Getting away from commercial toothpastes

To get away from fluoride and other nasty chemicals in today's toothpastes, make your own.

1 tablespoon of bentonite clay
a small pinch of sea salt
a pinch of baking soda
+ 6 tablespoons of water.

Mix it up, cover it up, and in a few hours you'll have a natural tooth-mud that'll scrub your teeth up really well. I add three drops of clove essential oil to mine. Make sure you mix WELL!!!! You don't want pure clove oil in your mouth, it'll be too strong and burn. Don't like clove? Use spearmint or peppermint essential oil. Or how about orange or lemon oil? A drop of tea tree oil is a perfect additive to any of these oils to make sure you're fighting germs and keeping your mouth in tip top shape.

It takes 8-10 hours for the clay to soak up all the water properly. That recipe I gave will make enough toothpaste for one person for a week, brushing 2-3 times a day. I know one tablespoon seems like a ridiculously small amount of product but trust me- clay expands! And you're using SIX tablespoons of water so it'll fluff up quite a bit. This recipe is deceptively thick looking. Don't be fooled. And don't thin it out any more than six tablespoons of water or you will not get the scrubbing action your teeth need. It's very smooth feeling, but the clay has to be of a certain concentration for it to do you any good.

I keep mine in very small glass candy dish with glass lid. Tupperware makes some nifty little glass containers nowadays which have easy-off rubber lids. Most are less than $3.

You can use a small spoon or stick to scrape up the amount you want up onto your toothbrush. Me, I just use my index finger. It's my own toothpaste so I'm not concerned with germs. 

One word of caution on making a batch for more than one person. I highly recommend not making more than what can be used in a week at any given time, no matter how many people are dipping into that container. The essential oils tend to get dull and aren't as effective.

When the last bit is used up at the end of the night then just whip up some more. It's quick and very VERY easy!

If you think the clay near the bottom isn't as potent when you get to it you can always add a drop of essential oil.

Have fun with it. This recipe is the basic bare-bones recipe and you can tweak the essential oils to your heart's content.

Be healthy! Hugs to all!