DIY All-Natural Whitening + Remineralizing Toothpaste
DIY Oral Care DIY Skincare & Beauty Essential oils
I want to immediately address the elephant in the room before we go any further…
YES, this toothpaste is brown. And NO, it is not the loveliest looking.
But hey, we all know not to judge a book by its cover!
And those perfectly white toothpastes that you are comparing it to may look pretty, but they’re chock-full-o’-nasties.
This DIY toothpaste on the other hand contains ingredients that help both naturally whiten and remineralize teeth while not contributing to your body burden. What more could we really ask for?
DIY All-Natural Whitening + Remineralizing Toothpaste
Ingredients:
Makes roughly 4 oz of toothpaste
- 4 tbs coconut oil
- 3 tbs sesame oil
- 4 tsp bentonite clay
- 4 tsp calcium magnesium powder
- 3 tbs baking soda
- 15 drops TOTAL essential oils (choose from these 5 essential oils for healthy teeth and gums)
- 12 drops trace minerals
You’ll also need a small jar or squeezable silicone tube to store your toothpaste.
Directions:
- In a double boiler, melt the 4 tbs of coconut oil. Or… if you are like me and don’t have a double boiler, you can simply stick a jar in a pot filled with shallow water, set the burner on medium-low, and put the coconut oil in the jar for it to melt (be sure not to get water in the jar).
- After the coconut oil is melted, remove the jar from the pot, wipe the water off the bottom, and set it on the counter.
- Next, add all of the other ingredients using a plastic or wooden spoon since a metal spoon will negate the effects of the bentonite clay.
- Stir everything together. The consistency will be runny but uniform, but it will harden into a thicker paste once it cools.
- So pop the jar into the fridge to set, stirring every five minutes to keep everything uniform.
- After about 15 minutes, you should see it start to thicken.
And there you have it! Your very own all-natural whitening & remineralizing toothpaste!
Let’s take a closer look at the ingredients:
Coconut oil
Coconut oil acts as the base for the toothpaste, keeping everything together. More importantly, the lauric acid in coconut oil is a natural antibacterial.
Sesame oil
Sesame oil also acts as the base for the toothpaste, helping to soften the paste since coconut oil can get pretty hard. This was important to me since I wanted to be able to squeeze my toothpaste rather than keep it in a jar. (If you don’t care about squeezability, you can simply replace the sesame oil with more coconut oil). Sesame oil is traditionally used for oil pulling (a practice I will cover more soon!) and also has antibacterial properties.
Bentonite clay
Bentonite clay is a staple in my house. This “healing clay” binds to and draws out impurities, helping to not only detox the mouth but also whiten teeth by removing stains. Bentonite clay is also high in calcium, magnesium, and silica which help remineralize teeth.
Calcium magnesium powder
Calcium and magnesium are critical for bone and teeth health. Calcium is obvious here, and magnesium is critical for calcium to be properly absorbed. This calcium magnesium powder contains the optimal balance of both.
Baking soda
Baking soda is alkaline, helps clean teeth and remove stains, and wards off bacteria.
Essential oils
After doing the research, I consider peppermint, cinnamon, spearmint, clove, and myrrh essential oils to be the top five essential oils for healthy teeth and gums (though I’m sure there are certainly more!).
Trace minerals
Trace minerals help restore and remineralize tooth enamel.
[Side note: I know this seems like a TON of ingredients but most of us already have coconut oil, sesame oil, and baking soda in our kitchens. Most also likely have at least peppermint EO, which can be used alone in the recipe if you’d like. If you don’t have bentonite clay, I suggest you get some ASAP since it’s so multipurpose and amazing (check out how I use it every day, week, and month). Trace minerals and calcium magnesium powder are both fantastic supplements so a great investment as well.]
When you use it for the first time…
The consistency and taste are certainly not what you are used to. I use more of this toothpaste than I would with a “normal” store-bought paste since it does not foam, probably about double. The coconut oil will melt rather quickly in your mouth since it has a melting point of 76º turning the paste into a thick liquid. Also it is definitely salty! I don’t mind, but you can add liquid stevia or xylitol if it does bother you (or if you are trying to get your kids to use it!).
P.S. Like my toothbrush?
It’s bamboo! As you know, I kinda sorta HATE plastic. And we sure do use a lot of toothbrushes, which (along with their plastic packaging) just end up in landfills.
These toothbrushes have bamboo handles and the packaging is completely biodegradable. In other words, they’re awesome.
I always use powdered
Hi
I was wondering if you used the liquid benonite clay or the powdered form?
Or can you use either or?
Thanks
I need to look into this. Thanks for asking.
This calcium magnesium powder that you have listed has the magnesium ingredient in citrate form. Calcium in citrate form is know to erode tooth enamel, as do most forms of citrus. Wouldn’t this particular ingredient–the magnesium citrate–also erode tooth enamel?
On March 30, 2014, a commenter wondered about the safety of silicone containers as there are oils and essential oils in the recipe. I had used the 3 oz. silicone squeeze bottles found at Target but have switched back to using a glass jar; I found the squeeze bottle not as convenient as I had hoped. Even with the addition of sesame oil, my mixture still solidified during the cold months; it’s expensive to heat the home above 76°F over winter. Alarmingly, I found my bottle always covered in a fine dusting of white powder that melted away on contact and smelled like the included essential oil. The essential oil, mixed with some presumably solidified coconut oil, had escaped through the silicone. This explains how the menthol and peppermint flavor in my mix would diminish over time during warmer months; the silicone sweated the oils out!
Q: Has anyone else experienced something similar?
Overall, the squeeze bottle was only mildly convenient when warm as I could quickly squish the bottle to reintegrate the solids that had separated from the oils and settled to the bottom of the bottle over time. In a glass jar, I have to stir with a hard plastic spoon before use to even things out.
Hi Nadia,
I am wondering what the difference is in the Living Clay that you use and the Redmond Clay I find when searching bentonite clay on amazon? Only reason I ask is that one is significantly cheaper than the other.
Another question, my 7yo has a couple cavities that we are trying to heal while scraping up the money to pay for fillings and caps. (Praise God, none of them hurt right now) I am hoping all the folks who swear by EO protocols and oil pulling and diet changes have it right. One tooth shows promise and one not so much – the hole must reach below the gum line, because each time she eats, she develops a swollen pocket there and only there. We brush, floss, water-pik and then use EO and the “bubble” goes away. ..all of that background to ask, do you think this toothpaste will make a substantial difference in her teeth?
Hey, Katie. Good question – plastic is fine.
Regarding the bentonite clay absorbing metal, would using an electronic (plastic) tooth brush deactivate it?
Hmm I’ve never done that before so I really don’t know but you could always give it a try!
I don’t have any trace minerals in liquid form right now, only pill form. Can those, ground, be substituted? If so, how much should go into the recipe?
I’ve honestly never had a problem, but if you want to play it safe it may be good to spit it in the trash can! Thanks for mentioning this – I should make a note of it in the post.
I thought you shouldn’t put the coconut oil down the drains such as with the pulling. It’s okay with the toothpaste?? Why is that?
Thank you so much for this recipe, I love it! Mine turned out to be a very different color than the toothpaste in the picture…it’s a very light greyish color…did i do something wrong?
Question: Can I use this with the essential oils, or maybe just the peppermint while pregnant? I’ve researched extensively into this and have gotten quite a few different answers every time I dig. I know peppermint, at least, is likely safe externally, but not to be taken internally while pregnant. At the same time, I’m not swallowing it in toothpaste, but is it safe to use in my mouth while pregnant? Just interested in your opinion. Thanks in advance!
Hey, Pam. Well if you wanted, you could just do without it and put the paste in a jar instead. So it wouldn’t be sqeezable but then you don’t have to deal with the taste!
Like this recipe but not crazy about the sesame oil taste. I do like being able to use it in a tube. Would any other oil work and still keep the consistency to squeeze?
Do you know if this will help with fluorosis?
No this is my only toothpaste recipe. Best of luck!
I WAS WONDERING IF YOU HAVE ANOTHER RECIPE FOR TOOTHPASTE THAT IS TOTALLY NONABRASIVE, AS I DON’T HAVE MUCH ENAMEL LEFT AFTER YEARS OF USING AN ELECTRIC ROATAING TOOTHBRUSH AND PRESSING TOO HARD. I WOULD LOVE TO MAKE MY OWN, BUT I SEE THAT EVERYONE WHO DOES SEEMS TO RELY ON CLAY OR MINERALS WHICH REALLY MAKES THE TEETH LOOK NICE NOW, BUT IN THE LONG RUN SLOWLY WEARS DOWN THE ENAMEL. I WONDER IF YOU CAN DEVISE A FORMULA FOR THOSE OF US WHO CAN’T AFFORD TO LOSE ANY MORE ENAMEL?
jEANNE
Does it make me feel irritable or does it irritate my gums/mouth? No to both.