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The latest news on COVID-19:

During the COVID-19 crisis, get updates and information at ADA and your state’s website. Please follow the official guidance, stay safe and help limit the spread of the coronavirus.

Contact Us if you have more questions and thank you for your cooperation.

TREND: Oil Pulling for Oral Health?

Author: Dental Geek
03.11.14 / 11:02 am

TREND: Oil Pulling for Oral Health?

When digital and social media are a huge part of your everyday life, including your job, you are exposed to the ongoing trending articles that populate your news feed. Whether you find them relevant or not, more than often you find yourself clicking on them out of curiosity while asking yourself, “why are so many people finding this interesting?”

Well, last week, I found myself doing the exact same thing about a trending article on oil pulling and how it relates to oral health. Since the Dental Geek loves anything that is related to oral health, this seemed like a perfect trending article to spend more than a few minutes reading.

As it turns out, oil pulling – an ancient Ayurvedic technique that has been around for years, is believed to have more benefits for your oral health than you would think. The overall technique involves swishing a teaspoon of vegetable-based oil around for 20 minutes (the consensus is that people prefer coconut oil, but you can use sesame or olive oil as well).

And so you ask, “what is this really going to do for me besides take 20 minutes out of my day?” The reported oral health benefits of oil pulling include:

thedentalgeek.com

So out of curiosity, the Dental Geek is going to do a little experiment. For the next week, I will be oil pulling every morning, and on Monday, March 17th I will report back on my personal experience and if my oral health has changed in anyway.

In the meantime, for all our Dental Geeks out there, talk to us! Do you recommend oil pulling to benefit your own or your patients’ oral health?

The results are in! Read up on The Dental Geek’s experience with oil pulling here!

Dental Geek

Dental Geek

6 responses to “TREND: Oil Pulling for Oral Health?”

  1. Oil Pulling ? ? I never heard that before. Is it safe? Brianne Murphy, you must take care. Avoid harmful material in it. If it is effective, undoubtedly it is good for public.

  2. I’ve noticed too this coconut oil craze! It is being touted as a cure-all all-natural product. I’ve seen it recommended for hair, nails and taken internally to boost overall health. I’m going to try this oil pulling too!

  3. I have been hearing about oil pulling a lot lately and just dismissed it immediately thinking it’s ancient and nothing but a myth. After reading about oil pulling again here, it makes me want to try it for myself too. Dental geek buzzing about oil pulling made me want to do it. This is one blog I respect and trust. As soon as I get my hands on a coconut oil I shall start right away the experiment. If it works well for me then that will be great news for the rest of my family. Each member in our household has recurring oral health problems even the newest addition to our family, my three year old niece is not missing in the action.

  4. This is very interesting, if it is effective. I am concerned however, like many crazes that this will fade in time when people either do not get the purported benefits or it turns out to be detrimental. The problem is there are so many fads out there and it is difficult to determine which is worthwhile and what does nothing. I prefer the more traditional and scientifically proven approaches myself and that is what I will always recommend to my patients.

    My advice is to be very careful with anything that strays off the ‘beaten path’ so to speak, as it can be quite harmful if done incorrectly. However, oils like coconut, olive, and palm do have great health benefits elsewhere, so it may be worth a try if you feel it may help you. I will check in on this particular topic from time to time to see if anything comes of it.

  5. I notice when I have done oil pulling ( coconut oil) I tend to not build plaque as quickly. Do not know about the rest. Oil pull, brush, floss.

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