Olivella -- I officially quit toothpaste! I brush with soap.

That's right. I do not brush my teeth with toothpaste! I won't go into detail about all my horrorific dental problems as of the last year again. And I'll spare you the long story again of my money-milking dentist. But in case you're interested, Shallowford Family Dental is not one I'd recommend to anyone looking for dental work in the Chattanooga TN area. Now we have it. Just looking out for my fellow tooth owners! Here we go...

I had done research out the rear for since last October. Really. I could probably qualify as a blasted dentist at this point. I literally have researched, studied and learned that much. I was desperate and when I realized my dentist's main concern was not at all my health, but my money, I flipped. I spent months literally in panic-mode. 

I had been taking extra calcium to help my teeth. I'd been eating my aloe plant for my health and stomach, reproductive and digestive system condition as well as health in general. I have always had a nice set of chompers, especially for a girl who's only dental work was a quadhelix for an overbite, ONE cap on a baby tooth as a kid, and at 7 years old I was playing in the pool with my nephew and when I went under water to tickle his feet, I hit my chin on the bottom of the concrete pool and chipped a bottom front permanant tooth! Dr. Fred, my kid-dentist fixed that right up though. That is literally all the dental work I have ever in my life had done up until this past year. 

So I had been trying to get as healthy as possible. I am on a medication that prevents my endometrial growth (endometriosis) and have been for at least 7 years now. It really takes the calcium out of my bones, so that is likely where my issues stemmed from. 

With all the calcium supplements I seen nothing getting better. So I done even more research and learned that glycerin, as you may even have learned by now, is bad, bad bad! ALL toothpaste almost contains glycerin, even the "natural" stuff. Check your labels people. To make a long story short: I learned glycerin puts a layer/coating over your teeth and instead of helping, it does more damage than good because it is preventing your teeth from getting the calcium and minerals they need. Basically, when you're brushing teeth with most toothpastes, the glycerin in it is keeping your teeth from being able to repair themselves, which they were actually designed to do!

 I also read (according to a book by Dr. Judd PhD.) that it takes  twenty three washings to totally rid the teeth of the glycerin. Some argue with this being true by saying "when you lick your teeth or have spit in the mouth or eat you are cleaning your teeth somewhat, so it couldn't take so many washes to rid of glycerin." In my opinion, it is not about how many washes it takes to get rid of the stuff. It's about the fact that it prevents my teeth from being able to repair/remineralize and do what God intended for these pearly white babies to do!

 

And of course you have your critics and the people who beg to differ with Dr. Judd's findings. Such an example would be Dr. O'Nara who says that Dr. Judd's findings about glycerin are "nonsense-pseudo science" because glycerin is "beneficial" due to its antibiotic properties. So these two have you stumped? Simple freaking solution: use aloe vera like me! I use it straight from my plant, which in earlier posts, I've given instructions on how to prepare. It's very simple. I often even eat the inner leaf and put the outer leaf and left over bits in a blender, mix, store in air-tight container in fridge and use similarly to "oil-pulling" every day. Aloe has very high antibacterial, antifungal properties and millions more! So don't believe that glycerin is necessary. Aloe's properties are far, far higher anyways. However, the decision is ultimately yours. My goal is only to share my opinions, experience and gatherings in hopes of helping someone else. Maybe one person who's in the panic I was will find relief or some type of informational help from my and other's postings? 

Moving on. 

There are no hard-core studies that totally, 100% prove what remineralizes teeth. We're smart enough people though to know and to be able to weigh our options. Dentists say use toothpaste, the government fluoridates our water to dangerously toxic levels here in America (Hmmm... does that make anything click?) Do you guys know how bad American's dental issues are compared to say, people in other countries who do not have fluoride and glycerin forced down their throats? Don't forget that some countries (Germany for one) have wisened up and refused to pollute their people with fluoridated water, milk, etc. That says enough. 

And then you have the option of natural things like Aloe Vera and olive oil. Other real people have began brushing their teeth with natural soaps (bar soaps!) before me, this is how I learned of it. I've spoken with 2 other female bloggers who are also on the same journey as me. I should plug a lovely girl,  gave me inspiration. I read he story over at Mint & Chili and had conversations with the author who's one of the females that helped me make my own decision to be strong and brush with soap! I encourage others to read her story at the link I provided.

And switching to the topic fluoride before moving on.  I don't know if you're aware or not, but fluoride is not your teeth's BFF. It is their enemy, your enemy and everyone's enemy except maybe the government. There's a blog I follow (will have to link to it once I find it) about the dangers of fluoride. The author provides a true wealth of information on the truth behind fluoride and has plenty, oh so plenty of legit proof to back his statements. It literally scared my butt to Alaska and back when I really dug deep and read more than I had already knew. For one, fluoride was used in the old days (I'm not getting all pro on you since I really don't know exact dates or anything specific, but like I said, will be back with a link to that site) as a mind control drug. That is only part of the horrificness of fluoride. I'm not here to do all that right now though, so I'll not go on too much about it.

Fluoride actually decays teeth and it is truly bad for your health. Do your research and in the meantime, I'll be working on providing links and all that pretty stuff to provide you with legit information.

*Post on a few horrible things fluoride does to you coming up this week*

Fluoride is in everything from toothpaste to our blasted drinking water. You can't even buy water for babies at the grocery store without it being polluted with fluoride. 

Want non-fluoridated water? Me too. I'm still researching all there is to know about going about that though. I read about filters and purifiers and such, but also read that they are not actually successful. I did find information saying that you can stick with spring water when it's possible to avoid fluoride overload.

As I said, the girl at Mint & Chili has provided a wealth of information and has been very diligent in answering everybody's questions thoroughly and with so much help, including my own questions. She continues to update us on her progress as well, which I hope to be able to live up to. She talks on her blog about how she's seen results in a pretty short time of using soap and she shares a family member's results as well. Both very impressive.

So after about a week of consideration and research of different soaps,  I made the decision to truly crack down. I went with a $5 soap called Olivella. Tastes like butt, but it works if you're looking for a cheaper alternative to $20 soap! 

Here's what went through my mind at the time of making the decision to really devote myself, and let me tell ya, deciding to quit toothpaste, something you've used your entire life and start putting SOAP on your teeth is devotion people. It was for me anyhow. I had to get real serious about my teeth health. Oh yea, what went through my mind:

I remember God said he helps those who help themselves. That was what gave me the final push I needed. I ordered Olivella and prayed. I said "OK God, you said you help those who help themselves and I cannot honestly think of one more thing I could do to help my own self in this dental ordeal, so I'm counting on you. I am about to begin brushing my teeth with soap. Soap. This is huge for me. This is me being absolutely devoted. I'm trusting you to do the rest." 

After learning the horrible, horrible things about fluoride and the thing about glycerin holding my lovely chompers back from their healthy future, I could not bring myself to use toothpaste. Not even until my Olivella soap arrived. I ordered it offline, so I wasn't able to use it immediately. I had to wait about a week for it to arrive. 

So I remember leaving a very lengthy comment with a lot of questions to the unfortunate Mint & Chili girl. I know I had to have been a pain in the butt. I told her that I had officially quit toothpaste too and since I'd been waiting for my soap to arrive to me, I began using peroxide and my aloe plant all week unil it arrived. Determine little me!

I did too. That was about a month ago and a drop of toothpaste has not come near my mouth. It was hard. So hard because you know, you're used to toothpaste. 

But everday I'd go out, snip a chunk of aloe and brush, then swish with peroxide. It was fine. Cleaned my teeth and they actually stayed clean all day long. No build up after my morning coffee. The aloe also helped get rid of that funky taste I'd get on the back of my tongue from coffee and dr. pepper. 

Then Olivella arrived. Yuck! The strong fragrance is what bugs me about it, but I am still using it. I however, will admit that I found brushing with aloe vera was so much easier. For all I know, aloe could be just as beneficial as soap.

 
  You see my photos of the Olivella stuff. Here, you see where I cut a small portion off as soon as I opened the package. Since Olivella is natural and all, I wanted to separate a tiny bit off to keep in my shower for washing my body and then the large bar for my teeth. I still have a tiny bit left of that small chunk you see cut above. I've used it for washing my body for the past month and I prefer it because unlike almost all drugstore soaps, it doesn't have harmful ingredients like parabens and well, honestly, I don't like using that harmful stuff on my crotch or body when washing. So I have been using Olivella for both body and teeth.

It's brownish green. It stinks like grandma's bathroom filled with little decorative soaps in the shape of sea shells and various sea creatures. Each time I get a whiff of that awful fragrance I get a feeling of dread. Each and every time. It's just me and my sensitivity to fragrances and I was disappointed because Olivella was labeled "no fragrance." It's OK. I will live, but I have been considering this Olive Oil Soap since it's only $5 and that's what I paid for Olivella, only this one's fragrance-free, contains coconut oil. I could be wrong about ingredients. Here is what that particular Olive Oil soap lists as its ingredients:  Olive oil, water, coconut oil, palm oil, sodium hydroxide, castor oil.  As far as I know, those are OK for your teeth. If I am wrong, someone please correct me. 

Another note. That Olive Oil Soap I linked to above, it contains Coconut Oil. That is good because coconut oil is natural and has antibacterial AND anti-fungal properties like Aloe. Coconut oil is a top choice for oil pulling. I have used it for that. 

So far, from what I gather, the best soaps for teeth brushing is: 100% natural olive oil -- castile soap. Non-fragrance, Non-glycerin, paraben, etc. In other words, NOTHING that is not natural. I have read that it is OK to contain glycerin if it is from natural sources and I believe Olivella DOES contain glycerin from natural sources. Again, somebody please do correct me if I am mistaken. I truly do appreciate input as I'm not totally sure when it comes to this particular thing.

You may be wondering why I didn't just shell out the $20+ for Dr. Bronner's already made toothsoap. That is because I read the ingredients in it and saw that it does contain glycerin! And after talking it over with another fellow tooth-soaper, we both decided it was better safe than $20.

Like I said, I am one month into my non-toothpaste new life. I so far cannot say I have seen new teeth grow. I'm expecting serious results though, of course. If I'm praying, I am going to expect it. I do believe it's possible. In fact, I believe that by the time January rolls around (when my insurance comes back to life) I will have seen enough improvement to feel NO need to answer the calls that will be rolling in from Dr. Shallowford Family Dental saying "Kendra, you ready for me to finish that root canal therapy you paid IN FULL for? Or you ready for me to fill those 3 teeth I drilled and only temporarily filled, and afterward told you that I did not actually fill them, but put a temporary seal in there. Then I proceeded to tell you how I sucked your blasted insurance so dry that you have nothing left. Good luck! You really should come back in 5 weeks though to have those teeth permanantly filled." (Huge money hungry grin)

OK I know, I know, I said I wouldn't get into that. I'm done. You get my point. I do expect to begin seeing improvement. And if so far, I have interested you in my lenghty post (which I apologize for. I do try to be brief, but lets face it, I'm a big mouth and I always want to include anything that may be of use) then I hope you'll be interested in reading what else I am doing health-wise to benefit my teeth. I will try to be organized with this, but will probably go on to post those things below. If this is too lengthy for one sitting and you are interested to keep reading, tell me to break the dang posts up or either bookmark me and come back? I love you. 

I have been posting on the changes I've made in my self health-wise to benefit things like my teeth and stomach. Some include my recent wheatgrass posts. Also you probably know how gung-ho I am on the aloe, so no need for me to go there, right? Gung-ho is the word, isn't it?

I began taking VitaChews, which are way too expensive at like $9 a box! They were good though, didn't make my stomach hurt like the other pill-form vitamins I was taking. These are really good and  I feel like they are actually getting the important calcium and minerals in me, but unfortunately my sister stole every last one of them except two and I ate my last today, so I probably won't buy more being that they're expensive. I have been adding as much caclium in my diet as possible though. I do the wheatgrass powders from Amazing Grass because those actually contain a mind-blowing amount of fruits, veggies, minerals, etc. so I know I'm actually getting everything needed for the calcium and minerals to act. 

I have also began adding a little Whey Protein in my diet, and Amino Acids, which I have posted about recently. Amino Acid drops can form protein strings or something, so they can help somewhat with my pearlies.


As of right now, I'm happy and feeling good. The wheatgrass powders give me energy and of course my intense coffee shots keep me going. And keep in mind for those of you who have fillings, caps and such -- wheatgrass removes heavy metals from the body. You already probably know how bad having amalgams and such are for your health and can cause a pretty shocking amount of health problems, even just general fatigue, which is bad enough. Just a thing to keep in mind.

I will continue using that blasted Olivella until I break and find something cheap that tastes better.  It doesn't help that Olivella soap is brownish green and looks really unappetizing sitting there all goopy on my tooth brush bristles first thing in the AM, but I do think most people would be able to tolerate it. I've learned to hold my little tongue to the roof of my mouth. What I hate most is that that blasted fragrance stays in my tongue literally all day long no matter how much I rinse, spit, drink, eat! I have to completely avoid getting the soap on my tongue.






 ANYONE ELSE WANNA PARTNER WITH ME IN SOAP BRUSHING?

So I will be in the market for a less fragranced soap, but probably not without some recommendations from friends. Or you guys! Any other soap-brushers out there? I would love to hear from you. We need us a little community. I can see it now "The Tooth Soaper girls." Or People. Or something like that. I really, really would enjoy some companionship in this journey! Anyone else going to jump on the band-wagon? Let's chat. Message me. Tell me your results. Anything. We can encourage each other. 

And if there's anything I could do to answer anybody's questions or if you're considering tooth-soaping and you think I might be of help in any way, don't hesitate! I love company. I will be glad to help answer your questions or anything. Even if you just want to share your story. It helps me too to have others to share with on things like this. 

And if you're interested, I'll continue updating with my progress! I think we need more people to share their stories when it comes to anything like this so that 1. others are knowledgeable. Like I always say "knowledge is power." And 2. so that others can benefit and be able to gain from each other's experiences.