Homemade mouthwash

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Why make your own mouthwash

Last year I went to the dentist for the first time in twelve years. It was a holistic dentist, and it was such an education for me. He tested the ph balance of my mouth -which was on the low side- and then explained the effect of a low ph in the mouth, or in other words, high acidity. That led me to making my own mouthwash. Keep in mind, I am not a doctor, dentist, or scientist, I’m just a researcher who is sharing my findings and experience. And when in comes to talking about the ph balance, or other big topics, I like people to talk to me like I’m 5. So you won’t find a lot in-depth details or fancy big words in this post. Just the gist.

The affect of your mouths ph

To put it simply, your teeth are either in a sate of decay, or a state of remineralizing. The lower the ph in your mouth, the higher the acid, and the inability to absorb minerals, and your teeth will be in a state of decay. A higher ph is higher alkaline, and bacteria can’t survive in and alkaline environment, and the more present minerals will be to rebuild and protect against damage. A ph of 5.6 is when minerals return to your mouth, but 7ph is when it switches from an acid to alkaline environment. Water has a ph of 7, so even swishing with water though out the day will be beneficial.

Ingredients to remineralize your mouth

Baking soda is a fantastic ingredient for nutralizing your mouths ph. That’s why we find it in so often in toothpaste. My dentist even told me rinsing my mouth with baking soda and water throughout the day would help dramatically.

We all know salt is beneficial for killing bacteria, but it’s also packed full of minerals that help rebuild your teeth. Make sure you source a good quality salt. I use Celtic Sea Salt. It’s good for more then just your teeth, so I highly recommend stocking it even if you never use it in mouthwash.

Xylitol, the name is a little scary sounding, but it delivers a combo of benefits to the mouth. Because it does not break down like sugar does, it raises the pH level in the saliva, and doesn’t allow acid to form. It also increase saliva which helps remineralizes the teeth. I’ve been using Zint Xylitol that I purchased from Azure Standard.

Trace mineral drops is an optional ingredient, but I highly recommend it. Having a concentrated amount of minerals present in your mouth after you kill the bacteria and raise the ph will really boost the restoring process. I also purchased my mineral drops from Azure Standard, but have heard great thing about Trace Minerals.

Essential oils are the last ingredient in this recipe, not only do they determine the flavor of your mouthwash, but they can also play a role in the rebuilding process as well. However, you should avoid any acidic oils like Tea Tree, lavender, and citrus oils, because their ph is on the lower side. My go-to oils are spearmint and clove, both alkaline oils. However, I don’t recommend peppermint because it is slightly more acidic then what’s good for your teeth.

Method

It’s incredibly quick and easy to mix up this recipe. You want to make sure you use pure filtered, warm or room temperature water to dissolve the salt and Xylitol. I mix all the ingredients in a 4 cup measuring cup, and pour it directly in the bottle. I like to store mine in swing top bottles that I pick up in thrift stores, but any glass jar with a lid will suffice.

Use

I honestly don’t know if you could use this mouthwash too much. But at least after every meal. It’s also great to gargle with, so when there is a sickness going around I’ll gargle with it throughout the day to kill off any bacteria trying to sneak in.