Dental soap

[Byrdi]

Hi Everyone! After reading this entire thread about tooth soap, I decided to share my experience. I have used my own tooth soap for over 2 years now, and have a whiter smile than ever before. Love how clean my teeth feel. I am allergic to toothpaste from the store. My insides of my cheeks would literally peel off after every brush! Anyway, recently I ventured into liquid soap making. I made a cold process 100% coconut milk liquid soap made from mostly olive oil and castor oil. It does have 5% coconut oil in it. I put a small amount of this into a squeeze bottle and it works wonderful as a tooth paste! I did scent it with a few drops of peppermint eo. I say whoever wondered if you could use KOH and make a liquid version, GO FOR IT! I like it a lot better! Byrdi

 

[judymoody]

Thanks for sharing your experience Byrdi! I may have to try this. I like what solid CP tooth soap does for my teeth but I can't say I like the taste all that much.

 

[Byrdi]

You are welcome judymoody!

 

[FlybyStardancer]

Okay, I have some more questions... Would it be safe to add citric acid to the lye water to form sodium citrate? Also, if I were to HP it... Would it be alright to add sodium lactate?

 

[twinkiesmommy2009]

First Post

So this is my first post! I just finished reading the entire thread and I'm very intrigued by the idea of tooth soap. First, I want to say that I've been using my commercial toothpaste but dipping it into a Neem Bark Toothpowder I got from Neem Tree Farms. I think they have a toothpaste too but I can't remember. The ingredients include neem bark, diatomaceous earth, baking soda, cinnamon powder, and clove!

I've tried brushing with Dr. Bronners Peppermint Castile Soap but I couldn't stick with it. While brushing it wasn't terrible, and I enjoyed the minty feel and the super clean feeling teeth after, but I couldn't get over the soapy after taste that wouldn't go away. Now that I know its likely caused by coconut oils and other hard oils I'm considering making my own tooth soap! I too wonder though how I can incorporate Neem. Maybe sticking to the tooth powder for now is the way to go until I can get a recipe I like for the soap.

I've been making soaps, lotions, sugar scrubs, essential oils blends for massage oils, herbal healing, etc for awhile now but only for my family and very close friends. I'm now really digging in so we can start working craft fairs and pay for my expensive hobby.

Anyway, I'm waiting on a shipment of goodies so I'll have to give this a try when my cocoa butter gets here.

Anybody have any luck with flavoring it yet? I'd love to have the peppermint flavor that was part of Dr. Bronners but without the yucky soap flavor.

 

[Lindy]

For those of you that make up a paste with coconut oil, do you need a preservative since there is no water? What is the shelf life? I'm thinking of making up a paste with coconut oil, green clay, calcium powder, xylitol and peppermint oil. Should I add some grapefruit seed extract or some other preservative?

GSE is not a preservative but it is an anti-oxidant....

 

[Byrdi]

Okay, I have some more questions... Would it be safe to add citric acid to the lye water to form sodium citrate? Also, if I were to HP it... Would it be alright to add sodium lactate?

I don't know about the citric acid addition but as for adding sodium lactate, I can't see why you couldn't when I have heard it is also used in food as a preservative and acid reducer, which sounds like a good addition to me.
Byrdi

 

[neeners]

Okay, I have some more questions... Would it be safe to add citric acid to the lye water to form sodium citrate? Also, if I were to HP it... Would it be alright to add sodium lactate?

citric acid would react with lye, and just create a higher SF (this was discussed earlier in the thread). I'm not sure about sodium lactate.

I've been using my tooth soap (pretty much plain ol' bastille) since Feb and I love it. my teeth feel so much cleaner than using store bought toothpaste (even the natural stuff).

 

[FlybyStardancer]

citric acid would react with lye, and just create a higher SF (this was discussed earlier in the thread). I'm not sure about sodium lactate.

I know that citric acid reacts with the lye. When I make a recipe I calculate how much extra lye I need to get the superfat I want with citric acid added to the lye water to form sodium citrate. My water is so dang hard that I need the extra boost to get a decent lather. (Nearly all of my soaps have both sugar and citric acid added, and I can tell the difference if I only add the sugar and not the citric acid.)

 

[LunaSkye]

For those of you that make up a paste with coconut oil, do you need a preservative since there is no water? What is the shelf life? I'm thinking of making up a paste with coconut oil, green clay, calcium powder, xylitol and peppermint oil. Should I add some grapefruit seed extract or some other preservative?

What about using CO with baking soda, xylitol, and an EO's.

 

[Lindy]

Coconut oil tastes "soapy"

 

[HoneyLady]

What a great thread! Here is my two cents worth:

As a teen, I had my wisdom teeth removed, and developed dry sockets -- for three long months! As Lin noted above in the thread, my oral surgeon also packed my gums -- twice weekly for three months -- with gauze soaked in clove oil. Yes, everything tasted like clove, and I lost 20 pounds because I could not stand solid foods. But it did help with the pain.

DH has ongoing teeth and gum issues dating back decades. About 20 years ago, he began rubbing straight tea tree oil on his teeth and gums about every 10 days.

The taste is terrible. Better than Neem oil, but that's not saying much. Sort of Rosemary/Pine on steroids due to the high turpin levels.

The results are amazing. They decided to "wait" and are still "waiting" 20 years later, to do two root canals, and 3 extractions. He was scheduled for four, and one tooth eventually cracked in two and had to be removed. But he's kept all the others. He gets planing done once a year, and his dentist calls him "Lazarus". Of course, your mileage may vary.

I think I'm going to try a batch one of these days, using the tea tree. I'll post when I've got some results.

 

[DiddlyO]

I made my toothpaste yesterday and I love it! I had been toying with the idea of a remineralising toothpaste (google it - it's a thing), so I used:

4 tsp calcium phosphate (got it from a food supplier - it's some kind of anti caking agent). $AU20 for 375g
6 tsp aquamin (green calcium brand - has trace minerals including fluorine) $AU29 for 250g
6tsp xylitol because I want my kids to use it
20 drops peppermint essential oil

I had wanted to leave this as a powder, but it was VERY powdery and I didn't like the idea of anyone inhaling the dust so I added:

Extra virgin unrefined coconut oil - just enough to make a thick paste.

It tastes great and my teeth feel super clean. Kids were happy to use it despite it being a light brown colour.

I used calcium phosphate because that is the form of calcium used in tooth mousse (MI paste in some countries), also phosphorous is an important mineral for teeth. I also wanted to cover as many bases as I could, so used the aquamin, which is some kind of sea plant that is naturally high in calcium as well as other minerals that help with calcium absorption.

Tooth Mousse costs $AU30+ for 40g. These ingredients will make 10 times as much. YAY!

 

[FlybyStardancer]

Just made a batch of the dental soap! Used stevia for the sweetener, the last of my peppermint EO (I thought there was more in the bottle than there really was... I was 1g shy of what I was planning for the batch, and had some other blending ideas that will have to wait until I get more. lol) I soaped warm, with a 33% lye solution and it came to trace fairly quickly for me, even with it being 90% OO. I'm trying to get it to gel, and between soaping warm, being a warmer day than previous soapmaking days, and the heating pad underneath the mold, I'm hoping it works...

And if this doesn't work as dental soap, well... Then I'll have a low-SF really tingly bastile. lol

 

[Bubli]

I've used 100% OO soap sliver for brushing now for about 2 months (used Pink Grapefruit EO) and I don't get a soapy taste. In fact there isn't much of a taste at all to me.
On the other hand, high CO soaps taste terrible to me when doing the zap test. So I'm pretty sure (and have read elsewhere this is the case) that it's the CO that gives the bad taste we all remember from our childhood.

I 2nd the motion! I too use co oil in my tooth soap, but I make it 15%castor,30%co and 55%oo(like a basic shampoo bar). When its cured and gated I mix in baking soda and add many drops of thieves oil blend. Tastes and smells great and is VERY effective.

 

[Lady_A]

So I just whipped up a batch yesterday using the 90% olive oil and the 10% cocoa butter with a superfat of 3%. My thought process is that I can grate up a bar and mix it with baking soda to get the whitening action. If I end up liking the dental soap I want to try adding xylitol to the next batch because I read that it denies plaque bacteria, which can't be a bad thing.

Any idea how much xylitol to add?
And where would one purchase it?
Thanks

 

[cm4bleenmb]

What about using CO with baking soda, xylitol, and an EO's.

You should not need a preservative if there is no water, but bear in mind that you are limited to the shelf life of the individual ingredients. Research any EOs that you want to use to make sure you understand their properties and that you use a grade that will be safe if it's ingested.

I make mine in small batches--about two months worth. I love the way it makes my mouth feel and my dentist says it's working great. My paste is a CO base and has baking soda, salt, xylitol, bentonite clay and EOs plus I add a little OO to keep it liquid. I put it into those sqeezeable travel tubes and it works okay but is very dependent on room temp so I am intrigued by the idea of doing a soap, especially the idea of a liquid one that could be squeezed out similar to the tootpaste.

Also, to respond the the quote used in your post, grapefruit seed extract is not a preservative.

 

[smeetree]

Anyone know (generally speaking) where an OO based dental soap would rank on the abrasiveness scale? The scale helps determine how safe it is for your enamel.

a remineralising toothpaste

This is what I need. So yours is a toothpaste not a soap?

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Just OO? I would think it is okay. Even baking powder is under the limit for abrasion (as you have read earlier on this thread) so I wouldn't see OO doing much to damage the enamel

 

[Lindy]

Olive oil soap does not damage the enamel as there is nothing in it to scratch your teeth.