Hi pals,

I wanted to briefly share this mouthwash you can make at home. From personal experience of my own, my gran, and my mum, this mouthwash works wonders for inflamed gums and other mouth sores and ouches! It has a bit of a terrible taste and smell, but it really helps us out a lot.

I get a lot of inflamed gums, I’m not exactly sure why but I do find brushing my teeth twice a day very difficult and I am not a regular flosser (hello ADHD). When my gums are sore or if I have another growth spurt from my wisdom teeth, using this mouthwash helps calm down those pains and keeps my gums clean and clear of bacteria.

The Recipe

I won’t lie, I make this all on vibes but the main ingredients are:

• Boiling water

• Sea salt (or regular if that’s all you have)

• Peppermint essential oil

• Tea tree essential oil

How to Make it

• I usually make these in bulk as you only need a small amount of essential oils. I’ll boil anywhere from half an average size kettle to a fully kettle (as I often make it for more than just myself as well)

• I use a large jug that I don’t use for cooking to mix the ingredients

• I put in one or two teaspoons of salt in

• and splash a drop to a couple of drops of each essential oil onto the salt

• I mix the boiling water in, and stir until fully mixed together. The essential oils can separate so you may need to shake before each use.

• Leave to cool for a few hours (cover it with something to keep bugs out) and when cool you can then put it into bottles. I also recommend you don’t use bottle you use regularly for anything else as the essential oils mix is quite gross and the smell and taste lingers on everything.

To Use

Give it a shake and just swig and rinse when you like. You can use it once a day, or a few times a day.

Where Did this Recipe Come From?

Dentists often tell you to rinse with salt water when you are having issues with your teeth and gums but I decided I wanted to do some research into what you can do to improve this as my gran wasn’t finding it helpful nor the special mouthwashes her dentists and doctors where recommending to her. Plus some of the special mouthwashes were actually turning her teeth brown…

From my research, I found that there are lots of things that have antibacterial properties and I just went for the two most regularly used: Tea tree and peppermint.

They have many uses outside of mouthwash and are easy to access online or at a local Holland and Barrett and they aren’t usually too expensive for a small bottle that will last for ages. I think this is also why some people do coconut oil mouth rinses as well but I don’t like the oil texture in my mouth.

I DO NOT RECOMMEND SWALLOWING THIS, PLEASE SPIT.

There is some evidence that these can help with throat infections, sinus infections, and generally helping as a COVID precaution but I have not read enough into these. If I do, I will update this post. It may be good for infected piercings as well, but again I have not read enough into that myself.

Why Is It Important To Keep Your Mouth and Gums Clean?

Why should we care about oral hygiene? Without proper oral hygiene, the natural bacteria that gets into your mouth will reach high levels that may lead to oral infections, such as tooth decay and gum disease. As an immunocompromised person, I have been told that the easiest way to get really sick is infections through the mouth. You can get things like abscesses in your mouth or under your teeth which could kill you. There has been research to show that a lack of oral or dental care leads to unnecessary deaths that could have been preventable if dentistry was more accessible and if this part of healthcare education was taught. The bacteria can also get into your digestive track or your respiratory system and cause health issues this way.

You also need to be extra careful if you have a dry mouth. This can be caused by an array of things like Sjogren’s Disease or a variety of medications: decongestants, ADHD meds, antihistamines, painkillers, diuretics, antidepressants and medical cannabis are a few examples. Also you tend to have a dryer mouth when sleeping, especially if you are an open mouth sleeper. I was recommended by my dentist that if you struggle to brush your teeth, brushing before bed is the most important due to the bacteria from the day drying out in your mouth overnight, which has a higher likelihood of causing further health complications.

Dry mouth can mean it is harder to naturally wash the bacteria away. Saliva washes away food and neutralises the acids in your mouth after eating or drinking. So having a natural mouthwash like this can be really helpful for protecting your oral health as well as your overall health.

I do want to emphasise here as well as I am disabled and make content for other disabled people, that ‘proper’ oral hygiene can be hard to do and doing anything is better than nothing. This mouthwash might actually be a really good alternative for brushing your teeth if that is something you struggle to do. More on executive dysfunction hacks in this video.

Some Sources

Healthline: how to kill bacteria with essential oils

Pubmed: Antibacterial and antifungal activity of ten essential oils in vitro

Oxford Academic: Antibacterial activity of essential oils and their major constituents against respiratory tract pathogens by gaseous contact

As usual, this is not medical advice, but just hopefully sharing some information that would be helpful to my fellow neurodivergent or disabled community out there with ways that can help you feel a little bit better and keep on top of the many things we have to think about when it comes to keeping well.

Don’t forget to follow the blog, like the post, and leave a comment if you have tried this or are going to try it! It helps support my blog. If you like video content, please check out my youtube channel! If you are able to support financially, please drop by my kofi and you can make a one-off donation or become a member at the current 3 different tiers: £1, £1.50 and £2 per month. It helps keep my free content running for everyone and I would really like to get to a spot where I can use these funds to help make my work more accessible and paying people to alt text, ID and caption videos among other things.

Let me know if there is anything you’d like to see from me!

~ Artie

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