Brush Your Teeth With Soap

Remember when mom used to threaten to wash your mouth out with soap if you used naughty words? Perhaps some of you might even remember what soap tastes like.

As bad as using soap to wash out your mouth sounds, people once used soap to clean their teeth for a fresher breath. During the first half of the 20th century, toothpaste once vied with tooth powders for market supremacy. Manufacturers sold the powders in tin containers or in a cakelike form that they called "soap."

Toothpaste, as we all know, won out, because it was more convenient to use.

Surprisingly, though, using soap to clean teeth is making a resurgence of sorts. According to Dr. Gerald F. Judd, who wrote the book, "Good Teeth Birth to Death: the Perfect Prescription for the Teeth," soap is better for the teeth than toothpaste. In 2003, Karen Adler decided to try to reintroduce tooth soap to Americans. She didn't like the idea of using Ivory Soap on her teeth, so she mixed up her own soap concoction. It includes vegetable oils and essential oils to make the soap more palatable. Her Adler's Tooth Soap comes in food-processed shreds so that customers could easily use a pinch to rub on their teeth.

Adler also offers a liquid formula. Just squeeze a few drops onto your teeth, brush thoroughly, and then spit. Of course, your mouth will taste, well, like soap, but with a hint of citrus, peppermint or eight other flavors including even chocolate.

Apparently, she has a growing clientele because her company grossed more than $400,000 in 2007 from online sales and sales at health food stores.

Meanwhile, other soap manufacturers, such as Wild Soap Bar, have followed Adler's growing success with their own tooth cleansers made from soap, such as Tooth Savior.

While brushing your teeth is one way to attain a fresher, cleaner breath, now you can add soap cleanser to the mix. I wonder what good ol' mom would say.