Can I use toothpaste to clean my engagement ring safely?

No. Toothpaste has no business cleaning an engagement ring, and if a jeweler ever told you to use it, that jeweler owes you an apology, because toothpaste is an abrasive paste and the stuff that polishes enamel does not polish gold the same way.

Tooth enamel sits around a 5 on the Mohs scale. 18k gold sits around 2.5 to 3. So the toothpaste grinds tiny scratches into the metal every time you rub. You won't see them at first. Give it six months of twice-a-week toothpaste cleanings and that band will look like it was dragged behind a car.

The stone? Diamond doesn't care about toothpaste, it's a 10 on the Mohs scale. But emerald, opal, pearl, tanzanite, even an included sapphire can all pick up micro-abrasions too. And the paste itself settles under prongs and into the basket, where it cakes and hardens. I've had to steam out toothpaste residue from engagement rings more times than I can count.

Last spring, a client named Nicole brought in her grandmother's 18k yellow gold engagement ring. The band had gone cloudy. She'd been cleaning it with toothpaste every week for about a year, thinking she was doing the right thing. The ring wasn't ruined, but I spent an afternoon on the polishing wheel getting those scratches out, and I had to soak the setting overnight to dissolve the dried paste under the prongs. She looked a little sheepish when I told her what I found.

Here's what actually works. Warm water in a bowl, two or three drops of Dawn, soak for fifteen or twenty minutes. Then a soft baby toothbrush, the kind with extra-soft bristles, to gently work around the prongs and the underside of the center stone. Rinse in warm water, dry with a lint-free cloth. That's it. That's the whole routine.

If the ring has a lot of years of hand lotion and soap scum in the setting, I'll do an ultrasonic or steam clean at the bench, but for daily care, dish soap and water beats any jewelry cleaner you'll find at a drugstore.

Skip the toothpaste. Your dentist didn't stock it for gold.