Oil Pulling
Have you ever heard of “oil pulling”? When I was a dental assistant, I had one patient who asked me for my opinion about oil pulling. I asked her what this was and she told me that to do this, one is supposed to swish coconut oil in your mouth for approximately 20 minutes. The hope is to help with an increase in good microbes in the mouth. I asked our doctor whether he had ever heard of this. He never had. Since then, I have heard multiple reports of people talking about oil pulling. Apparently, it is a new fad that has been brought to public awareness through social media.
Oil pulling is an ancient traditional folk remedy that has been practiced for centuries in India and southern Asia. It is a holistic Ayurvedic technique. The practice of oil pulling is done by placing a tablespoon of edible oil, such as sesame, olive, sunflower or coconut, into the mouth and swishing the oil through the teeth and oral cavity some where from 1 to 20 minutes.
Some websites that support natural therapies report oil pulling to enhance oral health, whiten teeth, and improve overall well-being (1). The American Dental Association recommends patients to follow the standard oral hygiene practices that include brushing teeth twice daily with fluoride toothpaste and cleaning between teeth with floss at least once per day (1). Oil pulling does not have much evidence to support its supposed benefits so it is not recommended as a supplementary oral hygiene technique. Some reports have shown oil pulling to be associated with lipoid pneumonia or mineral oil aspiration. The ADA stresses that “the provision of dental care should be based on sound scientific principles and demonstrated clinical safety and effectiveness”(1).
I am going to stick with my normal oral hygiene practices but I am eager to see if future studies will show oil pulling to help improve oral health and possibly change the oral hygiene products we have today.
What are your thoughts about oil pulling? Have you ever heard of this before? Have you tried it?
1. The Practice of Oil Pulling. (2014, May 14). Retrieved November 28, 2014, from http://www.ada.org/en/science-research/science-in-the-news/the-practice-of-oil-pulling
I don't know about you, but I certainly will not be caught gargling sesame seed oil anytime soon! The idea of swishing lipophilic fluid to help whiten or strengthen my teeth is something that I have never heard of before and makes no logical sense to me. However, I do find the principle of the idea fascinating. Using oils to help increase the "good" microbes in your mouth to help fight plaque I imagine, is a subject I am not educated on. My first question is, "Do microbes use these oils as a fuel source?" and "Will increases the levels in my mouth for 20 minutes be enough to have an effect?" I have a hard time believing that a short rinse will increase the microbes in your mouth. I am also curious as to how long these effects last. In genetics we talked about heat shocking, the process were bacteria pick up plasmids when exposed to higher temperatures, so maybe if the oil was warm then it would cause the bacteria in our mouths to take up extra plaque? I am just thinking out loud here and trying to think of ways to put these pieces together. This would have been a cool physio project though! I like to think IRB would have given us approval!
ReplyDeleteI am a skeptic, but crazier things have been proven plausible. There should be more research on this topic, because if on the off chance this happens to be effective it could lead to a simple way to help increase dental hygiene! And we all know that a healthy body starts at the mouth. But for now I think I will stick with my SonicCare and peppermint floss.
I've heard about this and thought about trying it. I heard that oil pulling is to reduce the amount of plaque that is on your teeth.
ReplyDeleteAccording to this NIH article, oil pulling is used alongside other preventative care techniques to reduce different systemic diseases (because we should all know that oral health is linked to overall health of one's body).
I think that oil pulling has become sensationalized and taken out of its original means. Maybe if they studied it as a whole technique rather than just a piece then the ADA would say, "Yeah! Go for it!". But who knows because we live in a Western medical world.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3131773/
I have heard about oil pulling (through Facebook and Pinterest not exactly the most reliable sources) and I am amazed by the miracles its users claim! These posts claim that oil pulling cleans your teeth, helps you lose weight, and clear pores! For all of that I might be willing to rinse my teeth with oil for 20 minutes although honestly I would probably just start brushing teeth four times a day and go run for those twenty minutes and get better results but to each his own! I think that oil pulling is a fad which may correlate with cleaner teeth but like the ADA says it should be studied MUCH more before any conclusions are drawn. This study like many other things sensationalized by the media needs to be taken at face value. It is important for people to learn how to do scientific research and not just rely on what they learn from social media!
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