Have you seen the “Neat Squeeze” kids toothpaste tubes from Crest? Rather than being a flexible tube that crumples as you use it, they are a more rigid tube that always stands nicely on the sink counter.

The “Neat Squeeze” bottle always stands straight up on the counter and claims to reduce mess

They claim that they eliminate the mess of a regular toothpaste tube with a “unique inner bag that empties itself as you use squeeze in the middle.”

How do you know when it’s used up? The package goes on to say “When the package gets lighter and is harder to squeeze, it’s time to buy more Crest.”

Hmm… it doesn’t say when the package is “empty”, and this makes me suspicious.

Brushing the kids teeth has gotten increasingly frustrating over the last few weeks as I have tried to get more toothpaste out of that bottle.  I’d squeeze and press and crush, but only air would come out.  I could still feel that the bottle was pretty heavy, so I was sure there was a lot more in there, but the rigid packaging made it impossible to get out.

For some reason I am obsessed with getting the last drop out of containers and have been known to cut them open when necessary to get my money’s worth. So, the idea that this toothpaste tube was wasting large amounts of toothpaste really bothers me. I had to know – what was in there? Was it really close to empty?

Time for a dissection.

There is an inner bag that holds the toothpaste, surrounded by a big pocket of air.

I pulled out the kitchen shears and cut off the bottom.  Sure enough, there was an inner bag.  It was surrounded by a pocket of air and seemed to be based on the “Drop-Ins” bag-style baby bottles from Playtex. The idea is that the bag should slowly collapse as the toothpaste is squeezed out.

That fit the description, but how effective was it at getting the toothpaste out? I continued cutting.  I sliced open the side of the tub to expose the full bag, and then I opened up the bag itself.

There was still an enormous amount of toothpaste in that package

As I suspected, not very effective.  There was at least a few weeks more toothpaste worth of product still in that bag.

Sadly, I’m still going to throw it out. It’s not worth trying to get the kids to swipe toothpaste out of it, and I am certainly not using the sweetened toothpaste myself.

But it definitely not a bargain. From now on, just regular old tubes for us.