Dental care - a twice a day routine we take for granted?
We brush our teeth twice a day but have you ever stopped to think about what you’re using for that familiar routine? In our house it used to be the usual plastic toothbrushes, a tube of pretty standard toothpaste and maybe nylon floss. Sound familiar?
There are a host of reasons we have switched that around and I thought I’d share a few of them:
Let’s start with the obvious one - plastic! I had not really thought about what happened to all those toothbrushes, tubes and bits of floss I'd used and binned over the years. Do you know what happens to them? Nothing, that's what! They are all still out there somewhere. So for me alone (at I reckon 3 brushes a year - I'm frugal!) that’s almost 140 brushes. For our household we are on about 350 brushes all lurking in landfill somewhere L
Plastic again - this time in a health sense. The more I have learnt about plastics the less inclined I am to put them in my mouth.
“Of the 906 chemicals likely associated with plastic packaging, 63 rank highest for human health hazards and 68 for environmental hazards according to the harmonized hazard classifications assigned by the European Chemicals Agency.”
Chemical irritants and environmental damage - we are lead to believe that tooth cleaning products should foam, taste super fresh and be in a paste form. To achieve these aims they contain chemicals we are best steering clear of. Don’t forget that with every spit and rinse you are washing these same chemicals down the drain and out into the environment where they wreak their havoc some more.
Alexx Stuart’s amazing book Low Tox Life lists a frightening range of potentially toxic chemicals common in toothpastes:
Sodium lauryl sulphate: A known irritant derived from petroleum or palm oil.
Glycerine: often comes from unsustainable palm oil sources. Remember palm oil extracts come with lots of different names.
Sodium saccharin: a petroleum derived chemical added as a sweetener.
Flavour: but made from what? Real or artificial? Containing what chemicals exactly?
Triclosan: found in antibac products, pesticides and possibly in your toothpaste! Damaging to the thyroid gland and good bacteria and the aquatic environment.
These chemicals are concerning, but in small amounts in your toothpaste right? But you use that paste and that plastic toothbrush twice a day, every single day. Some chemicals accumulate in your body to dangerous levels. Your toothpaste is probably not the only source either – think other personal care products, like skincare and hair care or household cleaning products – many of which contain these same chemicals and no one seems to be clear about what the implications of mixing them together in our bodies might be but the words toxic and carcinogenic come up in the literature too often for my liking!
So bit by bit I, the hubster & the kids have switched to more natural materials and ingredients. The motivation is as much about our family’s health as that of the planet. Bamboo toothbrushes, plastic free floss and simple tooth tabs or paste - they have everything you need including fluoride (or not if you choose) and nothing you don’t. Plus no potentially toxic, hard to recycle plastic tube or water (a lot of what you pay for!) What Lil changes can you make to your dental regime?