Tooth powder.

On the pros and cons of tooth powders.

I teach herbal cosmetics for 2 days a year at a school thataway (points to the right). I've made tooth powders, toothpastes, and even toothbrushes.

Tooth powders are extremely easy to make. Here's a few recipes:

Tooth powder from fresh herb
1 dl fresh herb (salvia, thyme, peppermint, spearmint, and/or parsley)
½ dl seasalt
Chop up herb, mix in salt, dry in a dehydrator (on 40 deg. C) for a few hours. When dry: blend into powder, pour into jars.

Tooth powder using dried herb
2 tblsp dried peel of lemon or orange (organically grown!)
50 g soda
2 tsp salt
Blend to a powder. Citrus peel is rather tough, and therefore difficult to powder. I've usually gone the mortar-and-pestle route before putting the peel into the blender.

Ad hoc tooth powders using salt and/or soda
50 g soda and 2 tsp salt
or 50 g soda
or ½ dl salt
dried herb to taste
or 1-2 drops of an essential oil (EO)

Use any herbs or essential oils you fancy. Cinnamon is cool, both as a dried herb and as an EO, in tooth powder.
If you like the taste of anise you might appreciate aniseed, or fennel seed, or eucalyptus EO, or various other anisy herbs and/or EOs. I like thyme and parsley, so I use those.

Using tooth powders
Sprinkle some of it onto your wet toothbrush and brush away. When first making these I tried dipping the toothbrush into a jar of tooth powder -- this gets messy and un-powdery very fast.

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Related entries: Herb salts - Parsley salt