I need to xylitol and get off my butt and make it again. The recipe I use also adds in bentonite clay, which helps draw out toxins and crap in general (seriously, bentonite clay is crazy stuff). I've done clove and cinnamon essential oil, but I've got a whole slew of other essential oils now that I can't wait to try out.

Hummm and now I know what to do with the big bag of Xylitol.
I bought mine at a health food store. It is not expensive.

@grannyMay. Do you worry about the coconut oil going down the drain and plugging it up or do you spit it out in the trash.

Forgot Thanks for sharing this.

When adding your Bentonite, be careful not to allow metal near it (spoon or jar, etc) - it 'deactivates' some of its beneficial properties.

Ooh this looks great, thank you for sharing!

I just defeated my pack rat ways and threw out some containers yesterday that would have been perfect for storing a custom paste. Figures!

I'm lazy, I use Earthpaste. Ingredients: http://www.earthpaste.com/about-earthpaste/

The lemon is lovely.

I got lectured at my dentist's office today about fluoride, making my own toothpaste. Thoughts?

KnitOrMiss wrote: »

I got lectured at my dentist's office today about fluoride, making my own toothpaste. Thoughts?

Fluoride is a toxin that makes me throw up when it's in mouthwash, why would I want it in my toothpaste? Plus, my teeth are no longer sensitive and I'm not getting any cavities since I started using toothpaste made from real ingredients.

KnitOrMiss wrote: »

I got lectured at my dentist's office today about fluoride, making my own toothpaste. Thoughts?

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Diet matters far more than fluoride, in my opinion. If anything about brushing matters most, it's the technique used. It's great fun having the right technique, being horrible about brushing habit, and being told by the dentist that I "sure know [my] way around a toothbrush."

Check out the Bass brushing technique. Does wonders.

Note: I know this is long and it is in no-way meant as a lecture. I just find this very, very interesting!

Actually, adding fluoride to water stems from the research of a dentist named Frederick McKay. He spent about 30 years studying what was then known as the Colorodo Brown stain. Trying to find out why these people as a population had brown mottled teet but yet had not cavities. Long story short, the amount of fluoride in their ground water (which of course was also their drinking water) had elevated levels of fluoride. So, many moons ago, it was well meaning.

I asked my dentist about it a while back as I also have a business making and selling natural products and I had been wanting to sell the natural tooth powder I had been using for eons. (Note: I am not advocating for fluoride in the drinking water and make my own tooth paste similar to the recipes above that do not have fluoride). In his opinion (and he is very open minded) fluoride is extremely necessary for the formation of the teeth and bones (so kids) and supplementation regimes as a society would rarely be followed. So drinking water is the surest way. But as octobubbles pointed out, perhaps (likely) we should really be revisiting the likely hood that people are now getting enough fluoride in their diet naturally as the average North American Diet has changed, though I have my suspensions as fluoride is seen now as the devil incarnate. That being said, once you are an adult, this is not necessary and even harmful as in *some* cases can lead to brittleness in the bones when internal levels are too high. But this also depends on other factors, like how much you naturally get from your diet. Fact being too much fluoride (whatever that may be) can lead to those effects. What is helpful is topical application. Throughout your life topical application (in toothpaste or at the dentist or rinses from the drugstore) has been shown to help to strengthen teeth (he had a really long explanation of why and how) without negatively effecting the internal levels leading to undesired situations.

But my take.... did you know you get radiation in your daily food? Especially bananas (which most people here probably don't eat a lot of) Do you know that an engineer at a nuclear facility gets exposed to less radiation in years of working there than you would from one x-ray? But we don't question the safety of an x-ray. We're all different and you have to decide what feels right for you.

Don't have problems now? Don't use fluoride now? Don't worry. Don't start. Haven't ever had problems and want to stop fluoride? I'd first stop drinking your tap water rather than worry about your tooth paste. And of course that being said, I personally make my fluoride free tooth paste #1 because I like the taste better, #2 my teeth feel cleaner. BUT I do get that goopy fluoride treatment whenever I'm at the dentist, AND my dentist has also commended me on how white my teeth are and how little plaque build up I have each visit. But I do have "soft" teeth that still get cavities in weird spots. Like in the front of my front tooth! As if! (That's what the dentist said too) So I do use a flouride rinse once a week and it actually is reducing the size of the cavity. We spotted it 4 years ago. Not bad enough to warrant tampering with as long as we kept an eye on it. 4 years later, He's pretty sure it is getting smaller. He's still not eager to tamper. (Love my dentist). So there ya go. For what it's worth.

NB- I researched the crap outta this before I started selling my tooth powder as there is sooooo much info out there from each side. Balance. Balance.

Oh Whew! thank you Granny May. I really meant my post to be helpful, not otherwise.

but yeah, that goop is awful isn't it? Last time I went they gave me Pina Colada flavour. Afterwards she asked me how it was. I told her it was the worst Pina Colada I'd ever had!