Oil Pulling: The Easiest Way to Upgrade Your Oral Care
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A BRIEF HISTORY
Oil pulling dates back 5000 years as part of Ayurveda, which is considered the oldest healing science and actually means "Science of Life." Ayurveda emphasizes the prevention of disease and promotes balance, right thinking, diet, and lifestyle to maintain good health.
One of the practices of Ayurveda is oil pulling, or swishing oil around the mouth to prevent tooth decay, bad breath, and bleeding gums. However, modern research has found numerous other benefits of oil pulling for overall health.
HOW IT WORKS
Our mouths are crawling with bacteria (gross, I know) with outer membranes that are fat soluble. This means that when you swish oil around in your mouth, it actually breaks down these membranes and carries the bacteria right out of your mouth in the oil.
This brings up one of the most important parts of oil pulling: do not swallow the oil. When oil pulling, you are trapping bacteria in the oil and you do not want to swallow that nastiness. I always spit it in the garbage to avoid clogging my drains.
BENEFITS OF OIL PULLING
There are numerous benefits to oil pulling, including:
Teeth whitening
Drawing out bacteria from the mouth
Reducing bad breath
Preventing cavities
Reducing inflammation in the gums*
*Though there have been limited studies, researchers are starting to think oil pulling also has benefits for other conditions caused by inflammation. By reducing inflammation in the mouth, the immune system can better handle inflammation in other areas of the body.
By reducing the bacteria in the mouth, oil pulling prevents oral infections that can be linked to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, adverse pregnancy outcomes, dementia, cancer, and tooth and gum disease.
Think about it, our mouths encounter everything from food, beverages, the air we breathe, other people's spit, bacteria from our hands, pen caps, and countless other things. Our mouths harbor all kinds of bacteria that can make us sick without even knowing it. The more your immune system has to work on fighting the bacteria in your mouth, the less time it has to work on other systemic infections or diseases.
HOW TO OIL PULL
I use 1 TBSP of cold pressed virgin coconut oil. Let the oil melt in your mouth and start to swish it around side to side. Use your tongue and cheeks to move the oil all around your mouth and through your teeth. Remember to relax your jaw or your mouth will get super tired!
Swish the oil for about 15-20 minutes until the oil becomes thick and milky. I know it sounds gross, but it really isn't that bad and you get used to the feeling pretty quickly.
As I mentioned before, DO NOT SWALLOW THE OIL! Spit it in the garbage can or outside in the yard, but avoid spitting it into plants.
Do this every day! Set an alarm in your calendar to go off at the same time and make it part of a routine. I like to do it at night after dinner when I'm just watching TV or reading. It's mindless so you can absolutely multi-task.
CAN'T GET ENOUGH ORAL HEALTH?
Now that I'm sure you're super passionate about cleaning up your oral routine, let's take it one step further and talk about toothpaste. Using a non-toxic, fluoride free toothpaste is another huge step in oral care and for your overall health.
But wait, you thought fluoride was good for your teeth? So did I, and so do so many other people. However, the fluoride in toothpaste leaves a coating on your teeth that is roughly 1/10000 the thickness of a strand of hair, meaning simply chewing food will wipe it right off. And when it wipes off, it doesn't magically disappear. It goes right through your body alongside your food or drink.
Ingestion of fluoride is not safe and has been linked to lowered IQ, ADHD, thyroid problems, and neurotoxicity especially in children. We get a ton of exposure to fluoride in our water supply as it is, so eliminating it from toothpaste is a good step to lower your exposure levels. I like Bite and Boka the best!
THE TAKEAWAY
Oil pulling is an easy, inexpensive way to really upgrade your oral health. It only takes 20 minutes a day and can be done while you're cooking, working, showering, watching TV, or doing whatever it is you do during the day. It has so many good benefits with the only side effect being a cleaner mouth.
If you really want to step up your oral health game, switch to a non-toxic fluoride free toothpaste. There are tons of them on the market and they've become relatively inexpensive. Try out a few brands and see which one works for you!