Quit throwing away your hard earned cash for name brand toothpaste like a sucker! Get the cleanest feeling teeth of your life with this homemade toothpaste recipe that actually tastes good.
Toothpaste is something you can make easily with stuff you have at home, and flavor however you like. Your family could be brushing their teeth for a YEAR for how much you're currently spending on one tube!* Now how does that sound?
But Scooch, you say, I've tried homemade toothpaste, and it's tastes like. . . well, like baking soda! Now, now, I understand your concerns - I've tried them all too. Yuck!** So I've decided to put an end to nasty homemade toothpaste with my own recipe, designed to bring you a new level of taste and freshness from that I think you're going to love!
*not including price of toothbrushes
** not intended to offend lovers of baking soda taste
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Signing UpStep 1: Ingredients
The basis of homemade toothpaste is baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. Either one in huge doses can be dangerous, so DO NOT INGEST!
Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) is a mild abrasive and has anti-bacterial properties.
Hydrogen peroxide helps by break down bacterial films with its foaming action. I used a 3% solution, but anything you can find at a local drug store should be ok.
Vegetable-base glycerin liquid lends a nice consistency and sweetness, but is completely optional. You should be able to find this at a drug store, or specialty foods shop, but I got mine online from a soap-supply store.
I definitely recommend using some kind of flavoring. It's totally optional, but adding a drop of peppermint oil will leave your mouth feeling super fresh. Tea tree oil boosts the anti-bacterial properties and tastes good. A few drops of cinnamon oil (my favorite!) will definitely spice things up. Food-grade grape or bubble gum flavor oil may entice your kids to brush more regularly - just be sure to supervise them and make sure they're not ingesting it!
Basic Ratio:
6 parts baking soda : 1 part vegetable based glycerin : 1 part hydrogen peroxide solution : flavor to taste
This makes a nice paste. To make a smoother mix, reduce the soda. To omit the glycerin, increase the peroxide.
Most over the counter hydrogen peroxide solutions are not suitable for ingestion. Make sure to use supervision with children.
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I have been lambasted in a previous comment I made about hydrogen peroxide and the use of it. However, I have been using it without any ill efects for years. The only thing I would suggest on your ibble is to make use of 35% FOOD GRADE hydrogen peroxide, thinned down to 3.5 % with the purest water you can get. And yes, don't drink a bottle of it, but nigesting it in recomended dosage does absolutely no dammage. Just don't eat directly before or after as it could give you gas, and a lot of it lol.
To the person that told me before that I should not say this type of thing, try and google it and find out for your self, and see how many MD's recognise the benefits of hydrogen peroxide.
Thanks for this ibble scooch.
Rinsing your mouth with diluted hydrogen peroxide before using the baking soda on your toothbrush is a very easy way to include the peroxide part of the recipe. Just thought you'd like to know.
Because we are adults and have our own freedom of choice we can decide to flavour stuff up to be palatable.
I just noticed in the one written at 2:35 on the 15th, I made a big blunder. The last sentence of the fourth paragraph should have said "The doctor was NOT kidding."
I noticed now there are more typos, too. So much for my proofreading skills! LOL
You all have a great day!
Besides except for saving a buck or two occasionally, all of this is purely for enjoyment purposes only.
This is a perfectly valid and wonderful Instructable. Personally, I gag doing what you suggested (straight baking soda), but don't want all the chemicals (and cost) of commercial toothpaste. So I'll be mixing up a batch of this to try, with my favorite cinnamon oil.
Question for the author: does the glycerin interfere with the cleaning properties of the toothpaste, as it's a sugar substance?
I use plain baking soda with a few essential oils, and I haven't had a cavity in 10 years. It's a tooth powder instead of paste. It's not sweet like commercial toothpaste, but you get used to it over time. It's so cheap.
If you start kids on it when they're young, they readily accept it, and it's a fun game for them to make their "hand cup" while you shake in the powder and they "paint" their hand with their wet toothbrush before brushing. If they already have the taste for commercial supersweet pastes, getting them to switch is a challenge. Can be hard for an adult to adjust to non-sweetened, too, but you CAN adjust over time. Remember, it takes 21 days to form a habit, so stick with it for 3 weeks and you'll be used to it.
I've heard of mixing it with aloe vera gel or almond oil on the spot, but I'm in too much of a hurry in the morning - I use a peroxide essential oil mouthwash (commercial and costly - maybe I should rethink that), then brush with my baking soda + essential oils. Different oils do different things - some freshen, some remove plaque, some kill germs. Since you're putting them into your mouth, which is a mucous membrane that absorbs both good and bad ingredients readily, I recommend buying organic essential oils, if you can find them. I use Simplers essential oils - if you're only using the oils for toothpaste, they will last you a very long time. Don't leave them in sunlight - keep in your medicine cabinet. Here are some ideas: TEA TREE, LAVENDER, (germs), LEMON (plaque: smaaalll quantities, like 1-2 drops in 1 cup of soda so you don't strip your teeth), PEPPERMINT, CINNAMON, or FENNEL (flavor / freshening).
Keep in mind essential oils are highly concentrated. Always use tiny quantities and make sure it's a kind that won't harm with ingestion. Ex. Peppermint and spearmint are fine; wintergreen EO should never go in your mouth.
An ideal container is a baby food jar which is glass and therefore safe for you (no EOs in plastic). Get baby food jars free on Freecycle - parents always have too many.
In a nutshell: 10-20dr / cup. No. Yes. Yes.
I can't remember how much I had in my old recipe, but I'm thinking it was between 10-20 drops of various essential oils per cup of baking soda. There were two recipes I used (I'm sorry, the site I got them from is defunct and I just add EOs randomly now). One recipe was the lemon oil one and you were supposed to use it once per week. The other was a daily recipe and had all the germ-killing EOs and then you chose either cinnamon or fennel for flavor and the other compounds. Fennel was supposed to be more soothing if you had painful mouth issues. Mints were supposed to be good too, but stick with either peppermint or spearmint - I'm not sure at what quantity wintergreen is toxic. I mix in advance and keep in a glass jar. I stir it with an old wooden chopstick, aiming to disperse the EOs around the soda as much as I can; then I shake the jar up. Keep the lid on when not using so the EOs stay in the jar.
There's no perfect mixture. Play with the amounts aiming for effectiveness (kill germs) at a flavor level you like.
FYI, mint is contra-indicated if you take homeopathic remedies. Otherwise, it's fine.
As for paste, you can turn it pasty each time you brush, because you probably start with a wet toothbrush and a wet mouth. You can add more water in that moment if you feel like it. Soda still provides gentle abrasion and EOs still provide cleaning power.
Stay away from hot water. It's okay to use on the spot when brushing, but you wouldn't keep your tooth powder and essential oils in hot water. I'm not even sure what using water in the recipe would do, but if you really want to try it, use filtered cold water. If you can't afford a filter, leave your water unlidded for 12 hours first to let the fluoride evaporate.
My recipe lasts me months. I am unsure how soda + water + EOs would do over months' time. A separate peroxide + EOs (no soda) is great for mouthwash and it does last.
See my other comment for more info.
I like your take on 'supersweet' pastes. It's like cereal: If we start our kids on oatmeal and fresh food instead of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs, they'll be more likely to make wise decisions. Toothpaste is one of those things that gets a lot less attention than food, but is equally as important because it's absolutely laden with harsh chemicals.
So, acidic things (like tomatoes, honey, citrus) are not good in plastic containers because they leech the toxins from plastic. Any type of oil, however, is worse in plastic, and causes the plastic to break down faster, meaning whatever is in the plastic gets into whatever food or body product is contained there. I avoid plastic whenever practical.
When I travel, I do use plastic containers, because it's a short period of time and traveling with glass is a hassle. But at home, as much as I can, I use glass jars (whatever leftover ones I have from buying food at the store - i don't buy special jars). Stainless steel containers are equally safe, but you'd have to buy them rather than getting them naturally just through buying groceries, like you do with glass.
When I get some time, I'll browse the DIY instructables more.
I HAD to use just the baking soda when I became ill from a chemical overload from a manufacturing company I worked at. Brushing with baking soda alone was part of the detoxification process and at that point, I'd do most anything to to get my memory back and stop bumping into the right side of the door frame when walking through a doorway! I guess I just didn't notice the taste it given how ill I was at the time.
The detox regimen had you use straight baking soda? Man, now i'm even MORE concerned with what's in my toothpaste! What else did they have you do? I'm really sorry you had to go through that, but...
:: morbidly curious ::
I could use NO chemicals for cleaning myself or hosuekeeping! I learned to use vinegar and baking soda for all cleaning. This was back in 1986 -- before the "greening of America". I was told to eat only fresh or canned food, no beef (due to the antibiotics, etc.), range fed chicken, fish (not in any brine), and no pork (same problems as the beef. As to the canned food, the rule of thmb was: If you can't pronounce it, don't eat it!
I could use no make-up, my husband put his aftershave on outside, I couldn't iron any permapress clothes (yep, those dress shirts my hubby wore that get wrinkled after several washings) because of the fomaleyde, couldn't wear any new clothing, and we had to air out (for 2 weeks) our newly purchased home that had its interior painted.
My diet for three days was only white long grain rice. I was warned that I'd get a headache like I'd never had before because my body would be detoxifying from the chemicals the same as a drug addict's does when the addict goes off street drugs. The doctor was kidding.
He said if I doubted his recommendations, then I should go home, drink some Jello, and see how I felt. Jello is chalk full of coloring!
The therapy was a vitamin and mineral regimen determined from blood tests. Mine were completely out of wack! I was taking mega doses of some, along with selenium, an anti-oxidant. Along with the vitamin and mineral regimen was the food diet, of course, and the other chemical avoidances.
It was a long process to add one food to my diet for three days, and then another, etc. NO artificial coloring, flavorings or preservatives. My memory finally came back but there was a time when I couldn't remember my own name, and referred to the refrigerator as "that big white box that keeps our food cold".
I still watch what I eat but now I'm just careful not to overload. I stay out of carpet stores, auto body shops, and anywhere else where fumes could concentrate, including rush hour traffic. If I have to drive in a metropolitan area, I go there during the wee hours of the morning (2 a.m. - 4 a.m.) Farmers spraying herbicides, etc. are something I watch for in the spring and fall, along with spraying for pest control in the apt. building where I now live. There are probably more things I did back then -- but I forget. LOL BTW, I call "cheating my diet" when I have about 6 M&M's (that colorful candy coating, you know.)
Also, as someone mentioned, glycerin prevents *anything* from adhering to your teeth, which on the surface (pardon the pun) seems like a good thing. The down side is that it acts as a barrier to the remineralization process. I am still looking for a good alternative to glycerin. I would love to make a replacement toothpaste that behaves the same convenient way.
We get everything our bodies need from a natural diet, sleep and sunshine, simple. (Thinkabout it: lycopene as a supplement is from red foods, for the heart. If you eat tomatoes and peppers (capsicums) you get exactly the same stuff, no bottles or additives. Google 'doctrine of signatures', everything in nature has medicine for us.. This idea makes little money for the 'company'...
On a toothpaste note, I use bicarb and peppermint oit (soon to be spearmint, a bit milder). bicarb at first was a bit ick, but now Im very used to it. Its cheaper, safer, and theres NO plastic stupid little plastic tubes going into landfill from it.
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/toothpaste-turmoil.html
Avoid hydrogen peroxide and glycerin, which are drying and can lead to tooth sensitivity.
Just more information for your powerful decisions about what to use or not.
One other ingredient that can be added is a dash of salt - it's good for the gums and preventing canker sores.
In addition, there is evidence that fluoridated drinking water, in the range of 1.0-1.06 ppm, helps to protect against bone fracture later in life (after 50). If the levels were either too low (<.34ppm) or too high (>4.32ppm) the risk increased [1]. Another study suggests that the systemic administration of fluoride may no longer be prudent in developed countries because topical treatments such as toothpaste and dentist administered topical fluoride can meet children's needs [2].
So, some fluoride is beneficial to your teeth and bones, but too much is bad. Such a simple, reasonable outcome.
[1] Effect of long-term exposure to fluoride in drinking water on risks of bone fracture. Y Li, et al., Journal of Bone Mineral Research 2001 May;16(5):932-9.
[2] Is systemic fluoride supplementation for dental caries prevention in children still justifiable? Oganessian E, Lencová E, Broukal Z. Prague Med Rep. 2007;108(4):306-14.