Hi fellow Steemians and Naturalmedicine enthusiasts,
Back today with a seriously overdue post for my natural friends! Work has been finally the typical Boston type, insanely busy and tiring, (thankfully hasn't been that bad up until September of last year, so I can't complain too much!) so I’ve been slacking on my posts, especially this one. I’ve had it on my mind to write since August of last year, oops! It’s also my first post from the Lotus/Natural Medicine front end, so that’s cool!
What am I talking about? Healing your teeth naturally of course! It’s one of the best, most noticeable things I’ve done so I was determined to share it!
I know that going to the dentist is a good idea but sometimes life gets ahead of you, especially with young kids. One of the things that I was struggling with when it came to keeping healthy was keeping my teeth clean from plaque. I’ve got decent teeth, thankfully never had a cavity but I’ve always had plaque issues. Nothing severe but it was noticeable for me and I didn’t like it. I even bought a stainless steel hobby pick set that looks like dentist tools, but aren’t meant to be (the package was very explicit not to do it lol), in order to clean them (I boiled them for 10 minutes in water before attempting to use, my own kind of autoclave.). My diet hasn’t been the best in the past few years, we don’t drink soda or eat candy but I tend to enjoy a few too many muffins per month and we’ve started drinking cow milk again after not needing to for a long time. None of these are huge but they still have their effects on our teeth, as well as other things we consume.
Years ago, one of the first things we started to do on a routine basis was to oil pull. I’ve used coconut oil mostly but have also tried sesame. I personally like coconut better but that may just be me. I’ve read others swear by different ones like sesame. Oil pulling has been a great method to keep other parts of our mouth and teeth clean and healthy, I definitely have noticed the difference on days I do it versus days I forget or don’t have time to do it.
One of the things my wife recently tried was experimenting with different kinds of toothpaste. She got charcoal ones, clay ones and a few others but I never jumped on the bandwagon, thinking my Jäson brand or Tom’s of Maine were a good choice. I eventually realized I was wrong, and she was right lol as usual (though not always!), when I started to read about the reasons why traditional toothpaste didn’t actually help your teeth, it stopped things and caused various amounts of damage more than helping, even the popular ‘natural’ brands.
There are lots of other articles you can look up, and none are, and my testimony, evaluated by the FDA so take it for what you will. The articles you can look up go into the various reasons why the ingredients are bad. To keep this post from being 10 pages, I’ll skip that part and focus on the awesome ingredients in the toothpaste I am using! You can do internet searches for why traditional toothpaste is bad for your health. To filter out the junk propaganda from the big companies paying for content to be brought forward, I usually add ‘holistic’ to these types of searches and it yields good results most of the time.
I wanted to start by saying I have no conflicts of interest with the brand, it’s something I found when looking up what to order. They’ve got great reviews and aren’t very expensive so I’m on board. I’ve finished 3 of the little jars since I started it over the summer so it lasts a decent amount of time!
As it says, it’s an alkalizing toothpaste. Lots of what we eat and drink are quite acidic and bad for our teeth. I'm not guilt free when it comes to this as well, I enjoy a cup of coffee every day and some other unfortunate habits that are bad for our teeth. Moderation is the name of the game!
Ingredients
The ingredients of the toothpaste are awesome and a lot different than I’m used to (glycerin, xylitol, propylene glycol etc.) so that means the texture and look of it was so different than I used before. It took some getting used to! There are no foaming agents or sweeteners, just minerals, salt and essential oils.
Lots of great stuff in there!
This is what it looks like, a lot different than the stuff you squirt out of a tube!
Let’s get into the ingredients and their health benefits.
Bentonite Clay
This one was a new one for me but after reading up on it, it’s been an ingredient used by people for thousands of years! If there’s one thing that tells you it’s useful, it’s that people were using it before all of the technology and genetically engineered lab things existed. source and source 2 The clay is derived from volcanic areas and the ashes it left behind which was cool. It’s got lots of minerals in it like calcium, magnesium and iron among others, which is why it’s great for our teeth and mouth, and of course our body. One of the great reasons several toothpastes use the clay is because it’s a great binding agent. It binds to bacteria, toxins and heavy metals to remove it from our body and mouth. This is part of the reason it has been used for centuries, it’s got great health benefits!
Calcium Carbonate
Calcium is an important part of our teeth as well as our bodies. Not only because our bones and teeth are mostly calcium based, but it plays an important role in digestion, and digestion starts in our mouths of course. The calcium from the toothpaste is most likely limestone derived, since limestone is quite abundant. The same mineral is found in the shells of marine animals too, which makes sense but you never really think of it. source
Colloidal Silver
What can’t be said about the incredible colloidal silver? This stuff is awesome! I find it funny that when pharmaceutical paid folks try to downplay severely the legitimate benefits of things like silver, I tend to pay more attention to it since they are mostly doing it due to financial competition. Colloidal silver has some great properties that combat bacteria, fungus and viruses. I don’t know about the safety of using it internally, since that is being debated but topically and added to things like toothpaste seem to be things that natural medicine practitioners can agree on. source
Sea Salt
This one surprised me when I first used the toothpaste. I was like what the hell, there’s salt in it?! But then I remember that when I’ve got something like a sore throat, you gargle warm water and sea salt to help kill the bacteria. It also adds a decent texture to it, so it’s a little abrasive to help break things like plaque off our teeth.
Ionic Minerals
Not sure what these were until I looked them up. These are trace minerals that our body needs in small quantities but are nonetheless important for our overall health. A few years ago my wife went to an event where they talked about the trace minerals and how important they are for our bodies homeostasis. Once I realized what the ionic minerals was referring to, it made sense. Something you won’t find in a regular toothpaste that’s for sure! source
Mustard Seed
Besides being a fantastic condiment, mustard seeds are quite nutritious for us. They’ve got a lot of great vitamins and some more minerals like magnesium and selenium. They’ve also got anti bacterial and anti inflammatory properties so it fits in well with the toothpaste for sure. source
Essential Oils section
Peppermint
Gotta love peppermint. This oil is great, like lots of the oils it’s anti bacterial but also has an analgesic, or pain/inflammation reducing abilities. It’s one of the first things you taste when you use the toothpaste so being the first listed oil, you can certainly tell why it’s in there. source
Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus is a great, powerful anti bacterial oil to use. It’s very common in an essential oil pack and is a go-to for sickness related times and looking for an oil with loads of benefits. It’s pretty cool that it’s also got a relaxing effect to it, when we’ve got it on in our oil rotation, it feels a bit more laid back than others. When you use the toothpaste, breathing the oil in especially before bed helps get in the mood to just get to sleep. source
Clove
Love the taste of the clove oil, besides the peppermint, you can absolutely taste the clove in this particular toothpaste. Reminds me of great holiday cooking, even though it’s got all the bad stuff in it. Clove oil is a common oil to use when it comes to things in the mouth. When we started oil pulling, one recommendation we read was to add a drop of it onto the oil (though we stopped that after reading quite a few articles saying not to let oils touch the mucous membranes without being diluted). Mainstream sources tout the oral benefits of clove oil in aiding with tooth related things like pains, so they don’t hate all of the natural realm it seems! source
Wintergreen
Wintergreen is a good oil to use because it helps eliminate odors. When you think of a nasty case of bad breath, a good dose of wintergreen will take care of that! It's got some other benefits but what I think it's mainly in there for is that it kills odors and bad breath. source
Oregano
Definitely was not surprised to see this oil in there. Our medicine cabinet is always stocked with a bottle of oil of oregano! I never realized how good this stuff was to have around, we would always use it in food recipes as a kid but I thought it just tasted good.
What have you done?
Share your natural modification you’ve made with me, I would love to hear what you did! Did it take long to see the benefits? I procrastinated on this one, in writing it as well as in actually doing it. My wife told me about how her mouth felt better after she started using other toothpastes but I never understood until I actually did it myself!
Since I've started using the toothpaste, I haven't had to clean my teeth myself nearly as much as I did before. I would do it weekly whereas now I do it roughly monthly. I know I need to modify my diet to eliminate the need to remove the plaque buildup but this is just one step in the process to better overall health. It was nice, I went to the dentist recently after not going for too many years and she said I've got beautiful teeth. I was like thanks, though I didn't want to tell her what I do to keep them up, I know many in the medical field and they don't necessarily think that nature provides methods to keep our bodies running instead of the medical companies.
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