Is your mouth a host for yeast and bad words?
Home to millions of microscopic bacteria, yeast and bad words, the mouth is a digestive organ with a powerful impact on our overall health. The right care will promote an ideal ecosystem that can support your overall health and avoid harmful bacteria playing tricks on your whole health.
It also turns out that using your words right will also benefit your whole health, but will get more on that later.
How to build your mouth's ideal ecosystem
You may be used to the good old foaming toothpaste and associate it with a clean mouth. Did you know that foaming is created with a highly processed chemical called SLS or Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, derived from petroleum, palm oils or coconut oils, with no health benefits whatsoever?
Remember that your WHOLE mouth absorbs food and toothpaste alike, even when you spit it out!
Avoid foaming agents and preservative like:
• Glycerine: A natural and sustainable ingredient, amazing in skin care! Creates a moisture barrier that attracts plaque and prevents remineralization in mouth.
• Sodium Lauryl Sulfate or SLS: Has been shown to cause mucous membrane irritation and may increase incidents of mouth sores or ulcers.
• Parabens: Linked to hormone disruption. May accumulate in the body and increase risk of cancers.
• Triclosan: May decrease thyroid function. Has been shown in mice to cause cancer and affect cardiovascular function. May have negative effects on fertility and fetal development.
• Diethanolamine (DEA): Has been shown to mimic estrogens and may cause hormone disruption. Can cause organ toxicity over time.
Replace with wholesome, multi-purpose champions:
• Bentonite Clay: Abrasive enough to remove plaque from your teeth without damaging enamel.
• Calcium Carbonate: Combined with xylitol, calcium carbonate creates one of the most bioavailable calcium sources for our teeth.
• Xylitol: Growing in popularity as a non-toxic alternative to fluoride in daily use products. On top of being a badass partner-in-crime to calcium carbonate, xylitol creates a breathable, sticky layer over teeth that bacteria have a difficult time latching to.
• Himalayan Pink Salts: Highly concentrated mineral super salts that are naturally anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and full of eighty-four trace minerals.
• Essential Oils: Block quorum sensing: plaque-causing bacteria communication method. Each oil provides its own unique health benefits.
These Oral Care CHAMPIONS:
Provide minerals to saliva • Support enamel growth and protection • Provide bioavailable calcium • Alkalizes the mouth • Blocks plaque communication systems • Has high mineral content • Are safe for children
Can charcoal hurt my teeth?
Maintaining a bright white smile is HIGH on the modern humans priority list. Charcoal tooth powder took the world by storm but can it damage your teeth? In short, yes it can. Activated charcoal is a highly absorbent and detoxifying substance, activated by extremely high-heat water vapour. This property makes it a powerful tool to remove stains from the surface of teeth, detoxify the acidic byproducts of oral bacteria while refreshing your breath!
There is some confusion around the term “whitening” in oral care. Whitening products chemically alter the colour of your teeth (this can be done with natural ingredients too!), while charcoal removes surface stains by binding to the staining substances.
Too much of a good thing just isn't good. Use it occasionally only because it’s a little more abrasive than our day-to-day powders, but still does not cause the sensitivity some people experience with whitening products.
Charcoal tooth powder is best used once or twice a month. Activated Charcoal Tooth Powder
What about my toothbrush?
Over a billion plastic toothbrushes are thrown out in the North America alone every year - enough to circle the globe four times over. So why not swap the plastic kind for a home-compostable, rapidly-renewable bamboo one.
When they’re ready to be replaced, you can go ahead and dispose of them in any industrial compost after you remove the bristles! Activated Charcoal Toothbrush
Benefits of bamboo toothbrushes:
Compostable • Renewable • Sustainable
Morning breath anyone? 🤢
The secret is simple: a balanced oral microbiome. To balance your oral microbiome, build these steps into your daily routine:
1. Floss your teeth. This one habit does THE MOST to protect your breath. A full one-third of our teeth’s surface area falls between the cracks!
2. Brush your teeth with just the right ingredients, and without the rest. Just like the Gaia Smiles tooth powder.
3. Tongue scrape with a copper tongue scraper. It *literally* removes the bacteria colonies formed at night. Every time you scrape, you lower the bacteria’s chance to repopulate, and you’ll notice less film (and odor!) first thing in the morning! Copper Tongue Scraper
4. Rinsing is an awesome way to restore a neutral oral pH and remove stubborn debris! Use 1 tsp of tooth powder for 1 cup of water.
5. Detox with Activated charcoal. With such a powerful ingredient, you’ll feel like you’ve reset your mouth. Use occasionally (maybe a new full moon ritual?) to make your cheeky grin sparkle and freshen that first morning kiss.
Is your mouth a host for BAD words?
Using your words for blessing will activate all the right vibes in your life! Say aloud your readiness to receive more love. An open heart, a compassionate soul will get your mouth moving in just the right way.
"The mouth is really very very significant, because that is where the first activity landed; your lips started the first activity. Surrounding the area of the mouth is the beginning of all activity: you breathed in, you cried, you started groping for the mother’s breast. And your mouth remains always in a frantic activity." Osho
While your mouth is open you are unaware, and your mouth is most of the time open. Just like when you laugh, the mind disappears. In that laughter, mind cannot exist – for a moment there is a gap. Seek that gap. That gap is of tremendous importance because only through that gap you can create genuine connections.
Make time daily to send blessings with it (out loud), laugh and connect. Increase the frequency we create through our mouth.
