Homemade Toothpaste - Tooth Powder

Another staple around the house that i really want to switch to homemade and natural is toothpaste. I'm tired of tossing out toothpaste tubes to the trash. I don't like laureth sulfate on my scalp, so why would i want it foaming in my mouth? And in my quest for self sustainability, it's just best to start with the little things, isn't it? I think it is.

I read a recipe that Susy at Chiot's Run posted a while back on making her own toothpaste. I'd planned on trying it out myself until i recently read some comments to her post about the glycerine used in the paste being not so great for teeth. She replied and mentioned she had actually switched to using tooth powder. Well, gosh: that's even easier! The recipe is as simple as 3 parts baking soda, 1 part sea salt (preferably a type with lots of minerals in tact) and some optional cinnamon.

I decided to give it a shot and added some clove oil - excellent for gum health, and a bit of peppermint, cuz it tastes good. I omitted the cinnamon and added tea tree for disinfecting. You could add other essential oils: myrrh is healing and disinfecting and can be added in powder or essential oil form, you can even add peroxide to your brush for a whitening paste.

To use, simply sprinkle some powder on your toothbrush or in your hand, moisten the bristles and blend to make a paste: scrub away! My first batch is with some generic sea salt i use for cooking. My next trip to the store will include a purchase of some himalayan or other mineral rich salt in small quantities to use specifically for tooth brushing.

Wow! My teeth feel awesome after using this! Clean and fresh like i just came home from the dentist, and with out any flouride down my belly. To be honest, i expected gag-inducing salt taste, but it was actually nicely balanced with the essential oils. You can also add Stevia to the mix to sweeten it up, but i like this okay. And i'm sure it'll be better when i have some salt other than course grind! I even noticed my mouth feeling much less funky upon waking in the morning. I'm also betting my bathroom sink is going to stay much cleaner: instead of globs of toothpaste building up and not being cleaned by my lazy self turning the porcelain into funk-factory, we're spitting out baking soda, a natural cleaner!
I'm really loving how pretty my bathroom is getting to be, full of homemade and classy looking products and receptacles instead of coiled up toothpaste tubes and advertising labels all over the place.

Note: The above process isn't what we ended up taking on as our routine: instead of adding water to the dish of powder, we just put the powder in the dish, wet our brushes, and tap them into the powder. Works great! Since it's just the two of us, i scoop out enough for us both and whomever brushes last rinses out the dish. Easy.

Is your bathroom a place of privacy and mess, or do you keep it organized, tidy, and attractive?
This post can also be found at Simple Lives Thursday.