Sunday, August 5, 2012

Natural Teeth Cleaning



What's this?  This isn't toothpaste.  That's right  It's not toothpaste.  This is one of the hardest things I have ever done on this crunchy ride of mine.  I replaced toothpaste with baking soda.  I replaced my Listerine mouthwash with hydrogen peroxide.  It's listed in those hippie green books as natural ways to clean your teeth.  And, you know what?  My teeth are whiter and healthier than they have ever been. My pink gums are back.  My teeth are pearly white.  The coffee stains are gone.  Pregnancy can cause gums to bleed easily, and that completely stopped when I switched over.

It is conventional wisdom that toothpaste must contain fluoride for it to be effective. I was married to this concept, and would not use most of the natural toothpastes for years.  But, crunchy hippies hold that fluoride is nothing more than a waste product of industry and that these people just  get rid of the waste by putting it into our drinking supply and selling it to us in tubes. That fluoride is more likely to be dangerous than helpful and may cause serious health problems.  Blah, blah, blah.  Everything is a conspiracy, they sell us crap we don't need, and it's all going to cause cancer. But seriously.  My teeth don't lie.  I am not going back.

4 comments:

  1. Seriously, I commend you for doing this. I can't do it, Capt'n. I need my minty fresh taste and my sweet smelling breaths. Salty soda and bubbles... Well, I can agree with you but the hairs on my arms are up and to the ready in defense of my sugary fluoridated stuffs. I'm sorry.

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  2. What are the recipes? Is there anything else in the baking soda?
    Do you think I could add cinnamon essential oil?

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    1. I would think that you could add any essential oil you'd like. I think that tea tree or peppermint have antiseptic qualities, so that's why they are the most widely suggested.

      I do not add anything to the baking soda. You could add some salt for cleansing properties. When I was googling earlier, I found folks who combined the peroxide with the baking soda to make a paste. If you google baking soda toothpaste recipes, you'll probably find a few good, simple ones. I've seen them around. It's all preference. Some folks need a paste, because that's what we're comfortable with.

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  3. Be careful. I read a lot on fluoride research and about fluoridated water. I think fluoridated water is terrible. Industrialized countries that use it do not have a significant change from those that do not. Consuming fluoride is potentially harmful and definitely not helpful. However, there is overwhelming evidence of the long term benefit of direct application of fluoride to your teeth. Countries without fluoride in their tooth products and who lack it in their water supply have a significantly worse tooth decay rate than those that have some. I think we should remove fluoride from our drinking water and let people choose. For you, I recommend filtering your water and using a non-sugar baking soda based toothpaste that is fluoridated or to at least research it and have periodic direct treatments from your dentist. If you have hard teeth like me it does not have a great difference... but if you have soft teeth and am prone to cavities please please do your homework on this one. Any basic tooth powder will do a decent job of cleaning your teeth presuming you brush them properly. Fluoride helps with the remineralization that is normally lost (again directly applied and not swallowed).

    The big win here is to use a toothpaste that is not crap... baking soda is a great tooth cleaner, and hydrogen peroxide is a great astringent/antibacterial. You can get non-sugared products that have that in there. If you are concerned about tooth color, drink lots of teas, coffee, or dark juices, then use a straw and save your tooth color that way!

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