Monday, February 8, 2010

Dental Care ala Emily by Gizmola

Money Monday: Dental Care

As we're an anti-shampoo family (we use vinager and a once-a-month diluted soap nuts rinse but that's for another post) we also started looking at the ingredients on toothpaste. We get our tubes of toothpaste at the Dollar Tree for $1.00 a tube. I believe in not being wasteful (hence half-eaten slobbered on apples for applesauce) so I put out on squeeze for me and one half a squeeze for Daniel and Bobby. Dan says that it's painful when he brushes his teeth and since he only has three left I figured that I'm saving $0.35 every six months by him not using toothpaste.

But we're also a pro-lacto-fermenting, homesteading family and we realized how many chemicals are in toothpaste. I work hard to keep my family from ingesting anything but purely natural and nutritious foods like tube meat, crockpot cream cheese and kefir soda, so I wasn't happy to think about how many chemicals are in toothpaste at all. So I started looking at more sustainable and natural toothpaste options.

My favorite has been to use diluted soap nuts liquid. If it's good enough for my dishes and clothes it's good enough for our teeth. But if I did that then I would eat into our laundry budget. So I decided to reuse the soap nut liquid from the Wonderwash. It's very simple:

Empty Wonderwash water into crockpot $0.00
Add 1 teaspoon stevia $0.02
Add 1 teaspoon kefir water $0.01
Add 1 teaspoon whey for lacto-fermenting $0.01

Set on high for eight hours. It will be a simple syrup. Remove any lint from the clothes washing. I put in an old milk jug and then fill with cold water. I then let it sit for four days in a warm, dry place to let the kefir organisms multiply and let the whey turn it into a probiotic. Then I simply fill a glass with a bit of the mixture at a time and the boys and I dip our toothbrushes in it.

Nutritious and ecologically friendly "toothpaste" for $0.04 per gallon. Each gallon should last 1 year. If it turns cloudy then add 1 more teaspoon whey, which would take the cost to $0.05.

7 comments:

  1. LOLOLOLOLOLOL....I can't breathe from laughing

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  2. Wait... WHAT??? At first, I thought this was a spoof, but no; it's an actual entry.
    He's only got 3 teeth left? Sexxxxay. lol I don't even know where to go, from there.

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  3. The best dental caretaking is always taking care your teeth, starts from the basic of course.. Brushing regularly...

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  4. The first step in achieving healthy teeth is brushing two times a day, the second would be flossing, and the most important step is to have regular check ups with your dentist. Charleston, SC folks are very much aware of the correlation of our body parts, that's why they make it a point to stay healthy in any part.

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  5. Aww, poor kid for having three teeth left. He must be too shy now to play along with his friends. My son used to only have 5 teeth only but when he was about to start schooling, his dad and I have decided to let him have dental implants. Los Angeles city has a lot of pediatric dentists that can surely take good care for your child's dental care.

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  6. It's such an interesting post. I really like it. You shared a really good information i did get lots of good points from here.Beautiful smile create an impression on every person.Many people do not realize that dental health is related to overall health. Thank you and keep sharing.

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