One of the first and easiest things we did when starting to be more eco friendly was swapping to bamboo toothbrushes. Our local supermarket used to sell the Humble Brush so that’s what I tried first. Initially the texture of the bamboo felt a bit odd but it didn’t take long to get used to it. I honestly haven’t noticed any difference in my teeth since changing to bamboo toothbrushes – and more importantly, neither has my dentist. Different brands of brushes do vary in quality though; since the supermarket stopped selling the Humble Brush (bad move Waitrose!) I tried a couple of different ones I ordered off the internet. One was ok but the charcoal one made my gums so sore I quickly relegated it to bathroom grout cleaning duties!
I’d read a few reports about bamboo toothbrushes having a tendency to go mouldy but so far so good with all of ours. I dry the handle off and keep them stored in a glass next to the basin.
Having had such a good experience with the toothbrushes I thought I’d give an eco friendly dental floss a try. I bought the Georganics charcoal floss in a little glass dispenser. My first impressions weren’t great – the floss didn’t slide easily in between my teeth and at one point I was a bit worried I might end up pulling a tooth out! Before giving up on it I tried wetting the floss before using it and that made a huge difference, however, just as I was being converted I read that the Georganics floss actually has 20% polyester in it so isn’t plastic free after all. So it’s back to the drawing board with dental floss, but I’m determined to try and not go back to the plastic ones.
At the moment we’re continuing to use toothpaste and mouthwash that come in plastic as I just haven’t been able to find plastic free alternatives that contain fluoride. It’s frustrating as I seem to remember that when I was little we had metal tubes of toothpaste. Do let me know if you’ve come across any good plastic free alternatives.
Eco Family Life 