When is comes to dental hygiene, it’s best not to cut corners. Brush and floss twice a day. Mouthwash. Change up your toothbrush as often as you need to. As much as we need to do these tasks, wouldn’t it be great if we could cut back on all the plastic this produces? Mouthwash bottles and floss boxes are pretty painless to recycle, but toothpaste and toothbrushes cannot be recycled. Toothpaste tubes can be terracycled, but finding places that terracycle are few and far between. Furthermore, terracycling doesn’t solve the problem and decrease plastic use. We just keep buying more and more plastic to replace our toothpaste.
This is why I went in search of an alternative to plastic toothpaste tubes. I ended up trying Lush’s Toothy Tabs. The first thing that drew me to this product was that the box was made from recycled cardboard and can be recycled!! This little box quits contributing to the problem and helps solves it.
The Toothy Tabs look like Altoid Mints. They are actually made of more natural ingredients than traditional toothpaste is too. Their ingredients include: baking soda, kaolin clay and cleansing essential oils and don’t have synthetic preservatives. Even cooler!!
So then came the true test: actually using them! You stick it in your mouth, chew it in to pieces (don’t swallow!), stick your wet toothbrush in to your mouth and start brushing. It does feel awkward at first, but it is a big change in habit. The essential oils surprised my mouth when I first bit in, but once you start brushing, the strength disappears. These tabs get really foamy, which was kind of a must for me with toothpaste.
The only improvement I would wish to see is that more of them come in a box. They come in a pack of 40, which seems like a lot, but if you’re brushing as often as your should, then that is only a 20 day supply. Overall, I give this product an A-.
Of course, these Toothy Tabs worked great with my Norwex Silvercare Toothbrush!! The Norwex Silvercare toothbrush helps reduce plastic with their ability to replace just the heads of the toothbrush instead of the entire thing. The head of the toothbrush is pretty amazing too. Since the bristles are coated with silver,an antibacterial property that interrupt the survival of bacteria, viruses and fungi. Now, there is no reason to be grossed out by your toothbrush!
I hope you are convinced to try something different with your dental hygiene routine! With more eco- and economically-friendly choices, we can ditch the plastic and quit contributing to the plastic problem!
What do you think? Have you found more natural alternatives rather than the traditional toothpaste? What’s your favorite?
~ Suzanne
I’ve never actually taken the time to think about dental hygiene, because I always assumed a brush-is-a-brush. Thank you for highlighting Norwex’s Silvercare Toothbrush – I think it will really help with my kids brushing habits!
we’ve been using bamboo toothbrushes (the environmental toothbrush for example) for over a year now – they can be completely recycled and you can decorate them – the kids love writing their names and musketeer names on the brushes and when guests come we have a stash for them to personalise too if they sleep over. 🙂