Before toothpaste was produced commercially by large corporations like Colgate or GSK, people used to make their own version of toothpaste with household ingredients. My father would often tell the tale how he would brush his teeth with soot, which makes me reminisce about the recent resurgence of charcoal toothpaste and the similarities!
Some DIY enthusiasts are attempting to being this tradition back to the fore by creating their own toothpaste recipes.
A study in 2017 in the IOS Journal of Dental and Medical Sciences stated that homemade toothpaste can actually be affective in removing plaque. They examined a mix of coconut oil( this uses the oil pulling concept of saponification to remove plaque), stevia ( a sugar free sweetener) and baking soda ( an effective natural stain remover).
Although homemade toothpaste my be useful in reducing plaque scores, a key ingredient missing is Fluoride. Fluoride is vitally important to reduce caries and strengthen teeth and have been responsible for a huge reduction in caries globally over the past decades.
So, in a emergency situation a homemade toothpaste may provide a useful solution, for daily use a triclosan based flouridated toothpaste is recommended.
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