Why do we want to keep our gums healthy? We want to have healthy mouths! The reality in the United States is that gum disease is frequently found in adults. If a person’s gums are not healthy, the gums do not secure the teeth, and the teeth may fall out. And who wants to be toothless?!

Create a Healthy Mouth

Create a healthy mouth by establishing healthy gums.  The first step to healthy gums is to design a daily dental care routine. This is beneficial to create a balance of healthy flora in the mouth and remove any unwanted plaque or biofilm. This is a good daily goal.

Brushing works best to remove plaque if repeated every eight hours, three times a day. The best practice is to brush two to three times a day for two to three minutes each time. Don’t forget your tongue! Brushing your tongue removes food, bacteria, and dead cells that cause bad breath.

Flossing is what removes food from between the teeth. Toothpicks, Stim-U-Dents, or floss are the most common tools used for flossing. There are also water flossers that do a good job of flushing debris from between the teeth.

Rinsing with herbal solutions can be effective. Rinsing means both gargling and swirling liquid around the mouth. Spitting out the solution is the final step and is an effective way to reduce stains on the teeth, freshen the breath, and cleanse the mouth of loose food and bacteria.

Herbal Mouth Rinses

Herbal mouth rinses can have antimicrobial actions, increase immune function, stimulate the gingival tissues by increasing blood flow, and tighten the tissues in the mouth.

There are many ways to deliver the herbs effectively to the mouth. Teas are one of my favorite ways to rinse. I simply make a cup of herbal tea, let it cool a bit to a warm temperature, rinse the mouth, and spit out the remaining liquid.  I recommend rinsing several times.

Herbs that are most often used for rinses are plants from the Mint family, Raspberry or Blackberry leaves, Rose hips, and Hibiscus leaves.  There are many different actions herbs have on mouth tissues, but it is beyond the scope of this blog to list them all.

Other Mouth Rinses

Oil pulling with sesame oil or coconut oil is another way to rinse the teeth and may have some antimicrobial benefits.

Plain water is an excellent mouth rinse, especially when you rinse with warm water. Himalayan or Celtic salt can be added for their antiseptic properties.

Toothpaste and Tooth Powder

Toothpaste enhances the effectiveness of brushing teeth by providing graininess that helps with plaque removal. Herbs that have been used historically are Cinnamon, Anise, Cloves, Lemon, Eucalyptus, Neem, Peppermint, Orange, Sassafras, Sage, Thyme, Spearmint, and Wintergreen. Many of these are called “Square Rinses” because they include square-stemmed herbs like many previously mentioned herbs in this paragraph.

No matter what tools we use for our dental care, the outcome we are looking for are mouths that smell, look and feel healthy. Whether at home or away from home, do our best to remove any plaque on our teeth after each time we eat by rinsing with plain water or using other tools.

May God bless you on your wellness journey!

Joni

P.S. What experience do you have with herbal rinses?