Oil pulling has been touted as a cure-all for everything dental. I think I was reading about all the benefits of oil pulling and it mentioned that oil pulling will even grow money on trees (no just kidding).

Having read thru multiple articles and scouring the scientific data that is available, 2 things have become clear.

The first is that the American Dental Association (Read the ADA article here) doesn’t consider this a valid form of therapy to improve dental health. And much to their credit, I agree with the lack of scientifically proven studies and experiments documenting such benefits. And until there are multiple valid experiments and studies performed, ADA will not change its stance.

The second item noticed was the plethora of people using this technique and reporting amazing results. People swear that their teeth are whiter, gums don’t hurt as much or bleed and they don’t have bad breath any more.

Oil pulling has been around several thousand years as a form of holistic medicine. The theory is that by swishing a teaspoon of coconut or similar oil in the mouth for 20 minutes at a time, the bad bacteria that is in our mouth get trapped in this oil, which is then spit out.

As a US trained dentist I won’t be recommending oil-pulling to my patients to improve their dental health due to lack of scientifically based evidence. But considering what the people are saying about this technique, I won’t argue with its apparent benefits. Perhaps the best is to use this technique understanding that it is not a cure-for-all diseases, but it can be helpful in the overall scheme to help keep your mouth and teeth healthy.

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