What would happen if you didnt activate it first ?
I was thinking about this last night. There is a company called oxyfresh that has been putting out toothpaste and mouthwash stuff for years and they indicate their secret is "stabilized chlorine dioxide" So I am sure they are just using sodium chlorite. But here is the deal, they just put it in there straight and it has to convert to chlorine dioxide on its own hopefully as you dont pre-acidify it to activate it. I do know that alot of the mouth bacteria especially s. mutans excretes acid, so maybe they just send sodium chlorite into the mouth and if it runs across some bacteria, the bacteria's acid ends up releasing the chlorine dioxide and kill the bacteria.
I just have no idea how much sodium chlorite to use since it would not be pre-activated ? Maybe you could spray it on your teeth or rinse with sodium chlorite only after you are done brushing and rinsing, leaving it on the teeth waiting until some bacteria start releasing acid ?