgate toothpaste and I were a match meant to stay together. When I got married, my husband, who was brought up in a house where he said the toothpaste they used was the toothpaste that was probably on sale, (and that's fine..I don't know want to start a family feud with my in-laws) did not make an issue out of my need to buy Colgate toothpaste. He quietly accepted that it was the toothpaste I preferred and that was that. (which is good because WHO KNOWS where we'd be today if he dared question our use of Colgate toothpaste.) Over the years, our Colgate toothpaste needs changed, more tarter control, total tooth control, able to do our taxes control, whatever, but it was still Colgate toothpaste. A few years ago though, things started to change...

I went to dentist and for the first time ever I had cavities...I was crushed!! My perfect teeth were no longer just that! Now BEFORE the thought even enters your mind it was NOT because of Colgate toothpaste; it was because I was seriously lacking in the "you should be flossing everyday" department. (as a side note, my husband's dentist once asked him if he considered himself "to be a good flosser" and he answered "I'd like to think so." For those of you who know my husband this may be amusing. I personally find it hilarious.) Anyway, I got some cavities BETWEEN my teeth...where Colgate toothpaste couldn't go and it can't help where it can't go if you understand me. And as a result of having a bad filling experience (pain, so much pain...nerve-damage-pain), the teeth with the fillings between them became very sensitive and I had to start using Colgate toothpaste for Sensitive Teeth. Not earth shattering news, but this meant that Sean and I were now using 2 different kinds of Colgate toothpaste. Not a big deal you say...perhaps not then...but it would be eventually!

I grew very use to my Colgate toothpaste for Sensitive teeth and never strayed from it except for perhaps to use Sean's Colgate Total if I ran out of mine and hadn't had a chance to get more. And here's why I may not have got a chance to get more...it was hard to find!! Everywhere I'd shop, I'd have to scour the toothpaste aisle in search of my Sensitive Colgate and as the years went by, more often then not, I would have to look in 2 or 3 stores until I could find it! It was dawning on me that this...my loyal, beautiful, faithful relationship with Colgate may be coming to an end...

Which brings us to the traumatic events at hand...My Sensitive Colgate was starting to get low so I started looking for a new tube...couldn't find one. "Oh well. I still have quite a bit left" I thought and moved on. The tube got thinner, flatter...I shopped around again...nothing..."Hmm...this isn't good..." I thought and tentatively moved on and pushing the thought out of my head that while searching for and not finding my Colgate Sensitive Toothpaste that I had dared to sneak a peak at the price of another brand...And then, when I got down to the "rolled up tube, hurting my hands just to squeeze any amount of paste out of the tube" phase I went out on a panicked induced shopping frenzy to find my Colgate toothpaste for Sensitive teeth!! And I found....none...it was gone...gone...It appears the folks at Colgate-Palmolive Canada Inc no longer make my much needed toothpaste. Perhaps they feel there aren't enough "sensitive teeth" in the world anymore...or else there's not people in my geographic local that have as sensitive teeth as I do or a almost fanatical loyalty to Colgate Sensitive and so local stores ordering it in when there are a lot of other brands to chose from is probably futile.

Now you, if you haven't drifted off, are probably thinking "Just grow a pair and stop using Sensitive toothpaste and go back to sharing the Colgate Total with your husband." But hold it here BF's, I've done that and I'm afraid, my teeth have grown too attached to, become spoiled by the loving protective embrace that only Sensitive toothpaste can provide them. I'm am forever a slave to the Sensitive toothpaste's loving caress. And that is why, adrift in a sea of tooth pain caused by NOT using Sensitive toothpaste, and faced with the fact that in my lovely town, the brand of toothpaste I had been so long paired with was no longer available in the kind that so matched my needs, I had to buy ANOTHER BRAND OF TOOTHPASTE!!!! And there it sits...gleaming silver and all full of what I need, on my bathroom counter; Crest Sensitivity! With extra whitening! My Colgate Sensitive didn't have that, but it doesn't mean this one is better! This one tries to protect your children under 12 from it and from other things bad for them! "Keep this and all drugs out of reach of children" it says on the back. Colgate Sensitive didn't need to tell me that! I'm not a moron! "Hey honey, this toothpaste is bad for you right now, but what about these other non prescription drugs??? Where should I keep them? Within your reach? If only my toothpaste would tell me what to do!!" It also gives me the "helpful" advice of how to get the toothpaste out of the tube. "FOR BEST RESULTS, SQUEEZE TUBE FROM THE BOTTOM AND FLATTEN AS YOU GO UP." Well, thank the stars for that one because my Colgate Sensitive never told me that and I stupidly tried to squeeze it from the top and see how fat and bulging I could get get bottom! My daughter's toothpaste (and yes, it's Colgate for Kids with a jaunty picture of Sponge Bob Square Pants on it) doesn't tell her how to get the toothpaste out of it!

So as you can see..I'm not taking the toothpaste brand switch too well. Then to add insult to injury, I said to my husband "We're no longer a Colgate Family" and he said, and brace yourself for I swear this is the truth, "I don't have to use Colgate. It doesn't matter to me what I use."

OH pain of hearing such blasphemy in my own home!! He'd only been using Colgate all these years just to humour me!!! Where will this lead?? Where will it end?? I hate to think of the shopping trip that will come at the end of this tube of Crest Sensitivity...will I end up just picking a tube at random, not caring about the brand? Will I just end up buying whatever is on sale? Or will I take up the mantel of a new brand and remain CREST-FALLEN? Only time will tell...there is always a chance, that like the cat, my Sensitive Colgate, will come back...if I'll want it anymore. It left once, it may leave again...Trust issues will arise! Maybe I'll enjoy trying different brands of Sensitive Toothpaste, enjoy living the life of one who "teeths" around if you will...perhaps cheating won't be so bad after all.

Till next time,
enjoy taking care of your teeth while you
Cin
I know I will...