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Thread: Home made TP

  1. #1

    Default Home made TP

    Tooth Paste that is....

    My friends at the primitive community told me how they have been making tooth paste. I asked because they have been living there a long time, primitively and their teeth I noticed looked a bit whiter than the average folk in town.

    Here's the basic recipe they use- but there are several variations on this theme:

    FINELY powdered charcoal, salt, a dab of oil (they use bear rendered bear or deer fat) and some type finely powdered herb- most often wild mint in their area and mix it up.

    Now I did not hold them down and poke around their mouths with a pic and dental mirror, but they have at least as nice a smile as folks in the city, if not slightly better on average.
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    Tres
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  2. #2
    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    I would imagine the charcoal acts as a fine abrasive so that makes sense to me.
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  3. #3

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    Charcoal is a fine abrasive and the theory is that the salt is mildly abrasive as well. However the salt has a dual role. There is a holistic movement that -claims- modern tooth paste compounds take salts out of the tooth bone and this causes weakness and poor tooth health. And it's claimed that the brushing with a little salt helps teeth health.

    {I'm just regurgitating what I have heard on that one}

    Regardless, I thought it was neat that they have a primitive replacement for TP that is obviously keeping their teeth nice.
    ---------------------------------------------
    Thanks,
    Tres
    Website has been updated for 2012!! http://wildernessmeans.com/

    NOTE: I'm a machinist, gunsmith, writer, and instructor of many outdoor topics looking for gainful employment in any geographical cool place to live. Resumes posted on website.

    John 14:6
    Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

  4. #4
    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    When I read the heading "home made TP", tooth paste was not what struck my mind first.

    I was envisioning hand cut strips of newspaper and buckets of corncobs, or the ever present Sears Robuck catalog.
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    Senior Member Sparky93's Avatar
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    I remember reading that people a long time ago (I'm not sure on the exact era) used ground up red brick as toothpaste. But I don't think they had the best oral hygiene either lol

    Edit:
    from Wikipedia
    "Tooth powders for use with toothbrushes came into general use in the 19th century in Britain. Most were homemade, with chalk, pulverized brick, or salt as ingredients. A 1866 Home Encyclopedia recommended pulverized charcoal, and cautioned that many patented tooth powders that were commercially marketed did more harm than good."

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toothpaste
    Last edited by Sparky93; 02-28-2012 at 08:06 PM.
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    Resident Wildman Wildthang's Avatar
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    Baking soda works pretty good all by itself! but I guess that isn't home made either!

  7. #7
    Off Grid! Darkevs's Avatar
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    I have an old herb book.........The Herbalist by Joseph E. Meyer that has many old recipes for use of botanicals.

    old English recipe for 'toothpaste'..............mix honey with charcoal.

    1822 tooth powder recipe.......... equal parts of powdered Cream of tarter, Peruvian Bark and Myrrh.

    powdered Arrow root and orris root are in many old recipes too.

    For toothbrushes................Marshmallow roots, Alfalfa roots and Licorise roots were 'treated' in different ways to be used for brushing teeth.

  8. #8
    Super Moderator crashdive123's Avatar
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    There were tons of "primitive and natural" recipes for tooth care before modern dentifrices came along. The problem is that many of the mouths ended up looking like.....

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    Off Grid! Darkevs's Avatar
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    Yikes!

    not a pretty picture.

    It is a wonder any humans have survived this long without modern toothpaste or 'medicine'.


  10. #10
    Super Moderator crashdive123's Avatar
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    Think about it - they didn't always. It wasn't uncommon to die an early death from disease and malnutrition. Life expectancies are much longer with modern medicines and improved agricultural production.
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  11. #11
    Off Grid! Darkevs's Avatar
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    I had meant it is amazing ANY humans survived from....way back when to now.

    .................. survival of the fittest................ I guess.

    oh ya, another ingredient in some of the homemade toothe pastes of today is clay (betonite).

  12. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by kyratshooter View Post
    When I read the heading "home made TP", tooth paste was not what struck my mind first.

    I was envisioning hand cut strips of newspaper and buckets of corncobs, or the ever present Sears Robuck catalog.
    Same here! I was thinking you better get yer leaf identification right on this one!

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