Last night I attended a dinner hosted by Colgate for people with sensitive teeth. As a tooth grinder myself, I know only too well, the pain and discomfort some foods can cause. Now my teeth aren’t too bad but my Mum suffers terribly from time to time. I will always eat all foods and wince through the pain but very often she cannot even attempt certain dishes. It’s really horrible to not enjoy something yummy because of sensitive teeth and must be even more so when you simply can’t eat something for the pain being too excruciating!

I had expected for this ‘teeth tingling dinner’ to be all foods which were not going to affect sensitive teeth. I had expected them to be sympathetic to the fact that there are certain foods, very cold, acidic, spicy or particularly hot for example that really set them off… In actual fact the menu was the complete opposite!

Everything that might make me wince was on the menu! Molecular chef Sean Wilkinson had been asked to devise a menu using his scientific food skills, which would be a real teeth-tingling challenge! He says he had great fun designing the menu with each recipe targeting different sensitivity triggers!

The reason? Well, I mentioned the word challenge didn’t I… Colgate said if we used their Sensitive Pro-Relief toothpaste before eating, that our teeth would not find problems with any of the food! A table full of people with sensitive teeth looked at the menu and looked a bit worried!

I’d say it’s not often that I’ve been served toothpaste for an amuse bouche!

The first challenge was to try icy cold water after using the toothpaste and immediately a journalist said she couldn’t believe it but she had missed a tooth when rubbing the paste on and that was the only tooth she could feel pain! The whole table nodded in agreement at how well it was working. But next it was on to dinner!

I asked would we need to reapply toothpaste in between courses and Colgate’s scientific advisor and honorary lecturer at Kings College (where my brother studies incidentally), Anousheh Alvai said ‘what would be the point in that? The thought is that you only need to use it once in the morning to keep your teeth protected through the day and once in the evening for over night. If you had to run out to brush your teeth every five minutes it wouldn’t really be a good enough product!’

So… On to the challenging food!

To begin…

Nitro foam of passion fruit and lemongrass dust.

Frozen meringue and freeze-dried lemongrass with acidic passion fruit juice could have quite easily have set my teeth off. I am wincing at the thought of it even now but in reality it was perfect. I enjoyed it and didn’t feel even a tingle! The dramatics with the liquid nitrogen in the kitchen were pretty special too!

For the starter…

Beetroot cinder toffee – goats cheese snowflakes – walnut cannelloni – pumpkin seed

A delicious soft warm goats cheese mouse with cinder toffee beetroot crisps, frozen goats cheese dust and garnished with a beetroot glass and toasted walnut crumbs. Again, although delicious sounding, doesn’t it make your teeth clench thinking about it?! But, the only thing I can say after eating it post Colgate Sensitive Pro-Relief usage is, it was utterly delicious!

Main course…

Crispy pork skin – candied belly – grapefruit – lobster

Sous vide pork belly, crisp chilli pork crackling, frozen lobster carpaccio, vanilla oil and carrot pudding was the order of the main course. After drinking and eating two previous courses as well as some delicious canapes and pork scratching pop corn (pop corn which tastes like pork scratchings is now my favourite pop corn I think, but I doubt I’ll ever be able to recreate it at home) and the effect hadn’t worn off at all – honestly!

Desert…

Rhubarb – frozen yogurt powder – consomme – pistachio glass

The desert of acidic rhubarb with all the delicious and usually tooth tingling accompaniments, which included popping candy – fun, was just as much enjoyable as all the other courses.

Not a tingle in sight and everyone was in agreement! We’d all of us, despite tooth sensitivity, had a wonderful evening without so much as a twinge! It works! It really and honestly does! The girls who’ve been trialling it on the streets getting people to try said that one woman, who had a particularly bad case and had to wear a special paste in a gum shield every night, cried! She burst into tears so happy was she with the results which mean she can bin her uncomfortable night guard!

It was wonderful to have chef Sean come and explain to us what we were eating in between courses and fascinating talking to Anousheh about why foodies are more likely to suffer – rich foods contribute to the cause… And about why it occurs – enamel erodes and gums recede which exposes thousands of microscopic channels which lead to the tooth’s nerve centre…

Molecular chef, Sean Wilkinson explains in between courses about what we are eating and why he chose these foods for the challenge!

A fabulous evening, a successful challenge and a new fan in the toothpaste in me!

Put your own sensitivity triggers to the test and visit www.ColgateSensitiveProRelief.co.uk where you can download some easy-to-make sensory recipes that anyone can try!

Find these inspiring recipes on their website!

Colgate Sensitive Pro-Relief is priced at £3.56 and sold in all major retailers. As well as the original there is enamel repair and whitening and Multi-Protection variants.

I have not been paid to write this post.