Homemade Toothpaste

Ok, so I did a search on this, and couldn't find where anybody actually gave a recipe, and I'm not entirely sure if I can do this, or where to put this if I can. So if there's anything wrong with it, mods please feel free to remove it or move it.

So, it has came to my attention that there are available toothpaste products in some countries that don't have fluoride in. Here where I am, and therefore I'm sure in other countries too, getting toothpaste without fluoride, is just not available, not even in health stores. For us there is only one of two things to do, continue as we are with the fluoride toothpaste, or make our own. I opted for making my own, it's quick and easy and makes in under 5 minutes. This recipe is for those who want to try their hand at making it, and to give those that don't have options, an option.

Here's what you need for your base; this is for a small amount and you can double it as you see fit (I'd suggest your try the smaller amount first so that you can get it to your liking and then double it if you want):

2 x spoons bicarbonate soda
2 x spoons virgin coconut oil

That's your base, now to keep the minty taste, use spearmint or peppermint essential oil, make sure it's the one you can ingest, although spearmint/peppermint is one of the few essential oils that is safe to ingest, so if the lable doesn't say anything, it's ok, it's not going to harm you, and you are spitting out anyway. Essential oils are very concentrated, so experiment what works for you, too much can make it a bit hot and burny, but of course there are those of us that like that. For the above quantities 25 drops should be fine. Some parents with kids only use 10 though, so test it before you put it in a container.

Thanks to Freespirit for pointing this out. Bicarbonate of Soda is simply baking soda and available in your baking section of your grocery store and virgin coconut oil should be easy to find for you guys, if we have it here, then it should be easy to find over there. We only have it available in specific shops here, but it is available, then it should be widely available over there.

If you'd rather go with another flavor, you have various options that you can try, but then I'd rather stick to a tincture, and not an essential oil, or use natural food flavoring, one mom put raspberry food flavoring in hers so that her wee one would like it.

The nice thing about this recipe is that both bicarb and coconut oil is anti-bacterial, but what we did find when first starting to use it, was that your mouth goes through what I would call a detox period, a week tops. During that time you can get smelly breath, but really it's not that bad and you can find good no-fluoride mouth washes that could help for that online (to make of course). The other thing that's nice about bicarb is it's whitening, and removes plaque.

Bicarb is actually good for a lot of stuff, external and internal, add a scoop to your washing (not with colors) and it oxygenates the water giving you a better whitening wash, add half a t/s to half a t/s of tartaric acid in luke warm water and you have a great cure for indigestion. bicarb is really very versatile.

What's nice about Coconut oil, is that it can stand for quite a long time, and you don't need to refrigerate it, it'll go rock hard, but it melts on skin contact, so if you live in a cooler climate, and it goes hard even outside the fridge, then melting it, by putting just a little bit of hot water in the basin and putting the container in it (sealed of course you don't want to get water in this, it's oil based) then it just takes a few secs to soften to a desirable consistency.

We have been using it for a few months now, and it works great, don't use a hard brush though, it's not necessary, bicarb does the gentle scrubbing itself, add a hard brush, and your teeth could become sensitive, you really don't need to brush hard. We've had no problems at all. Also it's fine on false teeth and that kind of thing, it doesn't discolor but rather whitens over a period of time which is great! (for those of us that drink too much coffee ) I really don't know about the effects of it on braces, so test it on the same metal that the braces are made of first over time and see what happens.

I am now experimenting with adding a little glycerine to the paste, to make it smoother, more like toothpaste and to prevent it from going hard. I've heard that glycerine can form a layer on your teeth, but the way I understand glycerine is it's soluble, hence it wouldn't form a layer for very long. Anybody that could help me out on that would be great. I know that there is no substitute for glycerine if this is what you want to do. That's what's great with this recipe, you can experiment and mess around with it to get it to your liking.

Fluoride forms a layer on your teeth, which lasts long (hence the detox period), and underneath the layer it actually makes the teeth brittle. The thing is, your teeth has the natural ability to heal cavities, if you take the right minerals and so forth or just keep a healthy diet. The layer prevents your teeth from absorbing these needed minerals to heal cavities. In this way, fluoride can actually cause cavities, because it makes teeth brittle underneath the "protective" layer.

Now, bicarb is salty, which means, it makes a salty toothpaste, some people use stevia powder for this and apparently it helps. Personally I can't decide either way whether or not stevia powder is good or bad. Stevia powder does have natural fluoride in it, and I can't find out if that is good or bad, there's a lot of conflicting information on it, hence I left it out, besides I don't want to make the toothpaste tasting so good that my little one decides to eat it in stead The thing is, you also can't replace stevia powder with artificial sweeteners ... *ahem, aspartame* either.

I know some people will have an issue with the salty toothpaste, but in our book, apart from those, who like us don't have any other options, we feel, and that is all of us, including the little one, that yes, it tastes yuck, but, compared to the alternative, we don't mind, it's worth it and we got used to the taste very quickly. Yes, my little one knows all about fluoride

Here is the MSDS data sheet on Sodium Fluoride. They tell you how good it is for you for your teeth, but just look at the precautions and handling procedures. I can't believe they put those two points in the same facts sheet! This is a substance that the handlers have to handle while wearing protective gear! but hey, it's safe to put in our mouths, only the most absorbing point in our bodies (under the tongue) nothing to worry about it's O.K. to put a pesticide in your body according to this sheet Personally I just think these people are just simply insane.

Ok, there you go, enjoy, have fun with it and I hope it helps. Get your kids to do this, it's a nice fun experiment for them to mess with, that's completely safe.

Credits for this base recipe goes to Tammy's recipes obviously I've already messed with it

, but she is the one who I got the original recipe from, so credit goes to her.

Oh yes, I completely forgot, I wanted to add here, that Tamarind is a great fruit to detox your body from fluoride, look online there are plenty recipes on how you can use it. For those that don't know what it is, it resembles dates (according to descriptions available), I don't know, I just buy mine already packaged from the health store.

edit on 26-9-2011 by Pixie777 because: Oops, not windspirit, freespirits, too many spirits to remember