My goal in life is to become chemically free, but….
I freak out about my teeth. And no.
queue *eye roll*
It isn’t for the usual things like how straight they or how white they are. I hate the tissue test.
I’m deathly afraid to get a cavity, or essentially, have any major dental work. There are also these moments when I fear that a tooth is loose and about to fall out. A weird fear since I had braces for almost 7 years and boy did they tug on those babies. I think if they didn’t fall out then, there’s a small chance they will fall out now. I’m still pretty young to have that worry.
The only way to assuage this fear is knowing that my mouth is filled with all the chemicals possible to ensure that won’t happen.
I silently laugh at myself, because, though they did help me stay away from cavities, I cracked a tooth.
How?
My dentist doesn’t even believe me.
On a soft bread roll during a wedding reception. It was so bad, anything I ate sent shooting pain. Nope, I didn’t get to enjoy the wedding cake…. My…. favorite… part… of… a… wedding. I mean seriously, why else go?
Well, that was the start of needing to make a change. Turns out, that leading brand of toothpaste I had been using was probably the cause. Supposedly, in cases like mine, the toothpaste can actually weaken the teeth. Especially if every morning, like I was, you wake up with white slush in your mouth. I ignored it thinking it wasn’t anything - maybe I had slept with my mouth open or a weird cause like that.
Ok so all that hard work and BAM!
My teeth were ruined.
I’m being a little dramatic. But I had to get my tooth shaved down and a crown put on. My future could hold a root canal. You should join the pool on how long I can last before I break down crying from the pain and beg the dentist to take it all away.
*You didn’t come to read this just for the information right?*
Back to the story. I marched myself up to the health food store and bought me some gooooood toothpaste. I opted for Tom’s of Maine because at some point in my childhood my mother had bought it. It was something I knew. Clearly, if it didn’t kill us then it might be ok to try again.
Fast forward.
I’ve been using this toothpaste I want to say for almost two years. In the past year, I’ve had two cleanings. Guess what? A super clean bill of health. They even said I have some of the cleanest teeth. I might want to pat myself on the back for that one. I don’t know how much should go to the toothpaste. But my gums are healthy and I didn’t make it on any cavity watch lists. My husband, who also has the mouth for cavities - something about all the juices and acids are the right breeding ground - had only a tiny, possibly could become one, cavity.
Now *hangs head in shame* I wasn’t totally chemically free with this option. One reason I also picked Tom’s was because they had a Flouride option. I couldn’t fully jump off that ledge. But I don’t know….
Maybe I can now.
Some information on the brand:
Environmental Working Group Score - 2
Owned by Colgate - Palmolive
Advertises sustainable practices
No Animal Testing
Donates 10% of profits to human and environmental goodness (what this means I have no clue)
I think that this is a great first option. This brand can be found in most major stores (you don’t have to schlep off to that bad smelling health food store if you don’t want to. Oh wait they are better now. Flashback to my youth.)
Doing my research, I do have a few problems with the brand. I really don’t like that they are owned by such a big corporation. I feel that a lot of these corporations buy out smaller companies and hide behind them to say they are doing good. We are still fueling them and why not make these changes across the board.
So take the plunge. I lived. And you can too.
But seriously. Here is one more step to becoming clean and free and living green.