I like to experiment, and try things out. As the daughter of a dentist, and a bit of a DIY geek, I was intrigued by recipes I was seeing online for homemade toothpaste. I had to try it.
Some of the recipes had really strange ingredients in them. I went with a recipe that made the most sense to me (without fake sweeteners or anything) It was a basic paste of baking soda, coconut oil, and a little bit of peppermint oil. Honestly, the first time I tried it I was amazed with how clean and smooth the surfaces of my teeth felt.
My dad (the dentist) was in town and I decided to ask him his “professional opinion” about my homemade toothpaste. He didn’t recommend it–but not for the corporate sponsorship conspiracy reasons you may assume–so read on. The reason is that baking soda is just too abrasive for teeth. My teeth felt smooth and clean at first but eventually that baking soda would wear down tooth enamel creating grooves and making the teeth sensitive without their enamel protection.
It’s like different grits of sandpaper, a superfine grit sandpaper will polish a wood tabletop nicely, but a coarse grit sandpaper will just turn the tabletop into a scratched up mess. He said the only people who might need toothpaste that abrasive are smokers whose plaque literally gets baked on to their teeth by smoking.
The good news was, after recommending that I not use my homemade baking soda tooth paste, he said that the paste he had seen that I had for my boys was another story.
He gave his full recommendation for me to continue using Tom’s natural toothpaste. (There’s adult versions too.) He said this toothpaste has been around since the 70s when my dad was in dental school and has a really good reputation.
My dad commended me for trying to use more natural toothpaste. He, himself, will often use children’s toothpaste over adult toothpaste because it usually contains less extra chemicals. He said for each extra thing your toothpaste claims to do, other than just clean your teeth, that means another set of chemical complexes is added to the toothpaste. So if you have toothpaste that is, tartar-fighting, and breath-freshening, and teeth-whitening all in one paste, then you have a paste that is full of chemicals.
I did recently see a homemade recipe for tooth soap that does not use the abrasive baking soda. So now my curiosity is piqued again. I’ll have to ask my dentist father his professional opinion on that one. Though at first glance I myself can see that the Castile soap it calls for would contain glycerin, which is one of the ingredients that people promoting other homemade toothpastes are trying to avoid.
But for now we will just be using the natural alternative Tom’s of Maine toothpaste for our family. (And as I wrote before, this is all just my own non-sponsored or affiliated opinion.)
Urban Pioneer Story 
Great, interesting post! I’ve thought about making my own toothpaste but haven’t. Admittedly, right now I’m using a fancy Colgate Optic White toothpaste. Your post makes me want to switch to the Toms brand…but…I really like how my current toothpaste whitens me teeth. I’m going to have to think about this. 🙂
I know my dad’s number one recommendation for whiter teeth is to stop drinking coffee, black tea, and cola drinks (if any of those apply to you) because those all stain your teeth really badly. If you aren’t willing to give them up completely, drinking them through a straw is a bit of an improvement in regards to staining your teeth.
I think it was traditional for people to brush their teeth occasionally with baking soda (with the heavy abrasion) to whiten up the teeth a bit. It seems like doing that occasionally for surface stains wouldn’t have the same ill effect as scrubbing your teeth with baking soda twice a day.
Hi, I’ve been reading you blog for a while and super interesting post! I’ve been thinking about homemade toothpaste also, though I have not yet made it. What you came up with though contradicts what I researched so now I have questions! I had heard about the abrasiveness concern, so I did some research. I checked the RDA values of various toothpastes (that tells you how abrasiveness it is), but everything I read ranked baking soda as the most gentle of pretty much every toothpaste ever. Since your dad is a dentist, does he know something else?? Here’s where I looked: http://dukeslc.wordpress.com/2008/11/20/toothpaste-abrasion-ratings/ and http://satyen.com/toothpastes.shtml
If your dad had any more input that would be awesome to hear because I’m thoroughly confused, haha! Thanks for the great post!
Yeah I’ll have to ask my dad his opinion of that. I wonder just a few things about the testing of the RDA limits. The links don’t go into all the details of how the test is done. Obviously the tooth pastes are a paste, but baking soda is a powder, so I’m sure it needed to be mixed with something to test it’s abrasiveness on the teeth. So was it mixed with water or some other liquid then? And were the tooth pastes also mixed with he same amount of liquid then? Because those factors would all make a difference in the results I think.
Baking soda is listed as the lowest in abrasiveness in relation to the other toothpastes, however the Tom’s toothpaste is sill in the same “low abrasive” (as compared to medium, high or dangerous) category as baking soda.
It’s going to depend on a number of factors as well, like how much you use and how diluted it is with other ingredients or water, and how soft or hard your toothbrush bristles are, and then down to brushing technique as well. Some people can wear ridges into their teeth simply from over aggressive brushing–nothing to do with the toothpaste.
In thinking about how abrasive or not I believe baking soda to be–I recognize that I use baking soda to scrub my sinks, toilet and tub, and it does a great job of getting rid of soap scum and grime. So I definitely feel like baking soda is abrasive (and I suppose the real scientific answer here would be to try scrubbing my tub with my toothpaste instead and see how it compares!) My other anecdotal reason for believing this way is that as I said when I tried the baking soda tooth paste I was totally surprised how my teeth felt. I obviously was using my normal tooth brush and brushing in my normal way, but my teeth definitely felt like they had gotten a major scrub.
So I still feel like Tom’s is a good choice, and as I said in the previous comment I will still occasionally use baking soda for a super scrub. But in the end all of us just have to make the choices we feel good about.
Thanks for the interesting talking points.
Thank you for such a well thought out answer! You’ve definitely given me some excellent points to think over. I’ve not actually tried brushing with baking soda, I had just been looking into it. I think I will try it once just to see how it feels different (clinical trial like your dad says below! Though I think just trying it out once for myself will be plenty). I am not a scientifically-minded person, but I know there must be more at work than just RDA values – and like you said, who is to say the tests are even accurate or representative of real-world use? Thank you for the excellent blog and the little peek into your life!
In terms of abrasiveness, I think you should compare the Mohs scale of mineral hardness and this tells you that baking soda has a hardness of 2.5 and enamel falls at 5.0, so baking soda should be harmless to enamel.
I am the father Dentist referred to in this article. As we say in dentistry. Clinical test is the final test. In my 30 years as a dentist I have observed excessive wear in three situations regularly; baking soda homemade toothpastes,sucking on lemons and the original formula of pearl drops toothpaste. If you are not a dentist then brush the right side of your mouth with Toms or any low abrasive toothpaste of your choice for ten years and then brush the left side exact same time and pressure with you homemade soda toothpaste. E-mail me the results in 10 years.
I think people are using these homemade toothpaste for two reason one is to avoid the fluoride content in the toothpaste and the other reason is it economical for them. I have seen many people sharing the various methods to make a homemade toothpaste and some try them at home. I was in fact worried about making use of baking soda as a toothpaste.
I am intrigued with the soap idea and adding baking soda once a month for a deaper treatment. What about a peroxide rinse as well. I have been using a baking soda mix to whiten for the last few days, with a listerine and peroxide rinse. My gums feel much better then they did. I will switch to monthly for the soda treatment. Is peroxide harmful on a long term use?