Natural Toothpaste

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.)