Natural Gnashers, Choppers, or in plain talk, TEETH!

One of the major issues in personal care is dental health. While we have striven to avoid commercial toothpastes containing SLS, chemical, and artificial ingredients, it is only this past year that we switched to making our own toothpaste and tooth oil. As we are living in Madinah, Saudi Arabia for 10 months out of the year, we are limited in what we can obtain. I have come up with these recipes, based on what is available.

Tooth oil:

I used a tooth oil years ago that was excellent, but very expensive. It was simply a sweet almond oil base with spearmint and peppermint essential oils, in a specific proportion. Well, I decided to make my own tooth oil, obviously at a fraction of the cost, and after experimentation, changed the recipe to this. Please note that I make this in a small essential oil bottle - 10 ml I believe.

Base:

Coconut oil (this has proven benefits for oral health and we found it preferable over the almond oil)

Additions:

20 drops each of spearmint and peppermint essential oil
40 drops of sweet orange essential oil
5 drops of thyme essential oil
5 drops of 4 thieves oil (or the equivalent blend - we use Germ Killer)

These amounts can be adjusted to taste, and the oils can be changed to others that are also beneficial to oral and dental health. Simply put two drops of the oil on a wet toothbrush and brush teeth, gums, tongue, and roof of mouth thoroughly. Although this is perfectly safe to swallow, you will have brushed the toxins off your teeth and mouth and you will be swallowing those as well, so it is best to rinse your mouth out thoroughly afterwards. You will have wonderfully smooth teeth and fresh breath, inshaa Allah.

Our homemade toothpaste:

This is a real mix and match of recipes I saw online and what worked for us.

Baking soda (fill 1/2 of a 4 fluid ounce container)
Essential oils: 50 drops sweet orange oil, 20 drops peppermint, 20 drops spearmint, 5 drops 4 thieves/germ killer oil, 5 drops thyme...or oils to your needs/taste.
Raw honey - add honey up fill the 4 fluid ounce container to 3/4 full (in other words, 1/4 measure of the container/`1 fluid ounce)

Stir up and add a few drops of water (or coconut oil) to the desired consistency.


Other recipes:

I plan to make this once we can obtain the ingredients inshaa Allah.

http://thepaleomama.com/2013/12/diy-remineralizing-toothpaste/

Also:

http://healthylivinghowto.com/1/post/2014/02/ditch-your-toxic-toothpaste-10-diy-toothpaste-recipes.html

Toothbrushes:

As for toothbrushes, we still haven't given them up (old habits die hard) so since last summer we made a conscious decision to buy sustainable, good toothbrushes. We all use Radius Source toothbrushes -

even the baby, maashaa Allah.

That said, our goal is to become totally comfortable with the full time use of miswak, thereby having a totally natural toothbrush from the twigs of the neem or arak tree. This is, by far, the best toothcare option as we know the Prophet Muhammad - sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam - said he would order us to use them before every prayer if it wouldn't be a hardship.

Oil pulling:

I have practiced oil pulling before and am looking into resuming it. While it is controversial as to how much it really does, aside from cleansing the mouth well, it certainly does cleanse the mouth well! You can find many resources on oil pulling, but one is here:

 http://pulling-oil.com/

Tooth healing:

We have looked at these reports and others like them:

http://thepaleomama.com/2013/11/how-im-healing-cavities-without-dentistry/

http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2013/01/the-diet-that-heals-cavities.html

and plan to get these books this summer, inshaa Allah.