OK so I had gum problems too(gingivitis more precisely) and Colgate Total helped me considerably. Then when I changed brands of toothpastes within Colgate to Whitenening because of an acute short supply of Colagte Total in my town, my gums ached bad and searching for old inventory/stock Total from the malls and deppt stores here was a horror. Luckily I got a pack of three of them and soon after a single brushing, voila- my bad breath and gum tooth pain are gone.
The down side is that I have had Irrtable Bowel Syndrome for two years now and thot that it must have something to do with my immune system or something I ingested routinely. A string of stool cultures later revealed the same thing - natural intestinal flora. I looked around and thought hard about where my source of IBS aggravator could have come. Then it dawned on me suddenly that Total has TRICLOSAN that is known to disrupt thyroid functioning in frogs and a probable carcinogen(dioxins).To add credence to my theory I came across articles here
https://grinningplanet.com/2005/10-04/triclosan-article.htm
and
https://science.uwaterloo.ca/WWSEF/06Awards/06reportMcCuaig.pdf
and understood why I have IBS/Crohns now.
So if you have been using Colgate Total for more than two years now and have IBS my take is that you will need to reduce your Total brushing to alternative days and use Colgate whitening or some other brand without antibacterial in between.Also eat lots of yoghurt, fruits and moderate amounts of antioxiants, Coenzyme 10 etc.l
Update on 15th July 2023:- After the worldwide ban on Triclosan, it seems that triclosan is no longer in the toothpaste since 2018. Good news but I already had a bad feeling about triclosan since 2008 the time of my review . I wonder how many class action suits on this issue exist today if any.