Brushing your teeth every day is important for keeping your mouth, gums, and teeth as healthy as possible. However, conventional toothpaste is filled with a lot of ingredients that are not so nice to our teeth, mouths, and bodies as a whole.
Conventional toothpaste is filled with a lot of chemicals and additives that are not safe for human use. Artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, sugars, and microbeads are just a few of the ingredients you need to avoid in most toothpaste. Fluoride is the ingredient that is the worst offender in toothpaste. Every time you brush your teeth you will swallow little bits of fluoride. If you brush your teeth twice per day every single day, you are swallowing a lot of this toxic chemical over the course of months and years.
This toxic chemical can buildup in your body and cause a lot of problems in the future that you can easily avoid with fluoride-free toothpaste and natural toothpaste.
Even though natural and organic toothpaste is available almost everywhere, sometimes you may just want to try a toothpaste alternative. Perhaps you are not happy with the way your natural toothpaste is performing or you are allergic to a certain ingredient and you cannot seem to find a store-bought toothpaste without it.
Whatever your reason, there are loads of toothpaste alternatives out there to try that work just as well, if not better, than any of the regular kinds of toothpaste you can buy!
Below we take a look at some of the best and most unique toothpaste alternatives you can try starting today:
1. Baking Soda
Baking soda is found in many kinds of toothpaste because it is great for cleaning and polishing teeth. Baking soda is known to gently remove stains and discoloration from the teeth, leaving your teeth with a bright white sheen. The grittiness of the baking soda also helps to remove plaque and tartar buildup from your teeth and gums.
You should not use baking soda on your teeth every day since its abrasive nature can chip away at your enamel over time. Use a few times per week at most to make sure you are not damaging your teeth.
2. Coconut Oil
Coconut oil is another great toothpaste alternative and it is safer to use than baking soda, so you can brush with coconut oil every day. When you brush with coconut oil, you have to make sure you are using raw, organic, and unrefined oil. This ensures that all of the beneficial properties and minerals are still present in the coconut oil.
Coconut oil is antibacterial and antifungal, so it cleans your mouth, teeth, and gums extremely well. It helps fight bad breath and leaves your mouth feeling fresh and clean. Interestingly, coconut oil is another a powerful ingredient for whitening your teeth.
A popular combination for making at home is to mix coconut oil and baking soda together and to brush with the combo a few times per week. This way you get both of the benefits from each ingredient and it is easier to store in a container in your bathroom to use when you need to during the week.
3. Tooth Powder
If you are looking to buy a specific product that is for your teeth but do not want to use toothpaste, using a tooth powder is a great alternative. Tooth powder is a powder made from a combination of ingredients. You wet your brush, dip it into the powder, and brush your teeth.
This option may take some time getting used to because of the gritty and powdery texture. It does not foam, suds, act like regular toothpaste in any way. Tooth powder is a good choice if you have sensitive teeth, and looking to re-mineralize your teeth, or need or want to stay away from toothpaste.
4. Water
Believe it or not, many people feel you do not need to use a product on your teeth at all and that brushing with water is all you need. Brushing your teeth with water still cleans away food debris, tartar, and plaque and will make your teeth feel clean.
This option is definitely not for everyone and is one of the most extreme options. There are a lot of beneficial ingredients for your teeth and gums in natural and organic toothpaste, or any of the toothpaste alternatives above. Choosing to simply brush with water and nothing else is a personal decision and maybe decided upon for a wide variety of reasons.
It is always a good idea to speak with your dentist about different options for brushing your teeth and to make sure how you are taking care of your gums, teeth, and mouth is suitable as a whole.
This article was last updated on May 6, 2022 .