What's your homemade toothpaste recipe?

I started making my own toothpaste a few yours ago and definitely noticed an improvement in oral health.

I thought I would share my recipe here.

In a small mason jar I combine equal parts( usually 4 TBS) Neem powder and Calcium Carbonate powder, then add in a dash of Real sea salt, a tsp. or so cinnamon, and then might put a bit of baking soda in once in a while.

Dampen toothbrush, put powder on and brush. Then I swish it around in my mouth for a few(an actual 2-5 minutes) minutes, then spit out.
Afterward I some times use an essential oil mix of Clove bud, Cinnamon bark, orange, lemon, oregano, mandarin, thyme, ginger root, and eucalyptus citriodora as a second mouthwash


I'd love to hear what recipes work for you!

Thank you for sharing your recipe.

I usually use something different every few days.  Baking soda, salt, and/or food grade hydrogen peroxide. These are used mixed or separately.

I make a rosemary mouthwash.

I use tooth powder from a Mommypotamous recipe.  It calls for calcium bentonite clay, baking soda, sea salt, cloves, cinnamon, mint, stevia and charcoal.  Been using this for over two years.  I use a mortar and pestle to grind dried mint leaves and sea salt together to make them both fine enough for the powder, and then put it through a seive, discarding the bits that won't go through (they get under your gums if you brush with them).  Everything comes from the bulk barn except the calcium bentonite clay, I got it on Amazon because it's so expensive in stores here.  I double the recipe, dropping all the ingredients into a mason jar, and then just shake it until it's mixed.  I sometimes add a couple drops of mint essential oil into the jar before I shake it.
https://mommypotamus.com/tooth-powder-recipe/

I also exclusively use her coconut oil soap recipe for hands, face, body and hair, and rinse my hair with apple cider vinegar when it needs it.

I think the key to oral health is in diligence, and avoidance of added sugar, not fluoride.  As a person who suffers from chronic dry mouth and in early menopause, the gums aren't what they used to be.  It's important to stay hydrated.  Once in a while when my gums are tetchy I rinse with some diluted hydrogen peroxide, and floss, floss, floss!  If I had taken better care in my younger years I wouldn't have some of the problems I do now.

On a side-note, non-genetic Alzheimers has now been solidly linked to the bacteria porphyromonas gingivalis, which causes gum disease.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2191814-we-may-finally-know-what-causes-alzheimers-and-how-to-stop-it/

I have been making my own toothpaste for probably close to 10 years. The recipe is very simple and (based on visits to the dentist) very effective.

Combine:

1/2 cup Xylitol
6 heaping teaspoons coconut oil
Essential oil to taste (I use 25 drops of orange Doterra oil)

Store in a small, flat jar and use as you would regular toothpaste.

4 Tablespoons Coconut oil
1/2 Tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon bentonite clay
50-60 drops peppermint oil or tincture
~1 teaspoon liquid stevia (or not)

Mine is similar to what others have posted already.

1/4 c bentonite
3 Tbsp calcium carbonate
1 Tbsp baking soda
1 Tbsp powdered green tea (optional)
30 drops essential oils (mint, cloves, fennel, myrrh, etc.)

Blend oils into dry ingredients using a mortar and pestle or mixer. Store in glass jars.

I've been making a toothpowder instead of a paste using equal parts baking soda and diatomaceous earth. I abandoned commercial toothpaste a year and a half ago, and since doing so my gums no longer bleed when brushing. It used to be my gums bled every time I brushed, morning and night. Now they may if I brush too aggressively, like if I'm in a hurry, but only where I have a couple spots in-between a couple particular teeth that might bleed. Also, I am happy to say a molar that had become quite painfully sensitive to cold things has greatly improved. Two years ago I thought that molar was destined for a crown, root canal, or extraction and now I think i have saved that tooth, at least for the time being. It's still a little sensitive to cold but only mildly so - it's not painful anymore. I think it's possible that the molar may still be on an upward trend of healing and improvement, and in another 12 or 18 months I think it's possible it may no longer have any sensitivity.

I make 'tooth tablets'. They travel better than anything else I've tried.

Ingredients:
Activated charcoal
bentonite
Baking soda
Essential oils (opt, but recommended)
Liquid castile soap, pure, unscented (I use DrBronner's unscented 'baby')

I blend equal parts activated charcoal, bentonite, and baking soda, in a glass or ceramic bowl, not metal.

Then, in a separate, tiny bowl or bottle, combine clove essential oil (my teeth are stupidly sensitive) & cinnamon essential oil (I like it, and this is optional, & can be substituted with any safe one you like), to a scent combination you like. Sometimes I want more cinnamon, sometimes peppermint, but I've thought about using sweet orange, lemon, or bergamot, too - all blend beautifully with clove).

Add just enough castile to the powder to make a stiff dough. Add essential oils just until the scent is pleasant - no stronger, because once finished, this will be much stronger. Combine very well, then add just enough additional castile to make the dough workable. The less you add, the sooner you'll be able to package the tablets up. Once everything is uniformly combined, roll it out on a cutting board, parchment, or waxed paper (it will likely 'stain' whatever you put it on, but can actually whiten your teeth), to a thickness of about 1/8inch. Then, I use a pizza cutter, and cut it all into squares about 1/4 inch, but don't try to separate them. Set aside for a couple days, or put into a dehydrator, or however you want to dehydrate them. Once you're sure they're hard, with no moisture left, break them apart and store in an airtight jar.

I've found that 1/2C each of the powders makes about a year's supply, for me. To use, pop one into your mouth, chew it up, and brush. If you leave it on your teeth for 10 - 15 minutes, it will help whiten your teeth.

Great thread, thanks, Adrienne! I've mostly used this recipe for a remineralizing toothpaste over the last few years:

   1/2 c. bentonite clay
   3 Tbsp. xylitol powder
   4 Tbsp. coconut oil, warmed to liquid
   20 drops cinnamon essential oil
   20 drops clove essential oil
   30 drops Concentrace (or other) trace minerals
   3 Tbsp. water (possibly more)

But I think next time I'll try a tooth powder like the recipe given in the Herbal Basics online course through HerbMentor (this link probably won't work without a membership):

   1/4 c. white kaolin clay (I'll use bentonite because it's what I have)
   1/4 c. baking soda
   1/4 c. fine sea salt
   1 Tbsp. dried sage (Salvia officinalis) leaf
   30 drops spearmint (Mentha x piperita) essential oil (I'll use cinnamon and clove like the above instead -- assuming it smells like it'll go OK with the sage -- because we prefer it and there are oral health benefits to those)

I may add some xylitol to the above as well. I like the idea of grinding up and using dried sage in it. The course says it helps to whiten teeth, and anyway, I really like sage.

I make toothpaste for myself and my kiddos, but we use it only in the mornings. We use a "natural" store-bought toothpaste in the evenings, followed by a xylitol rinse (I buy these at the health food store). This is because the toothpaste that I make is not a great stain remover (and we eat a lot of greens and grapes, which stain our teeth GREEN).

My recipe is similar to those above.

4 Tblsp Bentonite clay
2 Tblsp Xylitol
1/4 tsp Sea salt
1/4 cup more or less distilled water
2 Tblsp Coconut oil
10-20 drops pure spearmint essential oil

I NEVER use baking soda in my toothpaste recipes because it TEARS UP MY MOUTH...literally!

I may be adding cacao powder to my toothpaste soon, and changing the spearmint oil to anise. But this is what we've been doing for years and it works for us. :)

Hi All!
I've been making my own toothpaste for some time as well - I experimented with a few but I really like things basic.  I use Bentonite clay, DT Earth, peppermint oil and coconut oil - all to taste and to sight. it comes out a little differently each time!  I will definitely be trying some of these suggestions.

I also am working on making all of my own toiletries, and have eliminated cosmetics from my "diet" entirely, which was really hard but worth it. I guess the only exception might be essential oils.

I love this community and the information sharing that takes place! Thanks everyone!
Dawn

Baking soda, all by itself. It's so easy!!  I am sensitive to SLS (Sodium Laurel Sulfate) which is in many personal care items and which many people are sensitive to.

Here is my current recipe for DIY remineralizing toothpaste.  I assembled it by picking and choosing the bits that appealed to me from several recipes posted on various blogs and from the ingredients list of at least one natural toothpaste brand.

• 3T xylitol (NOTE run through spice grinder to produce a fine powder)
• 2T calcium carbonate (NOTE look for small particle size to reduce abrasiveness – I ordered from myworldhut.com @ 2 microns)
• 2T magnesium carbonate
• 2T sodium bentonite clay (NOTE calcium bentonite also good; a bit more $)
• 2T baking soda
• 1T food grade diatomaceous earth
• 1T powdered cinnamon
• 1T powdered turmeric
• .5T sea salt (NOTE run through spice grinder to produce a fine powder)
• .5T powdered clove
• .5T powdered licorice root
• .5T fennel seed (NOTE run through spice grinder to produce a fine powder, and then through a fine strainer to remove residual gritty bits)
• 3T – 5T coconut oil (NOTE add liquefied oil incrementally and stir in until achieve desired texture)

I adjusted this recipe slightly, based on my initial results. For instance, my first batch was just slightly gritty, caused I believe from failing to strain the ground fennel seed.  Also, I initially used twice as much salt, with the result being noticeably salty.  I didn't mind this, but other people found it quite unsettling (why?!) that a toothpaste would be salty tasting.

This basic recipe yields maybe a half pint of brown toothpaste, which my ex-GF called "Matthew's fun mud."  Would be a good name to market it to kids!  It should be shelf stable more or less indefinitely.  Still, if you don't want to make a year's supply all at once, just substitute a teaspoon or even a half-teaspoon measure for my tablespoon measure.

I found it quite effective.  And of course, perfectly safe to swallow.  It takes some people time to break themselves from the notion that a toothpaste should foam in your mouth.  But once you have, then I found this left my mouth feeling quite nice.

Probably the biggest lesson I learnt was that my basic recipe, as related above, is way too stiff!  Coconut oil, of course, straddles the line between liquid and solid: it will melt at warm room temperatures, but go solid again in cool room temperatures.  I expected it would be stiff during the winter, but found that my toothpaste was quite solid on all but the absolute hottest days of the year.  If your house has AC, as mine does not, then it will be solid for you year round.

To fix this, I might try adding more coconut oil, and/or adding other liquid oils - sweet almond oil might be a good choice - to create a creamier mixture that can easily be scooped onto a toothbrush.

But I actually think for my next batch I will instead include no oils at all, and use it as a tooth powder.  Will report back after I've used it for a while.

I love all the recipes and may give some of them a try! I have made some small changes to a recipe I found from Wellness Mama She does it in parts and I think that is great, but I usually just do it in tablespoons and it is a rough estimate. I do leave out the optional DE just because it was a bit too abrasive on my gums, I think I probably brush too hard.... The recipe has some distinct similarities to some posted here. I do like that it is simple as that works for me.

Like the previous person noted, the coconut oil alone can leave it a bit too stiff to spread in winter. To fix this, during the colder months I add a tiny bit of vegetable glycerine or a liquid oil. I tried olive oil and was not super fond of the taste, sweet almond oil did work well for me. I was also planning on trying walnut at some point.

5T Calcium Carbonate
4T melted coconut oil
3T Xylitol
2T Baking soda
1/2tsp finely ground sea salt
Essential oil mix (I like peppermint and use between 20-40 drops for this amount.)

(If it is cold, use about 3T coconut oil and 1T liquid vegetable/nut/seed oil of choice. This may take more liquid oil in a colder environment than the 6b I am accustomed to.)

I do feel I have much better oral health since going away from commercial brands. Thank you for sharing everyone and good luck in your quest for the perfect oral care!

Hi All;  
I see some great recipes here! Some we have tried and some we may soon try.
We are currently using store bought toothpaste, "Earthpaste"   a natural clay base toothpaste, it has non gmo xylitol in it.
Many natural products will.

I  notice several recipes that included "xylitol" a natural alcohol commonly used as a "sugar free" substitute.
For those that do not know, xylitol is extremely toxic to dogs.
Here is a quote from web MD.
"Dog owners should know that xylitol can be toxic to dogs, even when the relatively small amounts from candies are eaten. If your dog eats a product that contains xylitol, it is important to take the dog to a veterinarian immediately."

Simple care should be taken having this around your dogs. Never give them a product with xylitol in it and please take them to a vet quickly if they accidentally ingest some.

thomas rubino wrote:I  notice several recipes that included "xylitol" a natural alcohol commonly used as a "sugar free" substitute.
For those that do not know, xylitol is extremely toxic to dogs.

Good point!  Never share your toothpaste or tooth brush with your dog  : )

Seriously though, pet owners who keep xylitol in the kitchen should absolutely take precautions to keep curious/hungry dogs away from it.

Xylitol is a naturally occurring sugar alcohol extracted chemically from certain cellulose plant materials.  It's been on the market for at least 70 years.  It is, as noted above, widely used as a sugar substitute for diabetics, as well as for us general health freaks.  It has about 60% of the calories of sugar, but because it is digested differently, only about 6% of the glycemic index.  Of all sugar substitutes I'm aware of, it has the best taste.  You might be able to distinguish it from sucrose in a blind taste test, but then again you might not.  I love the stuff and use it in almost any recipe calling for sugar, at least if I don' want to sub honey or maple instead.  Just be sure to use real sugar in any situation calling for fermentation, like brewing kombucha, since xylitol is anti-microbial.

Nota bene: When using in the kitchen, be aware that xylitol doesn't dissolve quite as easily as sugar, so you want to give it extra time or extra heat or pre-dissolve it in order to avoid adding a gritty consistency in some recipes.  Also, while the manufacturer advises you to sub 1:1 for sugar, I find that it is just slightly less sweet.  If I really really want my recipe to turn out 100% as sweet, I might add an extra 10% or 15% xylitol.

Xylitol is included in the recipes above because it has well-studied benefits for oral hygiene.  Rather than feeding mouth bacteria, as does sugar, it actively inhibits them.  For this reason, it's long been used as a sweetener for chewing gums.

When buying xylitol for use in DIY toothpaste or tooth powder, be sure to look for the following, available via several brands on Amazon: 1) "made in USA," and 2) sourced 100% from birch trees!

If it isn't birch xylitol, then the common cellulose source used is corn cobs.  That means that, even if it is made in USA, it is almost certainly GMO.  And if it includes imported corn cobs (i.e. Chinese), then who knows what additional quality control considerations might also come into play.