Why I don’t use toothpaste

I bet that got your attention. It is definitely not a good opening line when meeting new people, so I use caution – but will share with you today anyways.

So a few months back my toothpaste started to really bother me, not that it was not working – but that I could not pronounce what was in it and it was in wasteful plastic. After digging around online to find alternatives, I read that baking soda was supposed to work great. But I recall Mema using this, and that while it cleaned she said it was harsh on the gums. So I read some more and found out that if you brush daily with baking soda it is like basically taking sandpaper to your teeth and gums. Ok so that was not a winner. Time too keep reading around then.

I came across this book “Good teeth, birth to death” by Dr. Judd. Dr. Judd explains that when we brush our teeth with conventional tooth paste that the glycerin in the toothpaste (all have it, even organic ones) coats are teeth. This is what the glycerin is there to do, protect the teeth from stains. However, if you have this coat of ‘gunk’ (if you will), on your teeth then your enamel will not regrow. So then your teeth are just getting beat up, then covered with a thin barrier wall. Sure this barrier wall is great, but it is not natural and has adverse side effects. If you have a layer of glycerin on your teeth they can not repair themselves, thus you get sensitive teeth or cavities or rot. And the fluoride in your toothpaste it not helping. Before fluoride was used for the teeth it was used as rat poison. yeah. ekk.

Dr. Judds lays out some things to do like make sure you are getting enough vitamins like calcium to have strong bones and to rinse your mouth after eating – especially well when eating acidic foods, just a swish of water around the mouth will do. You can order the book, or read it all here as DR Judd has allowed in the copyright for anyone to reproduce it. Dr. Judd is a chemistry professor and he is now in his 80′s with prefect teeth. He recommends that you avoid fluoride with all cost to, as it does not protect the teeth, and can harm the body. You know, those kid toothpaste tubes say to monitor your kids till you know they will not swallow and only give them a pea sized amount – but if they do swallow to call poison control, this should be a red flag to us!

I did not need to do much more reading before I decided that I was going to give it a try. I am one for jumping on these experiments. So I went to the store in hunt of a glycerin free bar of soap – as Dr. Judd says to use. (don’t use liquid, it supposedly does not work as well) I bought the only bar I could find that was plastic free and glycerin free. I was abit skeptical at this point, as I bought a bar of 100% olive oil soap and just could not imagine that it would be palatable. But I was committed, so I decided to suck it up. It is a rather simple process, wet your tooth brush and rub it over the bar a few times. Then brush as normal. The first 2 times the taste bothered me a tiny bit, but was manageable. By the time a week had gone by I did not even notice the taste anymore! And the most amazing part is that my teeth felt like I had just been to the dentist.. I could not stop running my tongue over them! They were so slick and so so clean feeling. And it just gets better, they stay that was all day – 3 meals later I still had slippery teeth! Since there is not a layer of gunk to catch the food, they stay smooth.

I am now a few months into this, and my sensitive spots have gone away. At times you can tell where you teeth are rebuilding themselves. At first I was alarmed by this and had to do a crazy amount of googling before I found out that this was normal. What might happen, if yours do this, is that there will be what feels like a new bump in your teeth. If you poke at it it will kinda crunch away, but try not to. From what I understand it is like your teeth form a barrier of its own over a ‘bad’ spot while it does maintenance. Your teeth somehow repair themselves then this ‘barrier’ just goes away and a happy new layer of enamel is there. Another great benefit of this is that new/renewing enamel means your teeth will be whitening themselves! At first your new enamel will not match your old enamel. It is supposed to take around 6 months for the whole tooth to re-enamel and then the colors will all match. My teeth are the most white at my gums, and it seems that it is slowly working down. I do have a few very white spots throughout too.

So you brush with soap every day. Then you also need to do this: once a month take a pinch of baking soda and wet your tooth brush to brush with it. NB: Be very careful to avoid the gums, just brush the teeth. This is to help with any build up that might have occurred, so brush very thoroughly. If you have never brushed with baking soda, it is salty so avoid the tongue too! One of the reasons that it will take around 6 months before you will see a complete change it that conventional toothpaste takes something like 40 washes to remove it and the glycerin from your teeth. Don’t get impatient, you will see results.

I read this a account of one ladies experience, she said that for the first 3 months when her teeth were ‘naked’ they felt abit more sensitive. I however have not had this issue. But I just wanted to put it out there. She said that it went away and she has not had any issues ever again. She also went on to say that around the 6 month mark she was shocked at how white her teeth were – and that it looked as if she had white veneers put on.

I have recently tried another bar of soap out of curiosity. I am working to convince Ole that he too can use a bar of soap so I was wanting to find one that had the least taste. I tried a bar of Dr. Bronners mint, I was hoping that it might have or leave that minty taste. I found that it tasted to soap and that the mint essential oil in it somewhat stung my mouth. I would suggest going to your local store and hunting a pure oil soap with no essential oils. It might take some stores actually. Read the labels, ask questions. Make sure to avoid glycerin in the soap, and I will also suggest to avoid essential oils. My soap is 100% olive oil that has been saponified.

So as promised to some of you, I am posting photos of my teeth from before and current. I will post an update in 3-4 months with more results, as I am sure I will see more changes. I would like to point out that my goal is not for white teeth, I do not want Hollywood teeth – I want healthy teeth!

The first photo is from before when I was using toothpaste. The middle one is a month in. The 3rd photo is from April. Sorry they are not the best photos ever. Has been hard to get a good photo of teeth upclose.

Let me know your thoughts! Or if you have any questions.

UPDATE June 1, 2011
I just wanted to post an update, it is a great one! My younger sister, who is 12, had been to the dentist earlier this year (I think in February) and was told she had a cavity and to come back in a few months to get it fixed. Around that same time I had switched to brushing with soap, and she eagerly switched over to brushing with soap just after me. I had mentioned it to my dad, and he was on board and she wanted to join – I loved hearing that she was wanting to and understood the benefits.

So this week she went back to the dentist, there has been much talk about if this ‘soap and re-enameling healing’ stuff worked in our family, we have had our fingers crossed hoping it was so, so she could save her ‘adult’ tooth in whole. So my dad decided to no tell the dentist their new practice till the end, he wanted a non-bias appointment. So here is the good news – the dentist actually refused to fill her tooth, saying that it was healing and doing great. He said she had great levels of phosphorus (I think it was this?) and calcium in her salvia and her teeth were looking great and to keep doing what she was doing. At this point, my dad and sister did tell the dentist what they were doing.. and of course he had to get all doctor on them saying that it was not good to do,and they should basically use chemicals – haha, I had to laugh when my dad told me this since the dentist had just told them whatever they were doing was working great!

I am thrilled that my little sister was able to keep her tooth! It is just a great reassurance to me that brushing with soap and getting enough vitamins through your food makes for great teeth!