<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

I feel I should give everyone a warning about this
topic. Salt is gluten free of course & would be good
for us celiacs to use in place of gluten containing
toothpaste, but it has some risks. I had periodontal
disease & have celiac disease & was given the
suggestion to do this by a periodontist at my last
tooth cleaning.

I am 43 years old & did it for about two months. It
did work to destroy the periodontal disease in my
mouth. The bacteria I had under my gum line at the
base of my teeth were destroyed with the salt
brushing. The downside to doing it was I ended up
overdosing on salt.

Once I realized the infection under my gums was
destroyed I switched back to a common brand of baking
soda & peroxide toothpaste (made by a company that
starts with a "C") & a strong unpleasant tasting
mouthwash that I'm sure everyone in the U.S.A. knows
by name (starts with an "L").

I then realized I was having sodium toxicity & salt
overload problems. Luckily at that time the bacteria
had been defeated & the periodontal disease was in
remission & I no longer needed to brush with salt
daily.

So I did a bunch of research about salt & came up with
some advice & warnings for you should you choose to
try brushing with salt.

If you do try it I recommend you increase the amount
of water you drink daily.

What happens in brushing with salt is you absorb salt
thru the tongue & gums & by accidental swallowing.
This causes your body to get too much sodium & salt &
that causes big problems.

Side effects from overdosing on salt are: difficulty
sleeping at night, headaches, high blood pressure, and
bad digestion.

The body excretes sodium by the kidneys so the answer
to too much salt in the diet is to increase the amount
of water you drink daily (don't drink soda, or tea, or
coffee: just drink lots more plain water).

I did find a technique that works as well as using
salt directly on the toothbrush: pour the salt in to a
glass & dissolve in to warm water. The brushing
technique is tricky: take a mouthful of the salt water
& insert the toothbrush in your mouth (you lose some
of the salt water by this of course, just try to keep
as much salt water in your mouth as possible), then
brush your teeth & gums while swishing the salt water
around inside your mouth around the bristles of the
toothbrush. Spit the salt water out & rinse your mouth
with fresh water after doing all your teeth & gums &
tongue (yes your tongue, you should always brush your
tongue!)

This method seems to work as well as putting the salt
directly on the toothbrush & has the benefit of
greatly cutting the amount of salt absorbed in to the
body. You still absorb salt in to your system with
this method, but it is a fraction compared to using
the salt directly on the toothbrush.

By the way, I am using a powered toothbrush, one with
a rotating head & bristles. The dentists suggested I
purchase it for the gum disease problem I had. I
believe this toothbrush was instrumental in allowing
the salt to defeat the gum disease I had. I don't know
how well brushing with salt or salt water will work
with a regular hand-operated toothbrush.

Finally I found a good web page written by a doctor in
Santa Rosa, California who thinks we eat too much salt
to begin with (I agree with him):
http://www.medical-library.net/sites/framer.html?/sites/_salt_addiction.html

Remember if you start having headaches, your blood
pressure starts feeling or getting high, you have
difficulty sleeping at night, bathroom problems start
acting up & you have been doing the salt brushing:
start drinking lots more water every day & cut out the
salt brushing for a while. I also recommend keeping
the salt brushing to one time per day, preferably at
night before bedtime.

Be well
Jerry

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