Survival Skills: Homemade Toothpaste

    This may seem a bit off topic, but I assure you it's not as learning certain skills allow you and your family to be just a bit more self-reliant.  Learning how to create your own soap, candles, and toothpaste amongst other things, can save you money in the long-term and help you to refine a very useful skill.  Not to mention that learning how to make your own supplies, and having a stock pile of the ingredients to make them, give you something to barter or an item to sell if a disaster lasted more then a few weeks.

     One of the simplest, and cost effective skills to learn is how to make homemade toothpaste.  The initial cost of making toothpaste can be a tad expensive at first as you should buy bulk.  But it can easily save your family hundreds of dollars a year as the original supplies can last a long time, much longer then a tube of store bought toothpaste.  The savings can then be applied to back-up your supplies for long-term use or to use, once again, as barter if necessary.

      The best thing, in my opinion, of making your own stuff is the fact that you can control what goes into these products.  Since I am not a fan of anything containing fluoride, and try to limit my families intake of it, I can choose to make a toothpaste completely fluoride free.  I can also choose different natural oils to enhance the taste, and get the added benefits from them.  Things like peppermint oil, or parsley neutralize bad breath.  Chamomile reduces swelling if your gum's are sensitive.  The possible combination's can be truly endless if you further your knowledge of natural herbs and oils.

     Since I am into simple solutions and have been blessed with strong healthy teeth, I choose to use a basic tooth cleaning system.  It consists of a wet toothbrush, baking soda, and grapefruit seed extract.  I keep a covered jar of baking soda and a bottle of grapefruit seed extract near my covered toothbrush on my bathroom sink.  To use these items, you simply wet the toothbrush head, stick it in the baking soda, put a drop of grapefruit seed extract on top of it all, and brush.  Simple as that.  The taste is not ideal, but it has never really been an issue.  You need to make sure to use a little amount of the grapefruit seed extract, as too much can burn your gum's.  If you have sensitive gum's you might need a different solution.  Below is a video from YouTube showing you the proper way of using this method, and I have linked baking soda, and grapefruit seed extract from Amazon below.  The big bottle of grapefruit seed extract linked below is a bit expensive, but from my research a very good deal in the 32 oz. bottle, especially because of the free shipping Amazon offers.