We add essential oils to Earthpowder to make it taste good, but they have other impressive benefits for your mouth as well.
The essential oils in Earthpowder have a pretty important job: They make it taste delicious and refreshing. But they aren't only there for flavor. These essential oils have benefits that can boost your oral health. Here's how these essential oils support a healthy mouth.
- Peppermint Essential Oil: Peppermint oil has well-researched antimicrobial properties that can support a healthy mouth. It also has analgesic properties that provide a cooling and numbing effect. This can help ease oral discomfort or tooth pain.
- Spearmint Essential Oil: As another member of the mint family, spearmint oil has similar benefits to peppermint oil. It has documented antimicrobial properties and has been shown to aid in the reduction of bacteria strains that cause bad breath.
- Lemon Essential Oil: Citrus juices are known for being acidic and a little rough on your enamel. Luckily, citrus oils like lemon oil are much more alkaline and safer for your enamel. Lemon oil contains a potent compound called limonene, which has proven antiseptic properties that can benefit your mouth. It's also one of the best essential oils for supporting healthy gums.
- Tangerine Essential Oil: Tangerine oil is another citrus oil with documented antimicrobial properties thanks to the compound limonene. Limonene is an antioxidant as well, which means it could support healthy inflammation levels.
- Sweet Orange Essential Oil: Another citrus oil, sweet orange essential oil also contains limonene. That means it has similar antiseptic and antioxidant properties as lemon and tangerine oil. Studies show sweet orange oil has noteworthy antibacterial and antifungal properties specifically, which means it could be helpful at supporting healthy bacteria and fungal balance in the mouth.
- Lime Essential Oil: The compound limonene is found in lime oil too, so it has similar benefits to the other citrus oils on this list, including the ability to promote a healthy bacterial balance in your mouth.
- Mandarin Essential Oil: Mandarin essential oil is the final member of the citrus oil squad we use in our Splashin' Citrus Earthpowder. It has the same antiseptic and antioxidant properties as other citrus oils thanks to the beneficial compound limonene.
- Anise Essential Oil: Anise is a licorice-flavored herb that's been used for centuries as a remedy for bad breath. Anise essential oil, like many of the oils on this list, has antiseptic properties, which means it can help you maintain a healthy bacterial balance in your mouth.
- Fennel Essential Oil: Fennel has a similar flavor to anise and has also been a go-to home remedy for bad breath for a long, long time. Research shows that fennel essential oil contains as many as 23 beneficial compounds, including several with antiseptic and antioxidant properties, like limonene and fenchone.
Are Essential Oils Safe?
There's a lot of debate out there about the safety of essential oils. We're not doctors, so we're not going to get into that debate. But we can say that using the essential oils in Earthpowder is safe. In Earthpowder, you're not ingesting essential oils. You're brushing with them and then spitting them out. This usage is recognized as safe by most, just like external use is generally recognized as safe.
Plus, the amount of essential oil used in our Earthpowder formula is incredibly small and highly diluted by other ingredients. Any toxicity issues with essential oils arise from ingesting large, undiluted quantities.
Our Quality Guarantee
When we chose the essential oils for Earthpowder we worked hard to find the oils that aligned most closely with Redmond’s guiding principles: 100% pure essential oils that are never farmed or sprayed with pesticides. We believe nature has it right, and we’re happy we didn’t have to compromise with our essential oils.
We choose not to share the brand name of the essential oils we use in Earthpaste because of the passion people have for their particular brand of oils. The marketing messages are intense and divisive, and we don’t want to fuel sales for one brand (“Earthpowder chose our brand! Hooray!”) or upset sales representatives from brands we don’t use.
But we can promise you that we only use oils that best match our values and quality standards, so we can create amazingly natural (and effective) toothpowder that you and your family can count on.