Forgot Password?
Home arrow GreeniacsGuides arrow Home arrow Homemade Toothpaste
Written by Joanna Hoang   
Share |
Thursday, 03 March 2011

Homemade Toothpaste

Have you ever noticed how many chemicals are in your toothpaste? Before big toothpaste manufacturing existed, people used baking soda and salt to cleanse their teeth or even just pure water. Today there are many chemicals added to enhance taste and to make your mouth feel “fresh” and minty, or to make them whiter (allegedly…)! Fluoride compounds are often added because they are supposed to be good for your teeth—but are they really? According to recent studies, the fluoride compounds may be doing your teeth more harm than good.1 Additionally glycerin based toothpaste coats your teeth preventing your teeth from remineralizing which is bad for your teeth and causes decay.2 This guide provides you with all you need to make your oral hygiene healthier for you and the environment!

BENEFITS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT: Less packaging and production of synthetic chemicals. By making your own toothpaste/tooth powder you are saving the energy it would have cost to manufacture commercial toothpaste and to ship it to local stores. It is also a lot more natural and healthy for your teeth!

BENEFITS FOR YOUR HEALTH: As already mentioned, the chemicals added to commercial toothpaste may not in fact be good for your teeth. An acquaintance of mine recently informed me that she switched away from commercial toothpaste and has instead been brushing her teeth with natural soaps. She told me that although the taste is not great, her teeth feel much cleaner. This may not sound true but it makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Natural soap without the added synthetic chemicals ARE gentle and they clean your teeth. If you are daring you can try out some of the recipes listed in this guide!

Costs: Low

Time and Effort: Low

Make your own Tooth Powder
Ingredients:
  • - ¼ cup baking soda
  • - 1 tsp salt
  • - Optional: flavor of your choice, for example peppermint or coconut oil3
Directions:
  1. Mix the baking soda, salt, and flavor (optional) together in a small container.
  2. To use your tooth powder, simply wet your toothbrush under running water then dab it into the powder and brush your teeth!4

    * If you do not add any flavor the taste may take some getting used to *

Baking Soda Tooth Paste 5


Make your own Traditional-type Toothpaste: If you are not ready to use powder to brush your teeth, try making this nice toothpaste! It creates foam much like the toothpaste you would purchase in a store.6

Ingredients:
  • - ¼ cup baking soda
  • - ½ tsp water
  • - ¼ tsp Dr. Bronner’s liquid soap—either one of their scented soaps or the unscented soap if you prefer to go au-natural or want to add your own flavor!
Directions:
  1. Combine all of the ingredients in a small container and mix them up to form a paste.
  2. To use, just put about a pea size dollop on your toothbrush and brush as usual.
  3. The paste will thicken over time, so add more drops of water to your mixture every once in a while to make it easier to use.
  4. Middle of the Road: If the taste is an issue for you, try mixing this paste with your preferred commercially produced toothpaste and slowly wean yourself off of that paste. Or you can continue to use the mix and still reduce production energy costs and transportation costs!7
Mouthwash8

Mint Mouthwash Ingredients:
  • - 1 cup water
  • - ¼ carbonated water
  • - 1 tsp aloe vera gel
  • - 10 drops of peppermint or spearmint oil
Directions:
  1. Boil the water and add the carbonated water and aloe vera gel.
  2. Cool the mixture and add the peppermint or spearmint oil. Shake well.
  3. Store in an air tight bottle.
Lemon Mouthwash Ingredients:
  • - 1 cup water
  • - ½ cup carbonated water
  • - 1 tsp aloe vera gel
  • - 10 drops lemon essential oil
Directions:
  1. Mix all of the ingredients in a bottle and shake well.
  2. Store in an air tight bottle.
Tea Tree Oil Mouthwash Ingredients:
  • - 1 cup warm water
  • - ½ tsp Myrrh tincture
  • - 5-8 drops tea tree oil
  • - 5-8 drops mint oil
Directions:
  1. Mix all the ingredients in a container.
  2. Use as you would` conventionally bought mouth wash.

Browse all Greeniacs Guides Browse all Greeniacs Guides        Browse all Greeniacs Articles
_______________________________________________________________________________

1 http://www.health-science.com/fluoride_toxicity.html
2 http://www.smartahealth.com/remineralization.html
3 http://www.ehow.com/how_2222514_brush-teeth-toothpaste.html
4 http://girlonbikewrites.blogspot.com/2010/02/toothpaste-alternatives-homemade-teeth.html
5 Id.
6 Id.
7 Id.
8 http://www.fatfreekitchen.com/teeth/mouth-wash.html




Comments (1)
RSS comments
1. 28-03-2012 06:20
I will try to make it, but I would love to try making it with cinnamon, as I have problem with mint toothpaste, during a fitness holidays I find out I am allergic or intollerant to something inside the mint toothpaste, but maybe this one will be good for me as it is all natural.
Registered

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Click here to Register.  Click here to login.

Last Updated ( Monday, 25 April 2011 )

SEARCH GREENIACS.COM

Green Facts

  • A laptop consumes five times less electricity than a desktop computer.

  • 82 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from burning fossil fuels.

  • In California homes, about 10% of energy usage is related to TVs, DVRs, cable and satellite boxes, and DVD players.

  • It takes 6,000,000 trees to make 1 year's worth of tissues for the world.

  • Recycling 1 million laptop computers can save the amount of energy used by 3,657 homes in the U.S. over the course of a year.

  • If every U.S. household turned the thermostat down by 10 degrees for seven hours each night during the cold months, and seven hours each weekday, it would prevent nearly gas emissions.

  • Rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute.

  • Refrigerators built in 1975 used 4 times more energy than current models.

  • You will save 100 pounds of carbon for each incandescent bulb that you replace with a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL), over the life of the bulb.

  • In the United States, automobiles produce over 20 percent of total carbon emissions. Walk or bike and you'll save one pound of carbon for every mile you travel.

  • Current sea ice levels are at least 47% lower than they were in 1979.

  • One recycled aluminum can will save enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours.

  • You will save 300 pounds of carbon dioxide for every 10,000 miles you drive if you always keep your car’s tires fully inflated.

  • Americans throw away more than 120 million cell phones each year, which contribute 60,000 tons of waste to landfills annually.

  • 77% of people who commute to work by car drive alone.

  • Less than 1% of electricity in the United States is generated from solar power.

  • A steel mill using recycled scrap reduces related water pollution, air pollution, and mining wastes by about 70%.

  • States with bottle deposit laws have 35-40% less litter by volume.

  • Recycling for one year at Stanford University saved the equivalent of 33,913 trees and the need for 636 tons of iron ore, coal, and limestone.

  • Americans use 100 million tin and steel cans every day.

  • Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.

  • American workers spend an average of 47 hours per year commuting through rush hour traffic. This adds up to 23 billion gallons of gas wasted in traffic each year.

  • Recycling 100 million cell phones can save enough energy to power 18,500 homes in the U.S. for a year.

  • Shaving 10 miles off of your weekly driving pattern can eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

  • For every 38,000 bills consumers pay online instead of by mail, 5,058 pounds of greenhouse gases are avoided and two tons of trees are preserved.

  • A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.

  • You’ll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle.

  • Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch.

  • An aluminum can that is thrown away instead of recycled will still be a can 500 years from now!

  • Every week about 20 species of plants and animals become extinct.

  • Nudge your thermostat up two degrees in the summer and down two degrees in the winter to prevent 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

  • Bamboo absorbs 35% more carbon dioxide than equivalent stands of trees.

  • Turning off the tap when brushing your teeth can save as much as 10 gallons a day per person.

  • Glass can be recycled over and over again without ever wearing down.

  • Due to tiger poaching, habitat destruction, and other human-tiger conflicts, tigers now number around 3,200—a decrease in population by about 70% from 100 years ago.

  • Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months

  • Washing your clothes in cold or warm instead of hot water saves 500 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, and drying your clothes on a clothesline six months out of the year would save another 700 pounds.

  • The World Health Organization estimates that 2 million people die prematurely worldwide every year due to air pollution.

  • A tree that provides a home with shade from the sun can reduce the energy required to run the air conditioner and save an additional 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime.