How to Make Toothpaste

by amalkhan

94K99495

Intro: How to Make Toothpaste

The average person will brush their teeth around 68,430 times in their life. Thats a lot! But how many times will we wonder what exactly is cleaning our teeth? Many store-bought toothpastes promise not only a healthy, white smile, but also claim to provide germ protection that rivals armored vehicles.

But what if we could have all that without chemicals like "blue 1 lake" and "Sodium Lauryl Sulfate"? Sounds like a good deal! Here are the ingredients and the 'how to' on how to make your own toothpaste! Simple, natural and economical. This stuff will leave your mouth (and breath) thanking you for a change!

STEP 1: Gathering the Goods

You will need

3 tbsp Baking Soda
2 tbsp Boiling Water
4 tsp Dr. Bronner's castile soap
1/2 cup Coconut oil
1 tsp Peppermint leaf extract (or any natural extract like cinnamon or clove etc.)

blender, food processor, or hand beater
squeeze bottle or mason jar for finished product

STEP 2: Preparing the Goods

Boil a small amount of water on the stove. This will both purify your water, and make easier to blend with the powder ingredients in the next step. We will only need 2 tbsp's of this water.

Put the 1/2 cup of coconut oil into the microwave for 15 seconds. It doesn't have to liquify completely, just a little bit, so that its easier to work with.

STEP 3: Combining the Goods

Mix together the castile soap, coconut oil, hot water, baking soda, and peppermint extract into a bowl that you can use to blend with.

STEP 4: Blending the Goods

I know what you're thinking. That doesn't look anything like toothpaste, but thats where the blender/ food processor/ hand mixer come in.

Blend for about 1 minute until a creamy texture forms. Longer than this, and the mix will begin to turn frothy.

STEP 5: Brushing Your Goods

Scoop mixture out into a food-safe container. I used a Wilton's icing squeeze bottle, but you can also use a mason jar (which may make application to a toothbrush interesting!)

You are ready to brush your teeth with the satisfaction of knowing exactly what ingredients your toothpaste is made up of!

93 Comments

konfab 10 years ago

You have contradicted yourself a bit.
The wikipedia page for Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, states that is is derived from coconut oil, which happens to be one of your ingredients. So you are still making toothpaste with these "evil" chemicals.

metqa 10 years ago

There is NO contradiction. The coconut oil would have to be saponified and THEN combined with Sodium Hydroxide to form Sodium Laureth Sulfate. In other words, you would have to add LYE to the a different type of processed coconut oil DERIVATIVE in order to be worried that it would even POSSIBLY contain SLS. I didn't see Lye on the list of ingredients, so, yeah, not possible . Even if you did mix your coconut oil toothpaste with Lye you wouldn't get SLS, you'd get soap. So ... Nah, We are NOT making toothpaste with these "evil" chemicals, just simple basic ingredients.

I personally don't use any soap in my paste, just coconut oil, peppermint oil, Xylitol, Baking soda, powdered salt, and Diatomaceous Earth. I'd been looking for a better dispenser than the lidded jar I use, and I have those Wilton dispensers, so I'm going to funnel mine into a dispenser tube now.

The active ingredient is whatever you are expecting the paste to do. If you expect it to remove debris from your teeth, the active ingredient would be the abrasive, if you want it to kill germs, it would be the baking soda or salt, or in my blend, the xylitol.There is no need to add flouride, you drink it everyday in the tap water.

lovethebackwoods 8 years ago

Hi metqa. I don't know how much fluoride, if any, is present in the natural aquifer, but I presume that dentists, politicians, etc. either know that there is none or consider it an insufficient amount for dental protection. However, we live in a rural area where we all have private wells and presumably little if any fluoride. I've never tasted water as cold and delicious as ours, and we pay to have it lab-checked every year or two. My husband has dentures and there is no defense for him benefiting from added fluoride. I definitely do not need it. I have my natural teeth with a few (very old) restorations and one permanent bridge. I see my dentist twice a year and all I ever need is the routine cleaning and occasional X-rays. We do not "need" fluoride added to our water. Politicians who were truly concerned about childrens' health would promote natural healthful diets sans added sugars, plus appropriate and timely dental care. -end of rant-

JasonR49 8 years ago

fluoride is used in hi-security prisons to get detainees to calm down, or somewhat sedate them.

metqa 8 years ago

Glad you have delicious water and great dental health. I'm not sure if you misread my intention when I said you don't need to add it to homemade toothpaste. I said that because it's in the municipal drinking water. I wasn't saying you "need" fluoride, just that whether you like it or not or know it or not, if you drink city water, you are ingesting it, and there is no need to try to add it to a natural homemade toothpaste. I don't think fluoride is a mineral that ends up in water in much quantity on it's own, so I also can't comment about natural aquifers either, but I don't see the need to add it to water or toothpaste, so there was no need to rant. LOL

lovethebackwoods 8 years ago

Thanks, metqa. I wasn't misreading that I thought you meant for us to add fluoride to homemade toothpaste, I was just carrying on about it being added arbitrarily to water (which yes, I know many people believe in). I talked with a physician a couple of days ago, who also has a private well. He said that some areas of the country/world have natural fluoride in the water, but that our area (rural AK, USA) does not. Patches of Texas do, he said. A small neighborhood about three miles west of us has a lot of sulphur in their water. I didn't even know we had it anywhere near us until our daughter looked at renting an apartment there. The landlady finally backed down and said that previous tenants had taken their laundry into town and that they did not shower at home! They brought bottled water for drinking and cooking! So, no, our daughter did not rent there!

metqa 8 years ago

wow, good thing your daughter didn't rent there, sulfur would make everything smell bad. What a hassle it would be to not be able to shower at home . Thanks for explaining your rant it makes more sense now to me. There are so many "experiments" going on on the public some I agree with( like vaccines ) some I don't( like the lid hypothesis ) the fluoride thing is so weird I don't know what to think about it. There are pros and cons on both sides but without an overwhelming Pro it seems to me that I'd want not to expose excessively.

EmmitS 8 years ago

Well water is more likely to contain fluorine, depending on what minerals are present in your aquifer.

poco424 8 years ago

I let my brush soak in H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide purchased OTC @ Walmart) after brushing. My brush is always sanitary the next time I use it. It is important to remember, though, to use a container that doesn't let light disassociate the extra oxygen atom from the peroxide molecule. I just stick the brush into the bottle that the peroxide came in.

metqa 8 years ago

thanks for that tip. usually I just put in a little cup with a little bit of peroxide and refresh the liquid cup the next day as I need.

poco424 8 years ago

The peroxide will last quite a while if not exposed to light.
The photons knock the extra oxygen off the molecule.

metqa 10 years ago

Also, you can get natural Flourine from Tea, much better and not harmful when absorbed by the body.

lassensurf 10 years ago

fluoride is fluoride once it's dissolved in water. it doesn't matter the source, only the amount. It's only in tea, if it's in your tap water.

metqa 10 years ago

Right, but my point was that you don't have to supplement with it cause it's both in the tap water and in plant material like tea leaves. If you make your tea, even with distilled water, the fluorine ions in the tea itself will go into the water. You will be getting fluoride regardless. And you don't have to worry what the "original source" of the fluoride Atom came from ( if it's the basest element, it's that element regardless of source, but you have to speak to the fear of the masses. My Step Dad, for example, won't eat gelatin products because it might come from pigs, even though there is not any biological markers or proteins left to identify what animal it comes from once it is in powdered gelatin form. So rather than worry about the source, he just avoids it altogether. I wouldn't want people avoiding Tea because they are afraid of fluoride or overdosing on it cause they don't know how prevalent it already is in our daily lives.

lassensurf 10 years ago

If your water is fluoridated, and If you drink tea that was grown with fluoridated water.

Just gonna disclose, I am a dentist so that automatically (to some people) makes me part of the conspiracy theory that's secretly poisoning society and disposing of the toxic waste that is fluoride by hiding in peoples mouths and bodies...)

Fluoride may have a systemic effect, but the major effect is topical. It's easier to overdose systemically so they keep tap-water at or below 1ppm in half of the US which is enough to give the topical effect drinking tap-water without causing any stress on your body. There's some fudge room, of course. 0.5-1.5ppm are still acceptable. Topically, toothpastes have 1,000ppm (cuz you don't eat it) while prescription toothpastes have 5,000ppm and varnishes that some dentists apply contain up to 25,000ppm (it's a slow release wax they smear on your teeth). And it WORKS. I've seen plenty of patients who have a mouth full of cavities on all their adult teeth except miraculously their 6-year molars which are spotless and which got fluoride treatment while they were kids. (plenty of other patients come in with spotless adult teeth except their bombed-out 6-year molars that they didn't take care of as a kid).

You didn't ask for this whole treatise, thanks for reading all the same. Good luck with the gelatin :-)

metqa 10 years ago

Ha, ha, and of course I was making the assumption, being in the U.S. That all water is fluoridated! No, thanks for the details. I love information, but I'm curious for your opinion about the bottled water I've seen sold in the supermarket, fluoridated bottled water for babies. If what you say about it being ubiquitous and most effective topically, what do you think is the purpose of giving babies extra fluoridated water to drink, since they they don't even have teeth yet to be affected by it topically? or does this baby fluoride water have the same amount as the regulated tap water, I didn't check personally, I think it's just marketing.

uzannesay 8 years ago

There are plenty of people in the US that don't have fluoridated water. Well water can have no fluoride or a ton (that's why it has to get tested and then you need certain filters or make sure you get fluoridated tooth paste). As far as I know the bottles of water with fluoride are for kids(I've never seen it say it's for babies specifically.) the kids bottles are usually in very small sizes. I imagine for younger kids where they have teeth that are hard to brush(because they hate it) and the toothpaste for that age has no fluoride. You shouldn't be giving water to babies before 6months and usually after that they have at least 1 tooth. Hope that helps!

lassensurf 10 years ago

Bottled water, generally is not fluoridated. I've never actually seen fluoridated water for babies, though I've heard of it. Yeah, not necessary. I wouldn't do it for my kids, cuz, you're right, there's no real point. I'd imagine (though not sure) that it's like tap water in content.
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