Cleansing Tooth Powder with Essential Oils

The articles and do-it-yourself recipes from the people at DIY Natural  are truly an inspiration to me!  Often, it just happens to be that I’ll be thinking I really want to find a natural recipe for something and that week I’ll get an email update from DIY Natural with such a recipe.

As I am with any recipes, whether food, health and beauty, or cleaning related, I do my own tweaking and adjusting to fit my preferences and needs.

For today, I basically stuck to the original recipe posted by DIY Natural.  What I changed this time was the essential oils I added.

Here is a link to the DIY Natural website and their original recipe for the tooth powder:  DIY Whitening Tooth Powder for Non-toxic Brushing

The information at the DIY Natural link is fabulous.  Not only do they give you their recipe, they also give you the benefits of each of the ingredients used.

Here’s what I created today using their recipe along with what I had on hand:

Cleansing Tooth Powder with Essential Oils

1 tablespoon rubbed sage

2 tablespoons baking soda

1 tablespoon Xylitol

½ teaspoon sea salt

2 tablespoons Bentonite clay (I found at my local natural grocer)

20 drops of peppermint essential oil  

5 drops of frankincense essential oil

4 drops of myrrh essential oil 

I put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and blended together with a fork.  I would add the drops of one oil at a time and mix them in well with the fork before adding the next oil.  The oil drops create little lumps in the dry mixture so make sure to break them up with the fork and mix really well.  As soon as I finished making the recipe, I gave it a try to test the flavor and see if I had put enough Peppermint oil (I started out only using 15 drops). 

I wet my toothbrush first and dipped it into the powder and began brushing.  I had to wet my toothbrush just a little more to get enough water in my mouth to make the powder go around well.  The taste was just fine.  It only needed a few more drops of Peppermint.  No, the tooth powder is nothing like toothpaste, but I did not find it particularly unpleasant.  It was a little weird seeing something green instead of white in my mouth and not having any type of foaming action.  After brushing and rinsing with water, my mouth felt great and so did my teeth.  I will not be buying toothpaste again! (At least for me.  The rest of my family is not as excited to use these natural and homemade things.)  This tooth powder is fantastic.  I brushed my teeth and followed up with my own homemade mouthwash.

I placed my tooth powder in a small mason jar for storing.  Do not store in a plastic container.  Any time you are storing things that contain essential oils, it is best to do so in glass containers so the plastic does not react with the oils and change their chemical structure and efficacy.  If you plan on wetting your toothbrush and dipping it in the powder as I did, you should make separate containers for each person wanting to use the tooth powder.  I do not recommend sharing unless you plan on pouring some tooth powder onto your hand before touching your toothbrush to it.

I decided to not only use Peppermint essential oil but also add Frankincense and Myrrh because I have been having problems with sensitive teeth.  In the past year, I have successfully used Frankincense to make the sensitivity go away.  As needed, I have been putting a drop of Frankincense in my mouth around the sensitive teeth.  Both Frankincense and Myrrh have anti-inflammatory properties.  I call Frankincense one of the “wonder oils” because it is helpful and beneficial for countless conditions including cancer and Alzheimer’s.  Myrrh also has anti-inflammatory properties, especially with gum tissue, and it has been tested and proven to help in tumor reduction.  If you have concerns about cavities, it would be beneficial to add Melaleuca essential oil which is an excellent anti-bacterial oil.  Melaleuca is also anti-inflammatory and anti-fungal.

If you decide to try this tooth powder recipe, let me know how it worked for you.  I may post different variations of it in the future (so check the comments).  I’m always tweaking with recipes.