The not so humble tube of toothpaste!

Your mouth contains over 500 types of micro-organisms and we constantly 'manufacture' plaque which will regrow on teeth that are completely clean within 3 to 4 hours of brushing. Toothpaste is also called a 'dentifrice' .. A substance, such as a paste or powder, for cleaning the teeth.

It would appear toothpaste was invented by the Ancient Egyptians somewhere around 5-3,000BC .. they made it with myrrh, crushed burnt eggshells, some pumice and the ashes of ox hooves

Cuttlefish bone, dragons blood, charcoal, pulverized brick, crushed china, burnt alum, burnt bread and strawberrys have all been used in early toothpastes and stale urine was another commonly used ingredient

The correct amount of toothpaste to use is roughly the size of a pea ... and children under 6 should use only a very small amount .. more like a petit pois size

Toothpaste is intended to be spat out after brushing and some types of toothpaste can give you moderate diarrhea in you ingest it ... a single ingestion of just 3 mg is enough to damage the gastrointestinal wall

And if you've ever wondered just why toothpastes have a poison warning on them .. it's because you need to know that each tube of flouride toothpaste contains enough toothpaste to kill a child which is why very young children need to be supervised and educated to spit out the toothpaste rather than swallow it ..

An interesting fact is that when the economy is good the hole the toothpaste comes out of the tube from is 'normal' when the economy gets worse they make the hole bigger so you use more toothpaste

The reason you can't squeeze and fold up a toothpaste tube these days is so that the brand name can always be seen

If you have sensitive teeth and buy an appropriate toothpaste for sensitive teeth it can take 4-6 weeks for the sensitivity to be reduced

If you've ever wondered how they put the stripes into toothpastes then it's all done using seperate compartments in the tube .. and a simple nozzle arrangement coats the main white toothpaste with the coloured toothpaste thus making it look stripey

And don't be surprised if your golf instructor suggests you practice your golf grip with a tube of toothpaste as it can help them work out whats wrong with your grip

Americans spend 1.5 billion dollars every year on toothpaste