Are essential oils bad for the oral microbiome?

Every once in a while, we come across some misleading discussion on the internet about essential oils harming the oral microbiome.

For example, the statement, ‘peppermint oil is bad’ is overly simplistic, and can be intentionally misleading. And, in the spirit of transparency, in a way, it could be true under certain circumstances*.

But let’s get past the sensationalism of ‘good/bad’ and take a closer look at what’s really going on so we can provide real solutions and navigate away from these simplistic statements that tend to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

*Plant essences are strong medicine. By themselves in an undiluted state, essential oils are too strong and can harm not only our oral microbiome but also our sensitive gum tissue.

In fact, Robert Tisserand, one of the world’s experts on the subject of essential oils, expressly warns against using undiluted essential oils in the mouth and even on the skin.

So what essential oil concentration is safe to use in the mouth?

It varies depending on the plant oil. Some essential oils are stronger than others, so they must be used in a more diluted state.

What’s really going on here?

What is important to grasp is that regardless of what strategy each of us applies, the general principle behind creating greater oral health is to be a ‘good conductor of the symphony in our mouth’.  We call this balancing your oral flora, and it’s a fundamental aspect to every holistic oral health strategy.

What about the HealThy Mouth Blend?

When we originally created the HealThy Mouth Blend, we intentionally formulated it to be strong enough to provide support to people who are struggling with oral health issues (particularly gum disease and tooth decay), yet diluted enough to avoid creating imbalances in the mouth.  Being holistically-minded, we also had to make sure that the blend wouldn’t cause trouble ‘downstream’ from the mouth.  We consider the mouth to be ‘the headwaters’ to the entire digestive tract.  This is why, for example, we chose to use a balance of properly diluted warming and cooling essential oils in our HealThy Mouth Blend formula.

We pored over books and scientific literature on the safe use of plant oils to mitigate gum disease, and we also spent time testing the efficacy of our formula under a microscope. By doing this, we found a ‘just right’ dilution rate and formula which helps to soothe stressed tissue and assist an individual dealing with oral health issues without harming the mouth or the oral microbiome.

The reason our HealThy Mouth Blend is safe is because it’s just that, a blend. By combining safe concentrations of various essential oils together in a certified organic carrier oil base, we are able to provide a wide-range support tool without bringing any one essential oil concentration high enough to cause trouble. If you’d like to take a deeper dive into the role of each ingredient in our HealThy Mouth Blend, here’s a link.

But don’t just take our word for it, please check out what our customers (and their happy dentists and dental hygienists) have to say about the positive impact our HealThy Mouth Blend has had on their oral health. Our favorite stories are the ‘after the dental visit’ testimonials.

Navigating the path…

Each of us has to choose our own path. A core value of OraWellness is to provide you with knowledge and information so you can make your own decisions on how to best navigate your path to greater oral (and whole body) health.

Sometimes empowering you means that you will choose not to purchase our products, and honestly, this is completely ok with us. As long as you benefit from the information we freely share, we feel like we are doing our job. 🙂

Be careful of the ‘dirty pool’ marketing and sales tactic that is sometimes used to make one product stand out by ‘muddying’ other products.

We consider this type of approach to marketing a ‘backside of the energy circle’ approach, and we have specifically chosen to not participate in it. It’s just not necessary.

Our goal has always been to share information to help empower you to make informed decisions for yourself and your loved ones. That’s our mission.

Divine comedy…

Ironically, if you ever want a good laugh, be sure to check the ingredient label of anyone who is selling their own product while simultaneously talking trash on essential oils. Without fail, every product we have researched that falls into this ‘backside of the energy circle’ approach contains plant oils :). So this leads me to ponder whether belittling other products while selling products containing the same ingredients is all just a big, strange, pseudoscience-laden marketing ploy.

Let’s just focus on the benefits based on research, shall we?

The bottom line is this… There are 7 billion people on the earth. All of us have mouths, and almost all of us have some active form of oral disease. There is such a need for solutions. Rather than wasting our time trying to confuse the public, let’s simply focus our attention on helping.

Speaking of which, have you downloaded our FREE eBook, How to stop tooth decay and remineralize your teeth? If not, we invite you to check it out here. 🙂