Ingredients

After decades in the fields of natural healing and nutrition, Isabelle Dunkeson intuitively selected a blend of mineral, vitamin and herb ingredients to make a dentifrice that could soothe and support the healing of her gums. Little did she know, the creation she made up in her kitchen became the basis of the formula now responsible for helping thousands of people heal their gum problems and keep their whole mouth clean and healthy every day.

The result is the first and only 2-in-1 tooth cleaning and mouthwash product which is superior to toothpaste at fighting bacteria, soothing and helping heal sore or bleeding gums, addressing receding gums, breaking down and softening plaque and tartar so it can be gently cleared away, leaving your whole mouth clean. Rich in nutrifying herbs and minerals, Good-Gums also packs a Vitamin C punch – essential to aid your body’s natural healing process. And because it’s a powder, the full potency of all the ingredients are sustained to activate the moment they effortlessly dissolve in your mouth.

Unlike toothpastes, all the ingredients in Good-Gums are entirely natural, vegan, cruelty free, and contain no chemical or additives to interfere with natural healing and processes, such as tooth remineralization. Read more about Our Unique Formula.

Baking Soda

Baking soda is an excellent natural dental care product and has for many decades been used for tooth care practices. It has been selected by Isabelle, as an essential ingredient of Good-Gums, for its many wonderful oral health benefits.

The primary virtues of baking soda are that it neutralizes acids and that it acts as a very good cleanser and deodorizer.  Baking soda is nontoxic and mild enough for the soft tissues of the gums, tongue and mouth. It’s one of the least abrasive cleansers on tooth enamel, much less than the silicas or dicalcium phosphates that are common to many toothpastes.

Baking soda neutralizes odors, bad tastes, and Volatile Sulfur Compounds, which are primarily responsible for bad breath and are highly toxic.  Clinical studies are underway to determine the involvement VSCs have related to gum health issues as they tend to congregate in the gum pockets, especially as pockets get deeper.

Another virtue of baking soda is that it helps remove stains on the surface and in the tiny crevices of teeth.  So if you drink coffee, tea, wine or even smoke, baking soda may help improve your teeth’s appearance.

Want to know more about the benefits of baking soda?

Cinnamon

Cinnamon improves taste and aroma, in addition to being antimicrobial and a modest pain reliever.  The inner bark is the part of the plant from which either the powder or the more concentrated oil is derived, and is the only part approved for use as a medicinal herb by the prestigious German Commission E.

Cinnamon has properties that are antimicrobial, antiviral, antifungal, and slightly anesthetic, which can be beneficial for sore tissues.  The oil and bark have been traditional folk remedies for many years and have historically been used to numb teeth and gums, including the gums of teething infants.

Cinnamon is also considered one of the most concentrated sources of antioxidants.

Cinnamon is not only a natural dental care product, other traditional applications for cinnamon (other than for the teeth, gums and mouth) address the digestive process, including indigestion, loss of appetite, bloating, and flatulence.

The ingredients of Good-Gums contain parts of plants (such as leaves, bark, fruit pulp, skins and sap) that can start to decompose over time in a wet environment. So Good-Gums is produced as a dry powder to help the ingredients retain their potency longer and stay fresh until it is used.

Cranberry

Cranberry has the amazing property of preventing the biological adhesion of microbes to mucous membranes, such as the urinary tract, stomach, and of course, the gums. The anti-adhesion property of cranberries stem from its proanthocyanidins, a type of flavonoid with high antioxidant properties but with a unique structure not found in most other fruits and vegetables.  It’s the bacterial anti-adhesion property that makes cranberry so effective for urinary tract infections.

It’s not just the structure of cranberry’s antioxidants that’s unusual. Cranberries are also packed with unusually high levels of antioxidants, with five times the concentration found in broccoli and one of the highest among all other common fruits and vegetables.  

When ingested by itself, the high level of antioxidants are thought to be beneficial for reductions in cholesterol, heart disease, and stroke.  For thousands of years, wild cranberries provided Eskimos and Laplanders (the Sami people) with high concentrations of plant nutrients that are otherwise hard to find or to grow in the northern latitudes.  While they could derive proteins, fats, and many vitamins from the flesh of seals, caribou, birds, and from eggs they hunted, some nutrients would be lacking.  Fortunately, nature provided them with cranberry, which has rightly been called a “super fruit” because of its high levels of antioxidants, vitamin C, and other trace elements.

Scientists have discovered that the flavonoids quercetin and myricetin found in cranberries can stop the formation of dental plaque and tooth decay. Their natural antibiotic activities are beneficial for overcoming gum infections; bacteria can attach themselves to teeth and gums, forming a biofilm that becomes dental plaque. Cranberry helps to keep such bacteria from sticking to surfaces in the first place. Trials have shown that daily use of a cranberry mouthwash for six weeks significantly reduces levels of harmful bacteria in saliva.

Please note: The Good Gums formula includes cranberry but does not include any sugar.

French Grey Sea Salt

Dentists often recommend a mixture of baking soda and salt for cleaning teeth.  This combination is a traditional tooth cleanser that has stood the test of time for over centuries!  But when you brush or floss, much more than just cleaning is going on.  While the teeth are being cleaned, the gums are also absorbing whatever is in the cleansing mixture.  Even in this regard, salt is considered so beneficial that dentists commonly recommend salt rinses following tooth extractions or other oral surgery.

Now a lot of people think that all salt is the same. It’s not!  When we select the salt (along with the other natural nutrients) that we use in Good-Gums, we specify a specific type of sea salt instead of inexpensive, refined table salt, which has been stripped of nutrients.

Mineral rich sea water is often considered the closest thing in nature to human blood (so much so that it was successfully used in emergency transfusions by Navy doctors in World War II when blood and plasma weren’t available.)  If sea salt has not been refined, it can be reconstituted into its mineral rich solution by water or by the moisture of saliva or food.  Ordinary table salt cannot.  The producers of refined salt extract many trace minerals from the salt and sell the minerals as nutritional additives to the manufacturers of processed “fortified” foods, before selling the depleted salt.  That’s one reason table salt is so inexpensive; it’s been reduced to being a byproduct that’s nearly-nutrient-free after having had up to 90 essential minerals extracted and sold separately, and then having aluminosilicate of sodium or yellow prussiate of soda added, as well as bleaches!

The resulting refined salt then winds up with an undesired higher sodium content than unrefined sea salt.

Dissolved sea salt – especially mineral rich sea salt – allows liquids to pass through the body’s membranes and blood vessels’ walls.  The trace elements are required for cells to control their ion equilibrium, which is necessary for the cells’ functioning, growth and regeneration.  Refined salt does not allow the proper passage of fluids and minerals, leading to a buildup on one side of a membrane and to a lack on the other and to cells becoming out of balance. With salt and its trace elements being so important, Good-Gums incorporates what we consider to be the best sea salt in the world as a natural dental care product for Isabelle’s formula.  It is a Celtic sea salt, also known as grey sea salt, harvested from Brittany in France facing the Celtic Sea, a section of the Atlantic Ocean that’s considered particularly clean.  The sea water is introduced into shallow pools of mineral rich clay (and not into cement-lined ponds).  As the brine evaporates in the sun, salt crystals form about 6 inches below the surface, with a distinctive grey color from the healthful minerals and nutrients of the ocean and of the beds’ clay bottom.  The resulting salt is so pure that no further processing is necessary, and is certified organic by the French organization Nature et Progreès, which is one of the founding organizations of International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM).

If you’d like to read some weird and wonderful facts about salt, check out our article.

Myrrh

Myrrh is an Arabic word meaning bitter; it is widely considered by herbalists and practitioners of Chinese medicine to be one of the most effective substances for sore gums. Even in the west it is renowned for its astringent and antiseptic properties as well as for promoting healing.

It is so antiseptic that it was used for embalming and mummifying Egyptian Pharaohs; ancient Greek soldiers would carry it into battle to treat wounds and prevent gangrene.  As an astringent and healing agent, it was considered even more valuable than gold!

Myrrh is produced by trees in the Commiphora genus, especially Commiphora myrrha, which grows in Africa, Saudi Arabia, and Oman.  A little bit goes a long way, so usable quantities could be carried by donkeys, camels and other pack animals along ancient trade routes that fanned out from the Middle East.  

Its healing powers made it prized by royalty, nobles and wealthier people from Greece to India.  Cultivation has extended its growth range, and it’s estimated that current stocks of the plants are enough to fill the world’s demand for myrrh.

In addition to its antiseptic, antimicrobial and astringent properties, it has used by people wishing to stimulate circulation in mucous membrane tissue (which includes the gums).  It has historically been used by itself for swollen or spongy gums as well as for canker sores, sore throats and sinus infections.

Peppermint

Peppermint has historically been considered a mild-acting herbal medicine (phytomedicine), and its leaves have been used as a folk remedy for centuries to relieve pain around a tooth and to improve swollen gums.  It has a calming and numbing effect due to the high menthol content of its oil.  And of course, peppermint adds a touch of that fresh, minty flavor we like so much when brushing our teeth!

In the western hemisphere, peppermint is sometimes called the world’s oldest medicine and is believed to inhibit the growth of some strains of bacteria as well as viruses. It is high in vitamin C and vitamin A, and contains numerous nutrient trace elements, such as iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium and copper.

Peppermint also has the amazing ability to be absorbed by the skin, leading to many reports of pain relief from headaches and insect bites after topical application of its oil.  Absorption takes place even more readily through the mucous membranes, such as the absorptive tissues of the gums, stomach and intestines.  Historically peppermint leaf has been ingested for relief from irritable bowel syndrome and its vapors inhaled for nausea, indigestion and congestion.

Vitamin-C & citrus bioflavonoids

Vitamin C is arguably, the most essential vitamin for healthy gums, which is why those deficient in vitamin C will be at higher risk of developing gum disease. And not only is there a strong connection between vitamin C and healthy gums, there’s also a strong connection between bioflavonoids and how well vitamin C is absorbed.  Both are, of course, prominent ingredients of Good Gums powder!

Vitamin C helps the lining of the gums (epithelium) stay healthy despite the bacteria that inhabit the mouth.  Healthy gums isolate the bacteria from the roots of the teeth despite their close proximity.  When bacteria start to penetrate the gums, through tiny lesions or weakened lining, it is within the gums that the immune system fights to eradicate the harmful bacteria and to ensure the health of both the gums as well as the underlying tooth-supporting ligaments and bone.

Vitamin C is absolutely key to the processes of cell growth, healing and repair of tissue.  It’s necessary for the production of collagen, the basic protein that makes up all connective tissue, including that of the gums and of the periodontal ligaments that help the gums stay tight to the teeth and the teeth to the jawbone.   All creatures need vitamin C!

A 14 week study at the University of California San Francisco showed that when vitamin C intake was decreased, gums bled more; when it was increased, gum bleeding decreased. In another study, people who got less than the minimum daily amount of vitamin C (RDA is 60 mg for an adult) had higher rates of periodontal disease than those who got the minimum, and they had three times the chance of gum disease than those who received three times the recommended amount of vitamin C.

Bioflavonoids are thought to significantly enhance the absorption of Vitamin C, and possibly to prolong the effectiveness when they are combined together.  Like vitamin C, the bioflavonoid nutrient is not made by the human body and so has to be ingested.  Unlike vitamin C, it’s not so critical a nutrient that people can die from lack of it.  Its value almost always comes from working with vitamin C, although it has also been associated with maintaining the walls of blood vessels to prevent bruising and bleeding.

Check out our blog “Vitamin C – you can’t live without it” for extra vitamin C factual nuggets that may interest you.