Homemade Toothpaste

I ran out of toothpaste this morning. It must have missed the list. I just went to the store yesterday and spent all I wanted to spend for the week too. This was my favorite kind of challenge: making do! I must say I had more fun than most people probably would have concocting my own toothpaste recipe!

For emergency toothpaste all you really need is baking soda and water. It even says so on the box! The taste is tolerable if you really want to get your teeth clean, but I’m not that hardcore about my hygiene!

To improve the taste you’re going to want something minty and a sweetener. I would really caution against using a natural sugar to brush your teeth! I used stevia, peppermint extract, and Tom’s mouthwash. This really improved the flavor, but if you’re not used to a natural toothpaste, like Tom’s, it will take some getting used to.

The next step is completely optional. I wanted to make the paste more effective at actually cleaning my teeth. Dr. Bronner’s liquid soaps claim to have 18 in 1 uses, one of which is making toothpaste. So I added a few drops of their fragrance free brand to my paste. Yummy! I also added two drops of tea tree oil for it’s antiseptic, antibacterial, and antifungal properties. This required a bit more stevia and peppermint extract to round out the flavor but what I ended up with was a very Tom’s-like paste I will actually use!

Disclaimer: I am not a dentist and I have no idea what one would say about the long-term use of this concoction. All I know is my mouth feels fresh and my teeth feel clean!