You brush. You floss. You swish some burning mint-laced liquid around in your mouth until it hurts. You go to bed with an oral hygiene gold star, and you wake up with white gloop connecting your lips and some vile odor emanating from it. Wtf happens in our mouths while we sleep?

Besides keeping your teeth sparkly, toothpaste offers a wide range of cleaning, cosmetic—even healing abilities around the house. Just be sure to use the white pasty stuff, not gel. And for any of these tips that call for an actual toothbrush, just consider that tool off-limits for the mouth from here on out.

For true gentlemen, the act of squeezing one's toothpaste tube by hand is a commoner's work. Peshaw! Give me this chrome Cedes toothpaste squeezer so that I may give the paste the coddling it so richly deserves!

We've seen countless examples of how the humble tube of toothpaste can be redesigned so every little drop can be put to good use, but designer Catherine Werdel's toothbrush-squeezer might be my favorite yet. [Catherine Werdel via Fancy via OhGizmo]

Toothpaste packaging is awful. Their hygiene-enhancing insides are often trapped within the most difficult of devices to decipher, the toothpaste tube, and even when you figure it out there's always some left inside at the end. No more. Enter SavePaste.

Smart packaging is always appreciated, particularly when it's for a product that we all use several times a day. Well, I hope you do anyway. Moving the paste-opening to the corner reduces packaging, and increases paste usage. Very smart, Sang Min Yu and Wong Sang Lee. [Yanko via Technabob]

This is Twist&Brush, the toothbrush-toothpaste hybrid concept: It jams your toothpaste into its handle, so you never have to remember to bring those pesky extra tubes when you travel. An idea so tremendously obvious that it's brilliant. [Kawamura-Ganjavian via FastCoDesign]

The toothpaste industry is in need of a shakeup! Whitening strips aren't enough. MIT's Media Lab has developed a prototype toothpaste that spits out different flavors according to the weather and temperature outside.

Why you'd want to forgo a teeth-brushing session with some delightful Indian curry, caramel or darjeeling tea-flavored toothpaste I'd never know. Still, at least this solar-powered toothbrush would save you money over extended use.

On today's list of things that didn't quite make the cut for whatever reason: Dangerous cellphone straps, updates no one will notice, a Google freebie, and a six dollar waste of money.