Crafting some toothpaste

Do you trust toothpaste brands? I don't. Why? I don't know. Let's craft some toothpaste! 🧪💦🪥

I care a lot about my teeth and dental hygiene in general because I heard a lot of scary stories about toothaches. At the same time I've been wondering about the quality of toothpaste. What really matters in a toothpaste? An acquaintance recently told me that what matters is the brushing technique and not the toothpaste. She also made her own toothpaste, so after taking advice from her and a few Youtube videos I made my own!

There are a lot of different recipes, ranging in difficulty from perfectly replicating a store-bought toothpaste to “I'll just pour soda on my damn toothbrush”. I picked what is a good compromise between efficiency, safety, laziness, economy, ecology.

For a small quantity (still lasts a few weeks) you need:

Clay in extra fine-grained form; main component.

Essential oils for a fresh breath (peppermint, mint, …) and antibacterial capabilities (tea tree, citrus, …).

Calcium carbonate, optional but nice (aka « Blanc de Meudon » in France).

A small glass container.

For the clay you can use whatever color you want, but white clay makes less stains in the sink. I use green because my girlfriend has a lot of it, hehehe! For the calcium carbonate, it is used to replace the sodium bicarbonate found in some recipes because it is often considered as way too irritating, stripping, … bad for your mouth. For the essential oils, I encourage you to do your own research and not use them if you're not confident in your sources. I use tea tree for the antifungal properties (gotta stand the taste though), peppermint for the nice fresh touch and citrus for its anti-bacterial properties (and also the taste).

The recipe is simple: fill the container with a bit of clay powder. Mine is very narrow, like 3 cm of diameter, so I fill only one centimeter of clay inside to get a base level. Pour it into a bowl. Add the same amount of water into your container for reference, then pour it into the bowl. Mix well. Take a good table spoon of calcium carbonate and add it to the mix. Add your essential oils; I use 5 drops of each. You have to let it rest for a while so the water can evaporate enough to leave you with a paste that won't fall out of the container if turned over. As long as it does not make a nice paste ready to be left to dry up, add some clay to the mix; I usually have to add some to be sure.

The paste can be perfectly dry or a bit soft, it does not really change much, but if it's soft it won't keep as well. That said with small quantities you will use all of it long before there is a risk of losing it.

To use it, simply scrub your toothbrush against the paste to get juuuust a bit on the bristles. If the paste is completely dry, put the toothbrush under the tap first. Then brush your teeth carefully: no need to apply a lot of pressure, but do the right movements, etc. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I encourage you to go look at videos about how to correctly brush your teeth, never too late to learn! It feels a bit weird at first because it does not produce foam, but after a while you will realise it's actually a good thing because the foam only is an inconvenience.

I've been using this recipe for more than a month now. Nothing changed visually on my teeth. Fingers crossed for my next visit to the dentist but I'm confident. If you have any experience with crafting your own toothpaste please let me know! 🦷✨