Don’t Brush Your Teeth with Icy Hot

In life, we are constantly learning lessons. Some are more significant than others. In my case, this particular lesson I learned was pretty important.

I had an extremely long, tiring day. I was exhausted by the time night hit. All I wanted to do was climb into bed and go to sleep. But first, I had to do my nightly routine which consisted of brushing my teeth, washing my face, etc. The only thought on my mind was sleep, so I wasn’t paying much attention to what I was doing. I grabbed my toothbrush, grabbed the tube of toothpaste, and began to brush my teeth. I noticed something didn’t seem right– my mouth was stinging. I was distraught. Was I overtired? Did I grab a different kind of toothpaste? But then, I noticed something about the tube of toothpaste I had used. It wasn’t toothpaste. It was Icy Hot! I immediately spit it out, at this point my gums felt like I was biting into ice cream. Rinsing my mouth out with water only made matters worse. I was completely wide awake now. I didn’t know what to do, nothing I did seemed to help. What was supposed to be a 10 minute routine turned into 20 minutes of me making various attempts to get my gums to stop stinging from the Icy Hot. It was awful. 

After 20 long, grueling minutes, I had finally got rid of the stinging sensation in my gums. I didn’t want to brush my teeth after because I was afraid the pain would come back. I climbed into bed way later than I expected. I wasn’t calm anymore, and it took a while for me to fall asleep. I was even more exhausted by the next morning. So, what did I learn from this experience? First of all, always pay attention to your surroundings and what you’re doing. Don’t mindlessly go through the motions, because then you’ll end up in a situation like mine. A simple mistake of grabbing an object similar to toothpaste caused me pain, followed by becoming even more exhausted and negatively affecting me the next day. Mistakes, even this minor, are crucial to learning bigger life lessons. Since then, I have become more mindful of everything around me because if not it could lead to a situation with even more impactful consequences than temporary gum pain from Icy Hot.

Image Citation:

“Toothbrush with Toothpaste” by wwarby is licensed under