Who knew that tooth powders would become so popular in the last few years?
But did you know that toothpaste wasn't always how teeth cleaning was done?
In the name of full transparency, please be aware that this blog post contains affiliate links and any purchases made through such links will result in a small commission for me (at no extra cost to you).
A little history on cleaning teeth. Not going down the rabbit hole like I could, cause well if I'm honest with myself, I love history, and I could. Humans have been cleaning their teeth for thousands of years. They have evidence of this from cuneiform text found at archaeological sites in Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq. In 355 BC Hippocrates recommended a dentifrice powder for cleaning the teeth. There is examples for tooth brushes found in Egyptian tombs. Mind you they were not what we would expect to see today. They were more of a twig that had a splayed end that was used to ‘brush’ away debris that coated the teeth.
Dentifrice, or tooth powder was common in many cultures including the Egyptians, Chinese, middle east nations, and as mentions above, in Greek and Roman culture. It was part of standard hygiene practices.
The technology to brush teeth stayed the same for many centuries with random inventions from the medical community but these were usually only available to the wealthy. The stick ‘brush’ stayed relatively the only way the everyman cleaned his teeth or even just with their fingers.
In Egypt they used mixtures of green lead, verdigris, and incense while the Greeks and Romans used crushed bones and shells for their abrasives. Fine sands and pumice were used as well but it was discovered later that it was too abrasive. In Europe they used salt and strong acids. I was unable to find a source on what that meant, but I’m really hoping it’s just vinegar.
Modern, and I say that loosely, toothpaste began to be developed in the 18th century and was usually homemade. Apothecaries did start to brand and sell their own as well. A paste made of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide was largely the basis of these pastes and they would add things like cinnamon or mint to make it more pleasant, though as someone who has tried this, I don’t imagine adding the herbs and spices helped much. In the beginning of the 20th century things started to change, but not for the better. The addition of chalk and even pulverize bricks were added to these home pastes until they lost their appeal with the easier to apply paste in a tube that became widely available after World War I.
The invention of paste in a tube was manufactured by Doctor Washington Sheffield of New London in 1882 in lead tubes, the first introduction of poison, albeit unbeknownst to most people at this time in history. The second addition of poison was fluoride, to prevent tooth decay in the 1890s as well. It was not approved for use in the United States by the American Dental Association (ADA) until the 1950s.
Now some of you will object to my use of the widely praised magical fluoride as a poison but let’s dive into that a bit too.
Fluoride is a mineral that occurs naturally and is released from rocks into our environments. It even leeches into the water table all on its own, but according to reports it isn’t enough to ‘prevent’ tooth decay. It’s a salt that is found on the periodic table under the classification of F for Fluorine. As science isn’t my forte, I won’t go into minute detail but with a rise of tooth decay with the addition of fluoride into the drinking water as well as a standard treatment in dentistry, you have to wonder why, if its so good for us.
Studies as far back as the 1960s have shown that Fluoride is
a neurotoxin that reduces the cognitive skills in children and collects in the
brain like heavy metals. Think Lead, methylmercury, and arsenic. These are hard
to remove from the body if at all. There is a huge rabbit hole to jump into and
I will let you decide if you want to ponder over this or go on your own deep
diving expedition. I would say you can even leave your tin hat at home, because
a conspiracy isn’t a theory anymore when it’s found to be true.
So, back to the main topic, tooth powders. Why are they on
the rise? I think it’s because many people have gone on these deep diving expeditions
into the history of medicine and found a correlation with our health and how we
have been turned into a commodity to make money for the upper echelon. Rather
than as a living breathing, free thinking, human being all with a unique
personality and life experience. And they would rather be in the latter.
By taking out Big Pharma and going back to our roots and
using what God gave us, we take back our health and minds.
There are natural ways to clean your teeth without all the poisons
and industrial cleaning chemicals that have been added to a tube of Colgate or Crest.
I decided to switch from my beloved Toms of Maine for a few
reasons. I had a nasty cold in 2018 the led to a complete loss of taste and
smell. When it returned seven months later nothing was quite right but
something that bothered me was that certain things smelled like chemicals
instead of the fragrance or taste I had purchased them for. Fast forward to the
end of 2021 when I got the “Rona”. I had stayed healthy all that time and right
before Christmas, whammy sense of smell and taste gone again! And unfortunately,
nothing has been the same since but that’s a whole other blog post. I started
looking at natural toothpastes and powders popped up. I asked a friend what se
liked to use and she recommended a few websites that might help lead me in the
right direction. Boy did they.
I found a few but decided to try Earthley Wellness first. Their Remineralizing Tooth Powder sounded like it would be the easiest for me to pallet as I also have texture issues along with my olfactory being on the fritz.
I first off, liked that it didn’t have any sodium lauryl
sulfate aka SOAP in it. That was a big one that I could taste in everything my
family gave me to try. I might as well have chewed on my bar of soap at the sink.
Blech!
Second, I liked that their ingredients were simple and all
things that I knew what they were without having to do a Google search on each ingredient
to see if it was a chemical or not.
Activated charcoal, bentonite clay, stevia powder (certified
organic) and mint powder, which they break down and explain that they use spearmint
and peppermint. Yummy! They also have two other flavor profiles to choose from,
spice or lemon-berry. They have lots of information on their website that is
clear and easy to understand for all of their products.
Their product arrived quickly and packaged nicely in an easy-to-use
container that can go into the recycle bin when it’s empty. I found the powder
super easy to use just dipping my dry brush into the powder and making sure to
tap off the extra and brush a little before adding water to help spread the
product around more. Too much and you are a gummy mouth spitting for five
minutes. Had to remind myself they there is clay as an ingredient, duh.
Overall, I really enjoy the Earthley tooth powder, though
because of my olfactory issues I can’t really smell or taste the mint. It leaves
my mouth feeling very, very clean, squeaky even. I like that fresh from the
dentist feel without having to be picked at for an hour by a hygienist.
I’ll leave a few other links below to some other brands I’m hoping to try in the future that I have found after researching are along the same lines of clean and nontoxic.
If a powder isn’t up your alley, I have also included some companies that have a paste as well.
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