Last week I shared some of the ways that you can use clay for internal cleansing, a practice from traditional medicine that’s possibly as old as organized society itself. This week, I’m going to show you how clay can play an important part in oral care as well. I’ll illustrate what it can help with and explain why you’ve likely encountered it in many organic oral care products.
Your Mouth is Complex
The first thing to understand about oral care is that our mouths are the home to a complex living ecosystem. This is so often neglected in modern dentistry, yet without it homeopathic dentistry as we know it would largely not exist. Nadine Artemis of Living Libations really dives into this concept in her book, and I’ve also talked about it in previous posts. For the purposes of what we’re talking about here, it’s important to have a bit of background, so here’s a quick summary:
Toothpaste that you see in a standard store has two goals. First, it aims to kill all of the bacteria in your mouth, and it does quite a good job of this. Second, it aims to coat your teeth in fluoride in the hopes that they will absorb some of it.
In every other part of our body, killing all of the bacteria present is always a bad idea. Our mouths are not different. They are still a part of us, like any other. Regarding fluoride, if you aren’t already opposed to it, here are 50 good reasons why it shouldn’t be in our drinking water – why would our toothpaste be any different? One thing I stand by at Living Earth Beauty is that if you can’t eat it, you shouldn’t be putting it on your skin, and especially not brushing your teeth with it.
Clay for Oral Care
As mentioned last week, clays other than zeolite have unique absorptive abilities that make them useful for internal cleansing. This is also helpful when it comes to oral care. Similar to internal cleansing, the ultimate goal is to cultivate and maintain the healthy ecosystem that naturally occurs in our mouths. Clay helps with this in three ways:
- Brushing with clay gently polishes the teeth, removing built up plaque and tartar without the use of acidic or toxic chemicals that bleach the teeth and leave them vulnerable and cause further imbalance.
- Clay can help kill harmful bacteria that deposit plaque in the first place
- The high mineral content of clay is made available for use by the body in rebuilding the wear that teeth undergo throughout the day.
How to Start Using Clay
If you’d like to start using clay for oral care purposes, this is what I’d recommend trying:
The main ingredients in Ozonated Toothpaste by Living Libations are pyrophyllite clay and ozone combined with magnesium and an alchemical blend of essential oils. I’ve mentioned before how beneficial ozone is when used for oral care, and when paired up with all of the properties of clay listed above and antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and healing essential oils, the result is an excellent toothpaste that’s non-toxic, raw, completely organic, and genuinely healthy for your mouth.
Oralive by Ascended Health is one of my favorite organic toothpastes, and one that I use every day. All of the ingredients present are housed in a base of natural magnetic mineral earth from carefully selected areas, including some Micronesian Volcanos. This earth has tremendous healing properties and elements of monatomic silver, gold, rhodium, and magnesium.
With these guidelines, you should be well on your way to nurturing your healthy, natural oral flora. Also, if you’ve tried using clay for oral care, be sure to share how your experience was in the comments below!
