How do we clean our teeth when far from plastic and paste containing fluoride?

I’m fresh from research for Backwoods Home and Bushcraft Magazine on this. It’s been great fun finding out how to make soap, kitchen scrubbers and tooth paste from wild plants.

TWIG TOOTH BRUSHES

I made twig tooth brushes out of various edible woods. Hazel was the best. It has a lot of flexible fibres within it, which is why it’s so good for bender shelter making. It also tastes ok, unlike some of the others!

The main thing about wild tooth brushes is not to use poisonous wood (duh). So it helps to know your trees. Fruit tree and willow twigs are also good.

WILD TOOTH POWDER/PASTE

It was then the turn of the tooth paste. Tooth paste needs to be these things:

• Astringent
• Abrasive
• Anti bacterial/fungal
• Tasty
• Whitening
• Non toxic!

What you use will depend on where you live. I live in an area where I can find charcoal, but if you live in a chalky area or a fine clay area, you can use those as abrasives.

You can also use dried berries such as Rowan or Sea Buckthorn for flavour.

I chose:

• Astringent – Oak cambium (inner bark)
• Abrasive – Charcoal
• Anti bacterial/fungal – Dried Yarrow
• Tasty – Mint leaves
• Whitening – Charcoal
• Pain relief – Meadowsweet

Oak cambium is the thin green layer under the outer bark. This is the part of the tree which carries sugars, water and vitamins around it. There’s a trick to the way to hold the knife so you get cambium and not a load of wood.

When they were all dried and powdered (except the mint, that only took an hour on the stove) they looked like this:

I mixed small amounts with water, experimenting with various ratios of charcoal and herbs. The next improvement will be to find a binding agent that gives it a paste like feel. Though this is not necessary for clean teeth!

If wild tooth powders are something you would like to learn about or see more posts about, do let me know. (If you never again want to see a close up of my mug shot with charcoal in my teeth and a twig in my mouth, let me know, too.)

Til next time,

xx Hedgewitch Kat xx