When it comes to caring for our teeth and maintaining oral health, we all know the importance of brushing daily. It often stands as the baseline for oral care. Brushing our teeth is as ingrained in our daily routines as eating or sleeping, and if we do nothing else for our mouths, we at least brush.

But how often do we consider what we brush with? And why would we choose to switch from a toothpaste to Tooth Powder?

Ayurveda has long viewed oral health as an important part of our overall health and well-being, understanding the connections of the mouth with other organs and systems in the body—parallels modern science is beginning to confirm.¹

With this understanding, Ayurveda offers us a rich tradition of oral care, including oil pulling, tongue cleaning, and turning to Nature's abundant pharmacopoeia of ingredients to clean the teeth and gums.

Banyan's Tooth Powder honors Ayurvedic wisdom, harnessing the power of Ayurvedic herbs and naturally-occurring minerals, each of which plays an important role to cleanse, detoxify, and polish—creating a truly effective way to clean your teeth while leaving you with a brighter smile and a happier mouth.

The Benefits of Tooth Powder

Using a powdered blend to clean your teeth may seem curious, but it's actually an abiding practice that many have included as part of their Ayurvedic oral hygiene routines over the years. In fact, records of people using powders to clean their teeth date back thousands of years in ancient Egypt, Rome, and Greece, among other places.²

Interestingly, toothpastes didn't come on the market until the 19th century, and even then they didn't overtake powders as the more popular option until the 1940s.³

But after decades of toothpaste holding the spotlight, why go back to powder?

While there are some high quality, safe toothpastes on the market, not all toothpastes are created equal. Some include ingredients that are questionable at best, and considering the active ingredients in a toothpaste don't naturally form a paste, there is a list of additives needed to hold the ingredients together in paste-form. Some go further, including artificial sweeteners and even artificial coloring agents.

By contrast, each herb and ingredient in Tooth Powder has been chosen based on its tried-and-true history of use. And considering this is a powdered formula, there is no need for any additives to make it into a paste.

The end result is a non-toxic formula that is safe for kids and adults alike. And as an added benefit, the glass container is recyclable and reusable, reducing our contribution to the landfill.

The Ingredients: What Is (and Isn't) in the Formula

Banyan's Tooth Powder comes in two refreshing flavors—Mint Cardamom and Cinnamon Clove. While these two distinct flavors make both options unique, let's take a deeper look at the key ingredients that are shared by both Tooth Powder formulas:

Herbs

• Miswak. Chewing on sticks to clean the gums and teeth is one of the oldest recorded methods of oral care across the globe, especially when using sticks from Salvadora persica, or miswak, which is the main ingredient in Tooth Powder.
  
  Miswak is Arabic for “tooth-cleaning stick” and is also known as “the toothbrush tree” in some parts of the world.⁴ Using miswak powder benefits the teeth and gums and has a long history that stretches back thousands of years and across the map, from India (including roots in Ayurvedic culture!) and Nepal through Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and throughout African countries.⁵ In fact, some attribute the evolution of our modern-day toothbrush to the enduring use of miswak.
  
  Using miswak is one oral hygiene practice that has withstood the test of time—and science. In fact, there is a growing body of research that proves miswak is as effective as our modern-day toothbrush, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has also recommended and encouraged the use of miswak as an effective oral hygiene tool.⁶

• Amalaki and neem. These two Ayurvedic super-herbs bring their unique properties to our Tooth Powders and are included to help cleanse and purify the mouth. Amalaki, which has an affinity for oral health, is well-known for its detoxifying and cleansing properties, as is neem. Like miswak, neem sticks have also been used for millennia to care for the teeth and gums where miswak is not available.⁷

• Licorice. Licorice root brings its demulcent properties to soothe and nourish the gums.

Abrasives

Teeth cleaning products often include a category of ingredients known as abrasives, which are substances designed to gently scrub, polish, or clean surfaces. These substances help remove buildup and stains from the surface of teeth without causing scratches, restoring their natural shine and luster. In our toothpowder, we specifically chose mild abrasives to ensure effective cleaning while maintaining the safety and integrity of your enamel. Here's a bit more detail about how these ingredients work.

• Activated charcoal is known for its ability to bind to surface stains on teeth, effectively lifting and removing them. While it's true that charcoal products can be abrasive, our formulation uses finely milled charcoal from dried, deseeded amla fruits to minimize the risk of damaging your enamel. Charcoal creates the curious experience of turning your mouth green and black—but only while you brush! This is its deep cleansing action at work.
• Baking soda is one of the gentlest abrasives used in dental care. It's recognized by the American Dental Association (ADA) as a safe ingredient in tooth-cleaning products. It is shown to have an intrinsic low-abrasive nature because of its comparatively lower hardness in relation to enamel and dentin.⁸
• Calcium carbonate is widely used in dental products as a mild abrasive which allows gentle cleaning of sticky buildup on teeth. Moreover, calcium carbonate plays a role in remineralization, which naturally helps to strengthen tooth enamel.⁹

What isn't included in our ingredients also speaks volumes about Tooth Powder—it's free of fluoride, synthetics, additives, preservatives, foaming agents, binding agents, flowing agents, sweeteners, and artificial colors.

Using Tooth Powder

The process of brushing with Tooth Powder is almost exactly like using toothpaste, although the experience is a little different. There are no foaming agents, so you won't experience any foaming as you brush. And thanks to the charcoal and herbs, your mouth will turn green and black while you brush (kids love it!).

Beyond that, the experience of using Tooth Powder is much like brushing with toothpaste!

How to Brush with Tooth Powder

1. Wet your toothbrush.
2. Dip your brush in the Tooth Powder and brush as you normally would.
3. Rinse your mouth.
4. Follow with Daily Swish pulling oil for an extra clean mouth.

That's it! When you're done brushing, your mouth will feel bright, fresh, and sparkling clean.