Do you know your oral health is important to your overall wellness? Good oral health can reduce
heart disease and
cancer. For these reasons and because 'Who doesn't want a pretty smile?', this post is dedicated to sharing a few ways you can naturally increase your oral health.
risk of serious chronic diseases
Oil Pulling
First stop is oil pulling. This is one of the oldest and most powerful ways of improving oral health. This ancient practice involves swishing vegetable oil in the mouth for 5-15 minutes. Coconut oil is now a common favorite for this practice. It is important to push the oil under the tongue and between the teeth since that is where most of the microorganisms reside. The act of swishing the oil in your mouth 'pulls or extracts' the bacteria and fungi from the crevices of your mouth. After the 5-15 minutes you spit out the oil, don't swallow it, this is because all the bacteria now in the oil. To increase the benefits of oil pulling you can also add an antiseptic essential oil such as clove. Note: Spit into the garbage, not down the sink. You don't want to clog up your drain!
Xylitol
Is it good or bad? People fall on both sides of this fence. We're not here to debate this topic. Xylitol while being a sweetener is also a water-soluble antiseptic. It is derived from birch tree sap and commonly found in dental products and chewing gum. We added it to our homemade toothpaste due to these reasons and because we wanted something to take the edge off of the essential oils we added for flavor.
You can read more about
Xylitol's roll in oral health by clicking here.
Reducing Use of Abrasive Toothpastes
Many common brand toothpastes contain very large abrasive particles that quickly wear away your tooth enamel. Not having a thick enamel myself I felt it was time to find an alternative. Tooth enamel is not something the body regenerates and once lost, it is permanent. As you lose tooth enamel, it exposes the softer dentin material underneath it. This INCREASES YOUR RISK for tooth decay.
The particles in your toothpaste should be super fine for this reason, and yet be strong enough to scrub away the built up plaque. Particles in some whitening toothpastes are much bigger and sharp edged than the particles in our recipe. For those of you with the
Essential Oils Desk Reference Guide, look on Page 334 for an excellent example of particle sizes.
Homemade Toothpaste
5 Tablespoons Calcium powder
3 Tablespoons Xylitol Powder
1 tablespoon Baking soda
4 Tablespoons Coconut oil melted
2 Tablespoons Bentonite Clay
30 drops of essential oils of choice: Peppermint,
Cinnamon, Thieves, Orange
20-30 drops of trace minerals
Plastic or glass bowl
Wooden spoon
Small glass container to store product.
Mask (optional) - See note below*
Distilled WATER - about 3 Tablespoons if your mix seems too hard. We didn't add that when filming and our mix was a little too firm.
Directions: Combine Calcium powder, Xylitol powder, baking soda and melted coconut oil. Stir until well mixed. Add Bentonite clay, stir until well mixed. Add oils and trace minerals. Mix in well and store in a glass container such as a small mason jar.
*Note: Add your powders slowly to avoid them flying into the air. You do not want the powders to enter your airway. Using a medical mask is optional.
