make own mouthwash?

Anyone have a good mouthwash recipe?

Hmmm. I had a great storbought mouthwash, and the ingrednts I am remembering are: cinnamon, tea tree, clove, and aloe vera, and witch hazel. I'm sorry I don't have the amounts!

Try finding a home distilling forum.

I use vegetable glycerin and essential oils for homemade toothpaste occasionally (I must admit I don't use it routinely). Carla Emery suggests simply chewing on mint leaves for a breath freshener! For toothpaste, she does recommend salt or plain baking soda and essential oils such as spearmint, peppermint, cinnamon, or cloves (pg 426 in Encyclopedia of Country Living). I've not ever made mouthwash, but I have chewed on leaves before--lemonbalm and mint!

Here's one that is supposed to even heal gums with beginning stages of gingivitis. Holistic Dental Health & How to Make Herbal Mouth Wash

Here's a remineralizing tooth powder (toothpaste replacement) recipe (I know you didn't ask for it, but it's worth sharing, I think.) The Benefits of Brushing With Tooth Powder ~ And a Make-Your-Own Recipe

Whatever recipe you make up you want to avoid glycerin as it coats the teeth preventing remineralization. I would also avoid alcohol as it is actually a cause of bad breath.

Aloe juice, aluminum free baking soda, essential oils of mint, clove, cinnamon, etc. That oughta be fine to start with, you can experiement a bit if you like, things like stevia to sweeten, or xylitol.

Rosemary steeped for 5 mins and diluted slightly is one of the best...
Nice evergreen taste after the fact...

I started using a salt water solution mixed with essential oils from tea trea and mint. I also have a vinegar infused with thyme,rosemary and tea tree. Im going to experiment with putting that into salt water. Seems to do well, but I cant smell my own breath....my wife hasnt complained so it must work to some degree, cause she would tell me if it didnt work!

This book:

Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World

has a mouthwash recipe in it, haven't tried it yet but plan to soon. But I have been brushing my teeth with a chew stick as described in the book for the last 2 months and love it! No more plastic for brush for this guy! There are recommended species of twig to use, so far oak makes the most sense in my situation, but I'd like to experiment with others if I can find alternatives not printed in this book.

The great things about brushing with a stick?

-the obvious one: it's completely natural, renewable, compostable, inexpensive, etc.

-you don't need toothpaste so brushing can be an enjoyable way to unwind while reading or just sitting instead of a daily chore performed standing in front of a bathroom sink.

-because it's not a chore, you're likely to be more through and pay better attention to your teeth while getting them really clean. To be cautious though, I'd recommend flossing more.

Water makes a pretty good mouth wash.

Commercial mouth washes containing strong antiseptics really mess up the natural ecology of the mouth,
so you really are better off with some strong flovoured water.

Really just staying away from sugars, staying hydrated and brushing your teeth with fluoride-free toothpaste should leave you breath all natural & delicious smelling.

I just use hydrogen peroxide

Normally I use a drop of teatreeoil in water once a day after flossing. That's what my holistic dentist recommended for daily use.

When a tooth broke I stepped it up a notch with a mixture of
20 drops teatreeoil
5 drops cinnamon oil
5 drops clove oil
In a 20 ml bottle, top up with water,
use 5 drops of this in a mouthful of water to prevent decay.

The tooth was taken out a few days back (wisdomtooth), with no signs of decay since it broke, and it was still alive and very healthy (but couldn't be fixed sadly).
Also, since using this mouthwash the extractionwound has healed over clearly in less then 48 hours without any signs of fever, infection or otherwise bad influences. Just a bit sore from the pulling and breaking.

The surgeon that did the extraction recommended sea salt in water as the best mouthwash.