Dental care is one of those areas that I knew for a while I needed to improve on, but wasn't really sure how I was going to do it. I had made some changes, but hadn't taken it any further. Then, when I was using my nylon dental floss, I decided that I really needed to stop just letting this area slide by and research what other more sustainable products were available to me.
I had been using a toothbrush made by a company called Yaweco which allows you to only change the toothbrush head, but keep the handle. However, this is still plastic and I wanted to see if I could improve on this. I have also tried a toothpaste powder and tablets made by Lush, but these are also contained in plastic (though recycled) and I wanted to see if I could improve in this area as well. So, I the order in which I do my dental care........
Firstly, at night only and when I remember (which isn't as often as I should) I use my coconut oil to do oil pulling. Research has shown that this is not just pseudo-science but actually is an effective way of fighting plague and microorganisms that cause bad breath. You can use a variety of oils for this, but I choose coconut oil as it also has lauric acid which is an anti-microbial and because it tastes nice. You're supposed to do it for 20 minutes but I haven't got to that quite yet. And spitting it in the sink isn't a good idea either. Toilet or bin is better.
Next is flossing. Like oil pulling I only do this at night as well. Before I could only find nylon or silk dental floss. Nylon is not a great material as it doesn't degrade particularly well and can do a lot of damage to the animals that come across it. There are also ethical issues with the production of silk that put me off using it in any way. So I found this Georganics dental floss in Minty Charcoal which is made from bamboo charcoal, peppermint essential oil, and bees wax. Obviously it's not vegan, but it is cruelty free and works really well as a floss. I'm not sure how they make it from charcoal, but it functions like any floss except that it will degrade. The outer packaging is glass and metal instead of plastic, the bamboo is sustainably sourced, and you can buy refills after the initial purchase making it zero / low waste.
The toothpaste I use is also from Georganics and is the first product from them that I brought and which made me want to try other of their products. This is a mineral rich toothpaste which is vegan, cruelty free, fluoride free, SLS free and gluten free. It's also contained in a glass jar with a metal lid, all recyclable. The texture is obviously different from normal toothpaste, but it doesn't take long to get used to it though the clay flavour is still taking a while. This flavour is English peppermint, but it doesn't cover the clay or coconut flavour (though I like coconut so that part isn't an issue for me). However, it is a good toothpaste and I like using it. I thought using the wooden spactula would increase the amount of time it took to brush my teeth, but it's actually doesn't make much of a difference. I want to try their toothpowder next, and maybe even their tooth soap stick.
Lastly, the toothbrush (also from Georganics) is a bamboo toothbrush. The handle shape felt a little bit strange when I first used it, but now it actually feels more comfortable than normal toothbrushes. This is a soft brush and feels even softer then previous brushes. I was worried that the extra softness would mean that it wouldn't clean my teeth but it actually works really well. The bristles also have bamboo charcoal in them and is classified as vegan. The only issue I have with this toothbrush is that the bristles are still made of nylon so once I have used this brush I will keep looking for one which has plant based bristles. I have heard that there are companies that do this, but I can't find ones in the UK. I will keep looking, but if you know of any company please let me know.
All the products I got from Georganics came in recyclable and compostable packaging, and even the material they sent them in was the bare minimum, recyclable, and contained no plastic. I brought all of these products myself and will definitely be buying from this company again. So that's one area
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