7 Weird Uses For Commercial Toothpaste You Never Knew About!

Commercial toothpaste is filled with a whole host of harmful compounds. Don’t believe me? Just read on to learn what industrial products the stuff can replace. It just might put you off of conventional toothpaste entirely – especially when you consider that the average person swallows a pound of toothpaste yearly.

#1 – Headlight Cleaner

Have your plastic headlight covers gone cloudy? You could head to your local hardware store and pick up some dedicated cleaner. Or, you could just grab some toothpaste. Put a dot of the paste on a cloth and scrub away at the plastic. Most commercial toothpastes contain fine abrasive material that’ll even out the scratches.

This will also work for goggles, eyeglasses and any other plastic surface.

By the way, that abrasive material is usually silica – small crystals that actually damage your tooth enamel over time.

#2 – Nail Whitener

Chemicals like carbamide peroxide, sodium tripolyphosphate and blue covarine give whitening toothpastes their bleaching properties. Those chemicals can also work to lighten funky-looking nails. Get yourself a baby toothbrush and place some toothpaste on it. Then, give your nails a scrub. Keep scrubbing until your nails get lighter.

#3 – Clean White Shoes

Here’s another safe use for those harsh bleaching chemicals in whitening toothpaste.

Grab an old toothbrush and use it to apply toothpaste to your dirty white shoes. Work the paste into the material, paying extra attention to the dirty spots.

Once you’ve applied the paste, let it sit on your shoes for 10 minutes. Then, wipe it off with a damp towel. You may need to repeat this a couple times to get your shoes back to that ‘like new’ state.

If you try to do this on colored shoes, it may strip the color so be careful.

#4 – Polish Silver

Yup, commercial toothpaste is often so powerful you can polish metal with it. Put some on a soft cloth then rub it gently across your patina’d silver. It’ll be shiny in no time! Just thank those enamel-damaging abrasives.

#5 – Sink Cleaner

If your sink or drain contains lots of gunk, toothpaste can clear that right up. For the sink itself, just smear some paste on a cloth and scrub away. For the drain, get an old toothbrush and put some toothpaste on it. Scrub down the hole. Try not to gag when you pull the toothbrush back up. Seriously, I’ve tried this and it looks nasty.

#6 – Fix Drywall Holes

If you’ve got one or two thumb tack holes in your drywall, there’s no use going out and buying a whole tube of spackle. Just use toothpaste! Squeeze it into a hole and wipe off any excess with a putty knife. Pretty soon, it will become solid.

#7 – Furniture Ring Removal

https://youtu.be/JQe8Hud0rdk?t=8s

Toothpaste on a cloth can remove unsightly cup rings on wooden furniture in a jiffy. You’ll want to be careful when using this trick, though; scrubbing too hard and for too long will wear away at the furniture’s finish itself.

If you’re paranoid, try watering the paste down before you scrub.