My background.

I was born in Russia. I graduated from medical school there, worked as a pathologist and a researcher. In 1993 I immigrated to USA and worked as a researcher at the University of Michigan. In 2000 I graduated from University of Michigan Dental School and moved to Saginaw, MI. I have been practicing dentistry at the Denture Care Clinic for 9 years. I mostly deal with denture patients. This is a little bit ironic considering my hobby. In 2009 I opened another dental practice in Atlanta, GA.

How I started my collection.

In 2002  I was browsing Internet one day and found an information about Carsten Gutzeit from Germany and his hobby of collecting toothpaste. He had a collection of about 500 tubes. I thought that collecting toothpaste is a nice hobby for a dental professional. It allows you to learn more about your profession. I started my own collection of toothpaste. I had friends all over the world, so I asked them to mail me toothpaste from the countries where they lived. I was also buying old toothpastes on eBay and contemporary ones in the stores. After I started this website people were able to find me on Internet. Several people donated me their small collections. Some companies  donated me their old and recent products. Now I have about 1800 toothpastes and toothpowders, but only 1481 are sorted and catalogued. It takes lots of time and effort. I estimate I paid about $18,000 for all the toothpastes and toothpowders I have in my collection.

Highlights of my collection.

About one forth of my collection is displayed at my Michigan office in a waiting room. The rest is stored in boxes at my dental practice.

I would consider one item the oldest, the most rare, and the most expensive: English Antique Georgian 1801 silver tooth powder box. Toothpaste was not invented yet and toothpowders were used instead. I paid over $1500 for it.

My most favorite toothpastes are alcohol drinks flavored: whiskey (scotch, rye, bourbon), red wines, amaretto, champaign and others. My other passion - chocolate flavored toothpastes. I have a set of pure chocolate cream packed into a toothpaste tube with a toothbrush for chocolate lovers. It’s more like a gag gift though and is not intended for brushing teeth regularly. But there are several real toothpastes with chocolate flavor too. Talking about unusual flavors I think a company named Breath Pallette topped it all. They came up with 31 flavors including weird ones such as Green Tea, Pumpkin Pudding, Indo Curry...

One day I bought a toothpaste tube, that was a movie prop from a movie "Primary colors". It started my other unusual collection of dental movie props. However, I got only one other toothpaste tube from movies after that one - from "Prison break". The funny thing about this tube is that it is full of misspelings made by creators of this "new" brand.

I have some toothpaste boxes with printing errors, like "Cet" instead of "Crest", some autographed ones by either a creator, or a promoter.

I have toothpastes from all over the world, some with funky characters I can't even read, with unusual flavors and ingredients, like bamboo salt for example.

I have several toothpaste tubes that were dug out of World War II trenches, including Doramad toothpaste that had an active radioactive compaund. At that times some people believed that radiation can revive dead tissues and that radioactive toothpaste can revive your gums.

My collection and the media.

A story about my collection was initially featured on a front page of Saginaw News in 2003. The story soon got on a “hot line” and it was spread all over the world. I was getting lots of calls from newspapers, shows, radio stations. I got a call from David Letterman show and was invited to be featured on the show. Unfortunately, they canceled at the last second and never contacted me again. Some of my unusual toothpaste tubes were shown on “Believe-It-Or-Not”  TV episode and they recently included a story about my collection into their yearly book.

My collection and the Guinness record.

I considered applying for a Guinness record for a long time but couldn’t find time.

Recently, I have been contacted by one English journalist who interviewed me and wrote a story about my collection in one English newspaper. Somebody at the Guinness World Records committee came across that article and they e-mailed me with a suggestion to apply for a record. I submitted my application and since there is no currently records for a number of toothpaste tubes they had to review whether they can open a new category. Finally it was approved and now I need to submit evidence that I have all these toothpastes:  pictures, a detailed list of all my toothpastes, publications, statements from witnesses. I DO NOT hold this record yet, as it was mistakenly reported by some media.