We live in the age of dentists. One hundred years ago, dentistry did not exist as a legitimate branch of medical science. In fact, it was not until 1830 that dental “professionals” began to emerge as pioneers in their field of study. In more recent years, dentistry has begun to play a major role in our lives and now the average person buys into the myth that it’s essential to see a dentist twice a year to maintain healthy teeth and gums. Furthermore, most Americans also believe that spending hundreds of dollars on toxic oral hygiene products such as Listerine mouthwash, Crest toothpaste, and Aquafresh white trays will guarantee them strong teeth and a bright smile. How sad so many have fallen prey to the marketing tactics of insurance companies, doctor’s offices and consumer “health” giants like Johnson & Johnson!
For those who seek the truth about what goes into the oral care products they’re using, there is a way to avoid the detrimental effects of the poisonous ingredients in these products and save money at the same time. During this three-part series, I’ll be exposing some of the most harmful ingredients in common brands of toothpaste, dental floss, mouthwash, and tooth-whitening products and share some alternatives to each, both commercially and homemade.
Toothpaste
One of the best known harmful ingredients in toothpaste is sodium fluoride. Fluoride has long been touted by the dental community as being a miracle ingredient in toothpastes and mouthwashes that prevents cavities and tooth decay. But this solid white substance has a dark side that most Americans don’t know about. Sodium fluoride is a byproduct of the manufacturing process of superphosphate fertilizer and is commonly used as a rat poison. Shockingly, this extremely toxic chemical is sometimes prescribed in pill form to children and the elderly to prevent tooth decay and osteoporosis. The presence of sodium fluoride in name brand toothpaste is the reason for the warning printed on the back of tubes urging users to call poison control if any is inadvertently swallowed. This is the stuff we’re putting in our mouths, folks! At the recommendation of our friendly local dentists, we’re poisoning ourselves, our families, and our children. Fluoride is also used for mind-control, and America is the only country that runs this through their water-system.
Thankfully, there is a wide range of alternatives to toxic toothpaste brands such as Crest, Colgate, Aquafresh, and Sensodyne. Perhaps the best known of these is Tom’s of Maine, which offers a variety of fluoride-free toothpastes. However, the rating for safety of this brand is too high
Make sure when shopping that you read the ingredients labels on all the toothpastes you’re considering. Some companies, like Tom’s, offer both fluoride and fluoride-free lines, but still companies that advertise fluoride-free pastes that contain other harmful ingredients. Also be sure to check out Young Living’s line of Thieves oral care products which contains three strengths of Thieves toothpaste. Xlear, Inc., manufacturers of Spry chewing gum, is another good company to consider when hunting for natural toothpaste. Lower in cost than most natural toothpastes, Spry uses xylitol, a naturally occurring substance that looks and tastes like sugar but actually strengthens the teeth, as an alternative to fluoride. One product I have used as a toothpaste for some time is Miracle II Neutralizer Gel which is perfectly alkaline (I’ve tested it myself) and has the uncanny ability to keep my teeth in tip top condition.
You can also make your own toothpaste at home for a fraction of what it would cost you to buy natural toothpaste online. I am reluctant to recommend a single recipe because there are so many good ones out there, but here are some of the basic ingredients you might want to consider when concocting DIY toothpaste:
- Baking soda (cleanses and polishes the teeth), and with coconut oil
- 3% hydrogen peroxide (super cheap at your local pharmacy and disinfects the mouth)
- Xylitol (on the pricey side; sweetens paste and strengthens teeth)
- Peppermint essential oil (naturally flavors paste and helps to disinfect the mouth; you can also use wintergreen, spearmint, or cinnamon for this purpose)
- Table salt (sloughs away plaque)
- Glycerin (to transform the mixture from powder into a paste)
If you want, you can experiment with these ingredients to create your own custom toothpaste, or you can follow one of hundreds of recipes that exists online. Stay tuned over the next two weeks when I’ll tell you more about mouthwash, whitening strips, and even dental floss!
About The Author
Kate,
Thanks for doing this. I found out about the flouride a few years ago & my family swited to baking soda. Right now we have Jason’s Toothpaste. I don’t recall all the ingrediants, but I do belive is lacks many bad things. Although I don’t use mouthwash, i was unaware that it had bad things other then alcohol.
I look forward to your upcoming posts.
April
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Kate's reply:
June 9th, 2010 at 11:34 am
Thanks for your comment, April! The mouthwash you’ll find in the dental health isle of your Walmart or pharmacy is full of harmful ingredients which I’ll be discussing in more detail over the next couple of weeks.
Blessings,
Kate
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I think I hear my chemistry professors crying.
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Thank you so much! My lovely daughter cannot have any toothpaste that whitens, and the ones that don’t are way more expensive. I am happy to read this. We shall make our own. That is great.
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Thank you for the suggestions! I have been trying to find a biodentist in my area because I just don’t feel comfortable with all the toxicity at my local dentists’ office. Everytime I go, I reject the flouride trays that they literally fill with pure flouride and set on your teeth for a minute. I also purify our water, hoping that it will take out the flouride (though I’m not sure it will or not). I am going to try one of these recipes for natural toothpaste soon; even though there are tons on the market, I like to save a buck too ;)
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Kate's reply:
June 9th, 2010 at 11:37 am
Savannah, most water filtration systems do not remove fluoride from drinking water. Reverse osmosis systems DO remove fluoride though.
Blessings,
Kate
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Great post! I recently found a recipe I’m going to try! It has coconut oil, Dr. Bronners soap, and a few other ingredients-including essential oils of peppermint. I’m going to try it soon! The lady said it was remineralizing her teeth and they were losing their dark spots. Interesting!
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Katie's reply:
June 8th, 2010 at 5:48 pm
Sarah, could you share the recipe with us please? I’m very interested!
You can email me privately if you wish: homesteadnutrition [at] gmail [dot] com
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Awesome article, Kate. Very informative. We use Young Living’s thieves toothpaste, Toms and Also Melelueca (sp?) Brand toothpastes which I really like. . I look forward to reading more!
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Very informative…could you site your sources please, or include links for further reading? :) Thanks!
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Kate's reply:
June 9th, 2010 at 11:46 am
Sure, Alice. Here are a couple of links to helpful articles/websites for further reading. (I’ll include some more in another comment so I don’t get marked as spam.)
http://www.consumerhealth.org/.....0303222823
http://www.greenfacts.org/en/fluoride/index.htm
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Kate's reply:
June 9th, 2010 at 11:47 am
A couple more links:
http://www2.fluoridealert.org/.....erwhelming
http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/
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[...] Read more… [...]
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by oklempjorjoy, Jessi Roman. Jessi Roman said: Beautiful You: Natural Oral Care Part 1 « Feelin' Feminine http://ht.ly/1VSE3 [...]
My family and I use a natural toothpaste also. When I use the other stuff my gums start to hurt and my teeth don’t feel clean. I might try making my own sometime too :)
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Great article Kate.I use Baking powder.
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Great post Kate! I am looking forward to your future posts on the subject. We stopped using toothpaste several months ago and just started using baking soda and coconut oil. Works for me! lol
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I can’t wait to read more. I never realized how harmful fluoride is! I’ve always heard baking soda works really well as toothpaste, but never had a good recipe for it. Thanks!
Prayers,
Esther
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Thank you! :)
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Homestead Nutrition: here is the link I found: http://simplemom.net/natural-b.....-and-lips/
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well…
healthy teeth leads to a long life too
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Thank you so much for all the research you’ve done in presenting us with this valuable information! What an age we live in, being fed straight-out lies by the media! My family is also interested in living more naturally and
also were big fans of Miracle II products, until a couple of months ago, when we started questioning the integrity of the company.
Since then, we’ve completely abandoned all use. Thought you might be interested in reading it, as well.
Blessings to you as you seek Him!
Emily=)
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Kate's reply:
June 12th, 2010 at 8:54 pm
Emily, I’d be interested to know what your family found that led you to believe the company isn’t honest. I order their stuff off of Amazon, but I have family and friends who deal directly with the company and if they’re not honest I would like to be able to warn them. You can email me privately if you want… kate@atentforthesun.com
Blessings,
Kate
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Kate's reply:
June 15th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
Emily, I received your email and read the article you linked to. I tried to simply reply to your email, but my server doesn’t seem to be functioning properly, so here is the email I wrote:
Thanks for sending me this article, Emily! It certainly raises some important questions about the lack of disclosure of ingredients in the product, enough to make me seriously consider discontinuing my use of it. I don’t think that the authors of the article are the most credible people though. They have written many articles that border, and in some cases cross the line, into conspiracy theories and use scare tactics on Christians in many cases. (For example claiming that a group of people who are planning to establish a One World Order and a One World Church are using the NKJV of the Bible as a vehicle to accomplish this, that Seventh Day Adventists are “yoked with the United Nation,” and that Tim LaHaye is promoting unbiblical thrology, the New Age Movement, and service to the devil in his Left Behind Series, just to name a few.) Therefore I do not consider them to be a reliable source of information. Still, the fact of the matter is I DON’T know exactly what goes into the Miracle II products, nor what kind of a man makes them, which is enough for me to reconsider my use of them. (Also I personally believe they are outrageously overpriced!) = ) Thank you for raising my awareness of this!
Blessings,
Kate
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[...] and dangerous chemicals used by so-called “health companies” in our oral care products. Last week I talked about the dangers of fluoride and non-toxic alternatives to name brand toothpaste. This [...]
A few years ago, I found a great recipe for homemade mouthwash…but have since lost it. If any of you come across such a link, could you post it?
Thanks!
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Kate's reply:
June 17th, 2010 at 8:20 am
Karen, I’ll be covering mouthwash next week and I’ll be sure to post a recipe or two!
Blessings,
Kate
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I wrote a post on fluoride recently, for Australia’s context (where I live!).
I think it’s important to understand why we started adding fluoride to water decades ago, but recognise why the context is different today (largely our changing diet).
direct post here: http://femininefeminism.blogsp.....water.html
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Kate's reply:
June 17th, 2010 at 8:18 am
Interesting article, Claire, though in no way does it demonstrate that fluoride is beneficial at any level to the human body. There is absolutely nothing natural about fluoride, again, it is a waste product of aluminum manufacturing, and thus should not be added to the drinking water anywhere. In high concentrations it is highly toxic to the human body (and it is prescribed in these concentrations by doctors to children… a travesty). At low concentrations it simply poisons the body over time. Fluoride may “strengthen” the teeth in low concentrations, but too much exposure (as in the US) weakens tooth enamel and is harmful to gums as well. The risks of using any fluoride far outweigh any supposed benefits.
Blessings,
Kate
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Claire's reply:
June 17th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
I did note that fluorosis (white spots on the teeth coming from too much fluoride) is now present in 1 in 6 US citizens. Agreed this is far too high. Australia fluoridates it’s water at an average of 0.08ppm while the US fluoridates at 0.1ppm but we are seeing similar effects here.
There is research to show that low levels of fluoride benefit teeth and bones (reduces risk of fracture – hence it’s use for osteoporosis), but agreed we don’t know whether there are other long term negative effects.
I suppose I just wanted to remind people that not all fluoride is a waste product of manufacturing- it is present in naturally occurring fresh and salt water around the world. While we can’t believe everything we read, you may want to see this report by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, A Systematic Review of the Efficacy and Safety of Fluoridation: http://nhmrc.gov.au/_files_nhm.....PART_A.pdf (page 18-19).
Quote page 18: Fluoride levels in naturally occurring water: “Factors known to influence water fluoride levels include the presence of natural rock rich in fluoride (such as granites and gneisses and sediment of marine origin). Additionally, elevated inorganic fluoride levels are often seen in regions where there is geothermal or volcanic activity. Low levels of calcium in water supplies may also lead to higher levels of fluoride solubility.”
I think your article was excellent, it’s an important topic for ourselves and our families :-)
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We hardly EVER use toothpaste with fluoride in it. We always use all natural toothpaste! I never new about mouthwash though!
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[...] dental care and its impact on the health of all Americans. Thus far we’ve covered toothpaste (in part one), dental floss, and teeth whitening products (in part two). Today we’re going to dive into the [...]
[...] Another fave health resource of ours is the Tropical Traditions Virgin Coconut Oil book. I was looking for some some health info today in it, and it is also a very good resource. (It must be, since it is here with us out of all the books I took to consignment shop or gave away!). Something amazing to me is that there is no virgin coconut oil in a country where there are coconut trees every 10-15 feet! I have had several people who have been here for a year or two mention that it’s just not here. Too bad we can’t distribute for Tropical Traditions here. We love all of their products. They said it would sell like hotcakes. Other than the VCO, we have only not been able to find a couple of other things we use for our health: Sea Salt and Hydrogen Peroxide. Now, we know all the city water in America is fluoridated, and we never worried about that, since we had well water, but here, the salt here is fluoridated! Needless to say, we do not use it, but we can’t find sea salt. No, we aren’t near the ocean… not that that is the same… The peroxide we use as mouthwash. (Which is actually funny, because we had some mouthwash I brought along to use as an antiseptic! Mouthwash is REALLY bad for you!) [...]