Adventures in Green Living: DIY Toothpaste vs. Store Bought

About a month ago I started selling this product line called NORWEX. (I should really post a blog about Norwex, but that will be for another day). In short, Norwex is a line of green (eco-friendly) cleaning products that use the science of microfiber laced with silver ions to clean and anti-bac your home (like I said, i need a whole post about this).

All that to say, the more research I did on Norwex, chemicals in mainstream products, and what that does to your body. The more I realized, wow wouldn't be cool if I could actually go away from all mainstream products and make my own products! So here I am going, as I am running out of my everyday products, going to venture out in old-wives-tales and home-remedies to make my own products. Here goes week 1.

I ran out of toothpaste, and so went to the Internet to research (because clearly the Internet is the most reliable source.) And i found plenty of information and recipes. Here's just a few of the articles I found:
Wellness Mama
DIY Natural
Weed Em and Reep
 However, this seemed to be the post popular, and most copy-catted diy recipe that I found:

Homemade Toothpaste

This recipe called for:

4 Tbs coconut oil

4 Tbs bentonite clay

2-3 Tbs filtered water

1/2 tsp real sea salt

10-15 drops essential oil of choice (I used spearmint)

and a pinch of stevia if desired. 

I followed this recipe, plus added 1/2 tsp of baking soda, because the weed em and reep recipe was similar plus had baking soda. Plus I know that it is a natural whitener, because when I first started drinking coffee in college I received horrible stains on my teeth. Adding baking soda cleared those up fast./

Most of the websites shared information about what each ingredient does and why it is beneficial for the mouth. Again, a whole Internet of bloggers can't be wrong. 

So in the afternoon I whipped my recipe up and I tried it. 

The first thing I noticed is that this is not like store-bought toothpaste. I had to chunk it onto my toothbrush. Plus, it had a weird oily texture due to the coconut oil. But hey, coconut oil is good for you, right. The Internet said that it helps whiten and restore. So I brushed. 

In fact I've been brushing for a week. However, on day 3 I started to notice my mouth was a little sore. I thought, not big deal, maybe it's just my mouth adjusting. I kept brushing. 

By day 5 I had the worst sores in my mouth I had ever seen. I would post a picture, but no kidding, if you google "Cancer of the mouth" or "mouth ulcers" you'll get a pretty good look at what was going on. NOT pretty. I also noticed my teeth turning yellow. What!? What happened to the baking soda. At this point I decided to add a mouth rinse. Hydrogen peroxide is a good mouth rinse, and there's even instructions on how to use it on the back of the bottle. I mixed up a concoction that was put on the back of the bottle. Dilluted in water, plus I added stevia and 25 drops essential oils, peppermint. This seemed to work wonders. I got the freshness I had been missing from my store-bought toothpaste. Plus by day 6 my teeth were white. 

However, on day 6, and now on day 7 I have noticed my mouth ulcers are getting worse. I think it's time to ditch the toothpaste. 

Doing even more internet research, I've noticed there is a lot of controversy on whether brushing with baking soda is actually good for your teeth. If you do it right (like in a store bought paste, or with a store bought paste on occassion) it will work great. However, dangers can be abrasiveness to gums and enamel. Still trying to figure out the mouth ulcer issue, because baking soda is supposed to clear those up. 

In the meantime, going back to my regular store-bought toothpaste, and going to use my rinse to try to heal up my mouth wounds. Hopefully will have more success in round 2 of Adventures in Green Living!