Posts Tagged ‘Teeth’
There’s a contest over at Uppercase Woman to win an iPad 2, sponsored by Buy More Contacts – head on over there for a chance to win one yourself! If you haven’t had a chance to get to know Cecily, you should. She’s an honest writer, even when it’s uncomfortable. I appreciate that.
She shared a story about getting contact lenses when she was a teen, which inspired me to share my story too.
If you haven’t been keeping up with Live Green Mom, I grew up in Texas with three sisters and a single mom that was all about being a Born Again Christian. She even became an ordained minister. I don’t know how to explain the whole thing well, but she believed in faith healing, speaking in tongues, and the casting out of demons.
We all have those nights.
Husband is out.
You are tired and you are still staring down the barrel of a kitchen waiting for dinner to be prepared & served. Well it looks like it’s an Annie’s mac & cheese night. Hey, it’s organic. Don’t judge.
All right, I know, I have been circling the airport, time to land.
Remember – I was not paid or solicited to review any product here.
My research on toothpaste opened my eyes, I hope for you as well. I am going to eliminate the commercial toothpaste in my household and replace it with natural toothpastes. It is already done. I know that many parents will say, ‘But what about fluoride? Aren’t you worried about cavities?” What I realize is that we cannot be lazy and depend on a toothpaste to take the place of good dental habits. It isn’t too late to start instilling these habits in our children. I know, I have been working on it all through 2009. We need to teach them to floss and to brush carefully. The hard part about this is the “we teach them to floss” part. You start when they are little and it is no big deal, it is 
just part of your family routine. The later you start, the harder it is, but not impossible. I started flossing my almost 6 year old and 8 year old early last year. I use the dental picks because their mouths are small and my hands are big. Try and floss with the regular stuff and you have a drooly kid protesting the whole time. I have been weening them off and using up the last of the picks right now. (I even pick them out of the bathroom garbage to throw them into the recycle bins. My husband calls it ‘wishful recycling’ You will hear this phrase more in later posts). My children have friends getting cavities between their tight little first set of teeth. Most of us have not been vigilant in flossing our kids’ teeth. I wasn’t. Our kids also eat sticky candies, foods and snacks that sit on their teeth as an added culprit. There is no blame or judgment from me here – only a learning process we can all benefit from.
Shall we begin?
I want to note that I would have liked to try out even more brands of toothpaste. But natural toothpaste is not cheap. And I worry with natural ingredients, if I have many tubes lying around opened, reviewed, and waiting to get use, some might not retain it’s quality, or freshness. If you have tried a natural toothpaste, and have an opinion, please let me know, I ‘d love to post it.
First of all, I have used Tom’s of Maine toothpaste on and off throughout the years. My husband despises the taste of the one I have used, spearmint anti-cavity. With fluoride. (I know, I know, I have been kicking fluoride to the curb and here it is in a natural product. More on that later.) He doesn’t like the baking soda aftertaste. I don’t mind it. So he promised, in the spirit of being supportive towards my efforts. I dashed off to Whole Foods (which has an incredible selection of natural toothpastes!) to find him one he might like.
I picked a Tom’s brand over others because there was a $2 off the $5.99 price coupon hanging there. Couldn’t pass that up. It is sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS from here on) free. I mentioned the horrors of SLS in my first post on the whole toothpaste thing. And it is fluoride free. I tried it first and found it to be a much more subtle flavor. The spearmint anti-cavity I had been using has a stronger flavor. This one was more agreeable. Even my husband said “It’s not so bad, I guess we can switch.” To me – victory! I give it a GREEN LIGHT!
I can only guess why Tom’s of Maine uses fluoride. Some people really want it in their toothpaste, natural or not. No biggie. They make fluoride free toothpaste too. Widening their customer base, can’t blame them. They do use SLS in the toothpaste unless otherwise noted. Their website had this to say:
“SLS is not the only foaming or dispersal agent available, but we believe it is the best choice due to its long history of safe use, its lack of odor or taste, and its low level of concentration in our products. For those of our consumers who prefer to use a toothpaste without SLS, we also offer a line of SLS-free toothpastes which use glycyrrhizin, derived from licorice root, to foam and disperse ingredients”
Their website is very thorough. It explains all ingredients as well as why they choose to use some of them.
The next product I tried was children’s toothpaste. This is a tricky one. Kids, like adults, are used to sweet, goopy toothpaste. So I 
was expecting a battle. I put Tom’s of Maine Silly Strawberry ($3.09 at target with fluoride, $3.70 at Whole
Foods but with a $2 off coupon – score!) in the downstairs bathroom and upstairs Kiss My face Obsessively Natural ($5.99 at Whole Foods) with, yes, fluoride. People, I bought all this 2 days before my research. I have already thrown away 2 tubes of Colgate around here, I can’t go throwing out this stuff. I will know better next time around. I tasted both and have to say the Tom’s strawberry was odd. I was not hopeful about this one. The Kiss My Face Berry Smart was a bit more tasty. Max did not like the Tom’s Silly Strawberry. He preferred the Kiss My Face. Sophie was the opposite, she liked Tom’s over Kiss My Face. Now I have both kids running to different bathrooms when it’s time to brush their teeth. I expected more of a struggle over the taste. So, GREEN LIGHT for both of these! I was prepared to give them a speech about how brushing your teeth doesn’t have to be a gourmet experience, for a 1-2 minute procedure twice a day. Instead, I had to use that bit on my husband.
I also tried out an Eco-Dent Terradent (soft) toothbrush. I saw it at Whole Foods and thought it would be a good addition to this review. The kids and adult were $5.79 each and includes one extra head. (A 3-pack refill costs $5.75 at Whole Foods.) 
You replace only the heads of the toothbrush when you are ready, instead of the whole brush. What a green concept! Less waste! And if you compare the price to other kid toothbrushes on the market, it is comparable, if you take into account how little it costs to just replace the heads. This brush boasts “lowest bacterial load for healthier teeth & gums” I tried it out right away. Right away I noticed that for me, the ‘soft’ head was more like a ‘medium’ head. They should have an ‘extra soft’ selection, but they did not. My husband can only use an ‘extra-soft” brush. The head was also a bit small for me. My husband and I like bigger toothbrush heads. Other than that, this brush performed nicely. The removable/replaceable head stayed in place no problem. I bought the kids their own brush. They are excited to use them, but to be fair, they always get excited over a new brush. I give it a GREEN LIGHT but with recommendations of softer bristles and a wider/larger head.
Another note: I throw our toothbrushes into the dishwasher or boiling water a couple of times a month, to sanitize them.
I know this was a long review, and I thank you for sticking with it to the end. Feedback! Gimme feedback!
To continue my discussion on toothpaste, an extension of yesterday’s post.
After doing some research online about toothpaste, if you recall, I found out that there are some very worrisome chemicals that we are putting in our mouth to ‘clean’ our teeth. I didn’t go into all of them, lest your eyes glaze over from chemical info overload and your interest wander from my blog. But by all means, Google “harmful toothpaste ingredients” and be prepared to be amazed. It isn’t just crazy, fanatical, clearly homemade websites with cheap graphics. There is much to learn. Dig in.
Today, let’s talk about how to brush your teeth. You think you already know, right? Wrong!
Our teeth have not been been dragged through the dirt and covered in Heaven knows what. Teeth have food on them and in between them. There is natural bacteria in your mouth. Man has had bacteria in his mouth forever. Don’t sweat it.
First, and very important, floss. I am going to say it again. FLOSS! FLOSS! FLOSS! My dentist told me when I was 22 that if I wanted to have my teeth for the rest of my life, then I should floss once a day. I took it to heart and ever since then, on a daily basis, I floss before I brush my teeth, before bed. I floss while watching the last bits of whatever I am watching on TV. No big deal. This is a gentle action, not *popping* it between the teeth then moving on to the next one. Check it out in the mirror. Push it down gently, scoot it down the sides of each tooth, and look! See all the stuff you are scooting out of your gums. (Don’t forget that last tooth in the back there!) This stuff is responsible for excess plaque, and can lead to gingivitis, inflammation and infection of the gum tissue surrounding the teeth. Plaque is a film of living and dead bacteria that grows on your teeth. When it isn’t removed properly, it can harden into what you know as tartar. That yellow-y hard build up along the gum line that the dental assistant s-c-r-a-p-e-s away at. Floss before you brush to loosen up what’s in there. You might get some initial bleeding or soreness in your gums at first. No biggie, this will pass as your gums get healthier.
Next, your toothbrush should be soft. Very soft. VERY, VERY SOFT. I used to believe that the harder the better, to scrape off all the bad stuff from my mouth that might cause me (small voice) bad breath. Geez, why so hard on all that soft tissue? What did it ever do to you?
Grab your fave natural toothpaste! Slap it on, and get to work gently massaging your entire mouth. Gums, teeth, tongue, roof of mouth. Do it slowly. Work your way around the mouth. No need to attack or punish your mouth. Hard brushing and brushes can be one of the causes of receding gums, a serious condition the dentists call “toothbrush trauma”, where the patient brushes too hard, too
often, or with too hard of a brush. You do NOT want receding gums, which can lead to a whole host of issues: sensitive teeth, swollen & painful gums, and bad breath, and cavities below the gumline, to name some of the lesser harmful issues. (See this article on more serious problems with receding gums.) No horizontal sawing motions. Make circles around the mouth. Same with the tongue. You wouldn’t vacuum back and forth in just one direction. Thorough. Gentle – but thorough.
After you are done, rinse, *swishy swishy* then spit. Done!
Please join me for my review of natural toothpastes next. I know – finally! But remember, I am on a journey of learning here, too. So what I learn along the way, I can pass it on to you. Score for all!
