Natural Dental Care at Home

Maintaining a bright smile is something that EnviroCitizen.org has found can be done in a green way. Natural therapies for oral hygiene can boost your gum disease fighting power both inside and out. Here are a few ways to keep those pearly whites nice and sparkly.

Certain herbs have antibacterial properties and can aid in your oral hygiene routine as well as make your breath smell a little sweeter. Essential oils of almond, peppermint and spearmint, for example, may all be rubbed around the base of the gums as therapies for oral hygiene. Tea tree oil has even more bacterial-fighting agents than the essential oils previously mentioned as therapies for oral hygiene. Adding a few drops of tea tree oil to your toothbrush during regular brushing will leave your gums feeling clean and invigorated. Green tea has been credited for centuries as one of the best natural agents for oral hygiene. The Chinese have used green tea as an oral rinse for daily mouth care for centuries, too.

A natural alternative to toothpaste is simply using baking soda to brush teeth. It can be flavored using stevia for a non-sugar sweetener to make the taste bearable. Ordinarily baking soda is often considered to be one of the best oral antibacterial substances out there. When brushing with baking soda, make sure the soda is thoroughly moistened. Also, take care to brush gently. For extra cleansing power, rinse your toothbrush in food-grade hydrogen peroxide before brushing.

To whiten teeth naturally, you can use three things found in most homes. Simply mix together hydrogen peroxide with baking soda and lemon juice in a dish. Brush the mixture over your teeth and leave it on for about fifteen minutes. Then, rinse it very thoroughly. This takes more time than commercial whiteners, but it is much safer for you and the Earth and results in much less waste.

EnviroCitizen.org knows how desirable a nice white smile can be, which is why we suggest researching ways that you can accomplish this without putting your health or the health of our planet at risk. As a rule of thumb, if you can't swallow an oral hygiene product, don't use it! Also, if you don't recognize the ingredients in a product that you put in your mouth or on your skin it's probably not a good idea to use it!

Check out EnviroCitizen.org's selection of natural dental care products.