Proper news from Britain - News from Britain you won’t find anywhere else. Not the tosh the big media force-feed you every day!
In dental hygiene commercials, models dramatically squeeze a giant glob of toothpaste across their perfectly bristled brushes as they convincingly brush their already pearly-white teeth.
Marketing would suggest that in order to obtain similarly perfect and pearly teeth, it is crucial to brush with the exact same technique.
But one Reddit user thinks that marketers may be lying so that consumers use more of their product and have to purchase it again at a faster rate.
In the thread LifeProTips, one user claimed that people are using way too much toothpaste. In reality, squeezing it out to the size of just a pea is perfectly fine.
They wrote: 'The big toothpaste industry wants you to use a giant amount each time, but just use a portion the size of a pea and you'll be fine, trust me.
'Otherwise it just gets spit out and ends up in the sink. Try it if you don't believe me, I'm certain you won't be able to tell the difference.'
People were shocked to find out they didn't need such a large amount on their brush but thought that the observation made perfect sense.
One person even noted that it is more difficult to use anything more than a pea-sized drop on an electric toothbrush, which they called a 'vastly superior solution'.
Another responded: 'Yeah I'm always amazed by how my mum just rips through toothpaste tubes and mine last for absolutely ages.'
A third agreed: 'I started doing this and my toothpaste lasts me 6 months and I use it twice a day.'
A few commented that they believed it was a common example in marketing lessons.
One commenter said: 'A friend tells a story of being in a pub in London when two guys came in and were buying drinks for the house.
'They were celebrating coming into money by telling a toothpaste company how to increase sales by 30 percent.
'They told them to increase the diameter of the end of the toothpaste tube since people tend to squeeze from one end of the toothbrush to the other anyway.'
According to Arm and Hammer, the recommended amount of toothpaste for adults is 'at least' a pea-sized portion. For children under three, they recommend an amount about the size of a grain of rice.
Still, some people in the comment section disagreed, claiming that many sources call for more toothpaste for adults.
A commenter from Denmark said that they are recommended to use an amount the size of a pinky nail. A Swedish commenter said they are told to use two centimeters of toothpaste.
One even cited a study from the National Library of Medicine, which concluded that using one gram of toothpaste resulted in the highest cleaning efficiency, regardless of brushing time.
However, most agreed that less is more and not just when it comes to toothpaste.