Home Made Tooth Powder

In my quest to be more chemical free, I found so many interesting things that I could make with the same base of ingredients that I thought why not try to make some of these things. The problem is to actually find the products that I am looking for. I mean one recipe calls for powdered calcium carbonate. What the heck is that, why do I need it in my tooth paste, and where do I find it?

It turns out that calcium carbonate is in lots of stuff. It's in the lime we use to neutralize the acidity of our soil. I don't think I want to use that though... Those OTC antacids have it in there and they are already flavored so that's a bonus. That's what I ended up using since my choices are limited around here, but ideally I wanted to use something without any additives. I hear you can get it at health food stores so I may have to look into that next time I'm out and about.

The recipe in Home Made, Best Made from Reader's Digest called for 13 TBSP calcium carbonate (used as an abrasive to clean the teeth), 4 TBSP baking soda (detergent), 1 tsp salt (? more abrasive perhaps?), and essential oils of 12 drops cinnamon and 25 drops mint (to cover yucky taste and to soothe sensitive gums).

Well, I don't like to be wasteful so I used my berry flavored antacids. I used my pill crusher to turn it into powder. Somehow I don't think that would go well with cinnamon or mint, so I skipped that. It took a lot of work so I wouldn't recommend that unless there are no other alternatives. By the time I was done crushing all of the purple ones I had 4 TBSP of powder so I cut the recipe by 2/3. At least you could use the tums for their intended purpose though if you would choose to use them. I think I will also skip the salt next time. It does not taste the best though, so I will be doing some tinkering with the recipe. I also used too much baking soda in it. Blah!

It works well as far as cleaning the film off your teeth goes. I have used it twice. The first time I wet my toothbrush before I dipped it into the powder. Don't do that, it's messy and may leave clumps of nasty stuff in your powder. It is stored in a tightly sealed container and it's supposed to keep well. That's one of the reasons I made the powder first.

I think next time I may try to make a paste so I can add the fluoride that I keep forgetting to use. Save your smile says it's the most important ingredient in toothpaste. It's not required in the recipes I found, but it is supposed to help strengthen and protect our tooth enamel.

I will also need a humectant such as glycerin if I am going to make toothpaste. I would chose glycerin because it is also used in lip glosses and lotions so I would have it for more than one purpose.

I will not use a thickener, preservative, sweetener, or a coloring agent though. I am thinking that as a flavoring agent I may use some dried sage or mint from my garden. What would you use?

The actual paste in the book also called for wights of items, a few ounces of this,... so I want to get a digital scale before I do that. It will also help me make my soaps more accurately.

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!Cindy