not for everyday, but my husband used them in Haiti and they were perfect for that and other business trips. My sis keeps them with her all the time...I have a few for when a KID forgets to brush WE don't have to suffer.

This is decadence, and i don't mean that in a good way. Think waste. Think landfill stuffing. Think resources going to oblivion after 2 minutes of use. Damn woot, cannot you find some socially redeeming product to offer us. This is crap of the purest form!

Here is a commercial from 2009

mykie wrote:FYI for all vegan/vegetarians:

Colgate wisps use a gelatin-based gel-cap to contain the liquid.

While you don't actually swallow this part, fragments of the gelatin could come loose and you might swallow it.

Depending on how dedicated you are to your vegan/vegetarianism, you may want to take this into consideration before purchasing.

That is exactly what I have been looking for as information. Thank you!

mykie wrote:Colgate wisps use a gelatin-based gel-cap to contain the liquid.

Yuck. Dissolved cow on a toothbrush. No thank you.

I love these things for camping. But I like the Cinnamon ones and those are hard to find in stores, either because store owners hate cinnamon or that is the one that everyone wants.

Are they as good as a toothbrush? Nope. do they take that morning fur off the teeth? yes.

Plus they have a nice food pick on the back to get that trail jerky out of your teeth.

spacetimejunkie wrote:Damn woot ... This is crap of the purest form!

You must be new here.

To all those claiming that you cant rinse your mouth.. Why? do you live in a place where they dont have bathrooms or someone comes to kill you if you spit?

They work great, and I can rinse my mouth out by using a very secret technique.

I take a drink from a water bottle but not swallow, swish, then find a sink to spit in. I know we are talking about thinking WAY outside the box, and most restaurants don't have bathrooms...

Some days I wonder how many of you function at a job.

zephalis wrote:I want to correct you on a couple of points:

1. The beads don't contain alcohol
   
2. The brush removes soft surface buildup that sprays definitely won't remove and gum will only remove over tens of minutes
   

Gum also doesn't clean up to (much less over) the gum line and you have to make sure to chew it using all teeth)

re: the removal of surface buildup...
But that's not the point of these things. Even its website admits that this is not for oral hygiene. It serves one purpose: To freshen the mouth and breath. The brush cleaning allegedly helps freshen the breath. But nowhere is it explained where all those loosened food particles and bacteria go since there is no rinsing or spitting. Since those things stay in your mouth, it is reasonable to assume that brushing has nothing to do with the freshening effect (unless you swallow them into your stomach -- the website mentions repeatedly that the chemicals can be swallowed). The freshening then is all in the chemicals, hence gum or a mouth spray would be just as effective. And arguably, a spray can provide better chemical coverage than brushing, i.e. spray painting is superior to brush painting. Plus it has all those other advantages like cost and size that I mentioned previously.

And frankly, I'd rather have the particles and bacteria stuck between my teeth than free floating in my mouth, especially if I kiss. I can remove them properly later with a real brushing when I get home. So again, I have yet to see how these are better than antibacterial freshening Binaca spray that can be applied right at the dinner table. Do you really want to see someone using a Wisp?

mykie wrote:FYI for all vegan/vegetarians:

Colgate wisps use a gelatin-based gel-cap to contain the liquid.

While you don't actually swallow this part, fragments of the gelatin could come loose and you might swallow it.

Depending on how dedicated you are to your vegan/vegetarianism, you may want to take this into consideration before purchasing.

Ugh. I almost bought them. Thanks for the warning.

quantamm wrote:Yuck. Dissolved cow on a toothbrush. No thank you.

Dissolved cow? That is a bit disturbing. Ground cow, on the other hand, would be worth considering. Add bacon and we'd have a winner.

Crab wrote:What's the expiration date on these things? How long until they become fetid all on their own?

usually about two years.

MagicalHippy wrote:Forgot most of your food stuff ends up on the brush.

No it doesn't. I just tried one for the first time and no appreciable amount of particles are on the brush. Nor would I expect it to since the bristles have nothing to hold food. The bristles are too smooth and sparse. Only the pick end takes out particles, but only large ones.

Please note that Colgate itself says that this is not for oral hygiene, nor a substitute for real brushing. This is marketed for freshening the mouth and breath only.

MagicalHippy wrote:Forgot most of your food stuff ends up on the brush.

No it doesn't. I just tried one for the first time and no appreciable amount of particles are on the brush. Nor would I expect it to since the bristles have nothing to hold food. The bristles are too smooth and sparse. Only the pick end takes out particles, but only large ones.

Please note that Colgate itself says that this is not for oral hygiene, nor a substitute for real brushing. This is marketed for freshening the mouth and breath only.

What?!! No Re-furbs!! No wonder they're priced so high!

teeehhhheee. My sis loves these and, OH MY, it's her birthday! She will have the cleanest little toothies on the block!

This is a great deal if you use them as I do.

They don't replace a toothbrush and are excellent in a pinch or when you just need to freshen up. I would imagine smokers would benefit from these (I don't smoke though) and anyone who does a lot of traveling like I do will find them very useful.

I wouldn't recommend that you use too often as the bristles are harder then a normal toothbrush and can't be great on your teeth if used 2-3 times a day every day.

At this price though you can get a couple to try yourself and if you don't like them hold onto them and hand them out for Halloween!

Great another disposable piece of garbage to add to our rapidly filling land fills.

Ahhh but there still is the Grand Canyon.

What's wrong with carrying a toothbrush and small tube of toothpaste? Seems very wasteful to me...

These are great for the office or in the car and you need to freshen up a little or for traveling.

I LOVE these things! Perfect for airport traveling and camping (I use them camping more). I think this is a fantastic deal! They are usually $6 for a 4-pack around here.

sharonie wrote:What's wrong with carrying a toothbrush and small tube of toothpaste? Seems very wasteful to me...

These don't require any water, hence not also needing to carry around a water bottle to rinse out the toothpaste so it doesn't leave that gunky film on your teeth.

kookyface wrote:My 4 pack states Made in Switzerland

Wow really? Switzerland! Thanks, I bet they are incredibly accurate as well.

rebeltreble wrote:These don't require any water, hence not also needing to carry around a water bottle to rinse out the toothpaste so it doesn't leave that gunky film on your teeth.

If you have access to water, not a big deal. I don't know about you, but I drink water everyday... no matter if I'm camping or at the airport.

The "toothpaste" tastes terrible and the tiny bristles are nothing like a real toothbrush. It feels like it just pushes plaque around your mouth. If you still need to rinse your mouth afterwards, where's the advantage over the real thing?

This is a great deal! My wife loves to keep these in her purse for those times our kids conveniently "forget" to brush their teeth. This should keep us supplied for a while. In for 3 packs!

timgray1 wrote:To all those claiming that you cant rinse your mouth.. Why? do you live in a place where they dont have bathrooms or someone comes to kill you if you spit?

They work great, and I can rinse my mouth out by using a very secret technique.

I take a drink from a water bottle but not swallow, swish, then find a sink to spit in. I know we are talking about thinking WAY outside the box, and most restaurants don't have bathrooms...

Some days I wonder how many of you function at a job.

Well, I often function as a medical editor so I learned to read carefully. That's more than I can say for you...

Who claimed "that you cant rinse your mouth"? Permalink the post or tell me the time it was posted. No one said anything about "can't." What some of us said is that rinsing is not part of the instructions. So I questioned where all the food particles and bacteria go. Just go to the Wisp website and you'd see that it repeatedly says no rinsing.

So let's see ... you bring a water bottle with you wherever you go? How does this work? You brush at the dinner table and then take the bottle with you to the bathroom to rinse? How about most normal people who don't tote water bottles to eateries? Should they be seen taking their water glass into the bathroom? Or should they brush at the table, swallow water and hold it in while they run to the bathroom?

What you're suggesting is simply too much trouble for freshening breath when a simple spray or breath mint would do. And worse, what you do has nothing to do with the way these are meant to be used. Finally ... once again, who claimed "that you cant rinse your mouth"? It seems like you're SARCASTICALLYresponding to an issue that no one raised.

sdc100 wrote:Well, I often function as a medical editor so I learned to read carefully. That's more than I can say for you...

So let's see ... you bring a water bottle with you wherever you go? How does this work? You brush at the dinner table and then take the bottle with you to the bathroom to rinse? How about most normal people who don't tote water bottles to eateries. Should they be seen taking their water glass into the bathroom? Or should they brush at the table, swallow water and hold it in while they run to the bathroom?

I would assume a bathroom would have a sink? A sink would have a tap and drain?

This has to be the epitome of waste. Look at all that packaging! Think of the poor landfills. Its products like this and people who buy them that are causing our Earth to die.

kookyface wrote:My 4 pack states Made in Switzerland

Excellent. So the dissolved cow gelatin comes from happy Swiss cows dangling bells that ring with pleasant tones while being led to slaughter by beautiful Swiss maidens in pigtails. Hence, these flavored gel caps have good karma.

Are these refurbished?

a992156 wrote:The bristles are very uncomfortable and super hard and don't clean, and the toothpaste takes forever to dissolve.

These are not meant to replace toothbrushes. There should be no heavy cleaning involved. And it's not toothpaste. Otherwise you'd have a whole mouth of foam that you should not swallow and have no place to spit.

Did you even read the packaging before you bought it?

The $5 shipping kills the deal for me

You can read about the name marketing of this product in the recent issue of Fast Company: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/151/made-to-stick-the-quest-forthe-perfect-name.html

South Dakota is in. I'm buying a faux-toothbrush for everyone in the state.

I got mine. Never used these but I'm going to try them out!

coincopy wrote:I would assume a bathroom would have a sink? A sink would have a tap and drain?

But you'd still have to bring a glass into the bathroom or use your dirty hands to hold the water (hands that just touched public bathroom fixtures). The points are:

1) Rinsing is neither required nor suggested, and would defeat part of its selling point.
2) Where do all the loosened particles and bacteria go if they're not rinsed out?
3) How are these any better than Binaca spray or breath gum if the main function is breath freshening. The Wisps are certainly less convenient, more expensive, less Earth-friendly and more space-consuming. Why not just spray your mouth in public and then give it a real brushing when you get home?

nerdant wrote:This has to be the epitome of waste. Look at all that packaging! Think of the poor landfills. Its products like this and people who buy them that are causing our Earth to die.

Do you buy yogurt, or any other packaged foods?
Do you shop online and have things delivered in boxes?
Do you exceed the speed limit?
Do you eat Beef?
Do you dine at restaurants, buffets especially?
Buy drinks in disposable cups?
Use 'Doggie Bags' at restaurants?
Have electronics at home in plugged in?

Need I go on? On the grand Pareto Chart of Carbon Footprint and Landfill Use, it would be hard to demonstrate that Colgate Wisps make an appreciable contribution to the death of the earth.

My son is a Marine and when he was deployed and on missions he used them, so If you know someone who is being deployed send them a pack!

I was just wondering the other day what happened to these things-- they never really took off, did they?