Oral Exam

You guys noticed that in the last few years, Oral-B has suddenly fallen-off the radar of upscale dental commodities?

You can get now its toothbrushes for just less than P60. Chances are, the package in which they come by even has three instead of just one hard-bristled toothbrush.

I was examining one of these bargains the other day in the supermarket and I asked myself, "Are these fakes? Have all their factories already transferred to China?"

I recall my college days when bringing these toothbrushes to the common dormitory shower-room was a status symbol. My roommate even went ballistic when he found-out one day that his angled-like-a-dental-instrument Oral-B was stolen (must be really some status symbol for one to be sick enough to use another man's toiletries.)

Then there was that TV commercial of a dentist brushing with Oral-B while his back is turned against the viewer "for ethical reasons" (to this day, I don't know if it has to do with professionalism, i.e., a dentist shouldn't be endorsing a brand or just plain good manners about not getting televised while foaming in the mouth.)

Well today, that commercial and all other advertisements about Oral-B are gone. In FMCG marketing language, I think that's equivalent to an exit-phase in a product's life-cycle.

Well, whether the Oral-B's in today's grocery stores are fake or that this brand has indeed reached the end of the road, what I cannot forgive is that I can't find any one of them that is genuinely soft-bristled. Even if it says in the package that it is, the bristles are as hard as the steel broom our maid uses to scrub the oil leaks off our garage.

And lastly, for all the years of research that went into ergonomic designs, how come most toothbrushes these days (not just Oral-B) have rubber handles that collect molds after a few weeks? Is this the new proof of authenticity? To gather molds similar to how these parasites prove those foul-smelling blue cheese are indeed German?

I know.

You'll say I write just about anything--even about ubiquitous oral care products. But hey, if you put these things inside your mouth a minimum of three times a day, reading a blog about them for the first time in your life shouldn't be so much a waste of your time. Admit it, you'll think about this posting when you buy your next toothbrush. That thought actually puts a smile on my face. My smile and the care that goes with keeping it pearly white sure make my dentist so proud of me :)