What is Oil Pulling
Oil pulling is a fairly old tradition practiced by Ayurveda and deserves a whole chapter for itself – for the simple reason that it is incredibly extensive.
The basic process is simple: you gargle the oil of your choice on a routine basis to foster tissue regrowth and kill any bacteria that might be lurking in your mouth.
As for the benefits, it supports your oral health naturally, especially when using coconut oil with tea tree oil, which is a powerful combination for destroying bacteria and viruses in your gums.
Oil pulling may be beneficial for reducing the number of bacteria in the mouth, improving gum health, and preventing issues like bad breath and cavities. It’s also simple and easy to add to your routine.
History of Oil Pulling
Oil pulling hails for Ayurvedic Medicine, a traditional method of healing from India – practiced for more than 5,000 years.
However, it’s important to note that oil pulling is not based on pseudo-science. There have been sufficient studies about the subject, managing to provide significant results as to the veracity of the process.
Today, oil pulling is not just practiced within the field of Ayuverdic Medicine but also promoted as a natural means of healing several health problems – including gum disease.
How it Works, Step by Step Procedure
The process is simple enough and doesn’t really require anything special on your part.
Choose the kind of oil you want. The best choice is coconut oil because of its anti-bacterial properties that can easily kill off any germs you might have in your body.
It’s worth noting that the most studies use sesame oil, and is what is traditionally recommended.
However, because of its high concentration of omega 3 fats and taste, coconut is a better a superior choice. Simply grab a tablespoon and put some oil in it.
Place it in your mouth and swish it around, keeping your lips tightly shut to prevent the oil from getting out.
No need to be aggressive! Just let the oil pass through every nook and crevice of your mouth with a little tongue and cheek control. You should be able to do this easily enough even though you’re only dealing with one tablespoon of the liquid.
Note that the liquid might start to accumulate as saliva starts to build in your mouth. This isn’t a problem – just let the liquids build, making sure that your teeth and gums get the full benefit of the oil.
For best results, oil pulling must be done for a total of 20 minutes. After the 20 minutes, spit it out. Be careful not to swallow anything since the oil now contains all the possible bacteria in your mouth.
It would be best to spit out the oil on soil since it can harden and clog up your drain.
Fortunately, it’s vegetable oil so you shouldn’t have any problem with the environmental repercussions of this move.
A salt rinse or just warm water rinse would be beneficial after oil pulling. This should remove that weird taste in your mouth, not to mention provide a ‘final sweep’ for your oral health.
Benefits Oil Pulling
Oil Pulling has been credited with various beneficial side effects aside from the fact that they help battle gum disease. Following are some of the known advantages of this process:
Whitens the Teeth
The oil comes with natural antiviral properties that manage to whiten the teeth and improve your smile into a pearly glow.
A minimum of two weeks of practice should be able to make significant whitening changes on your mouth without any nasty repercussions.
Mouth and Body Detox
Gum disease can actually increase your risk of cardiovascular problems and the like, mainly due to the presence of bacteria passing through the gums.
Oil pulling helps prevent all those from happening by killing the bacteria and flushing it out of your body through natural means. In effect, you experience a complete detox of the body through basic oral health care.
Bad Breath Cure
Experiencing a severe case of halitosis? The oil also helps get rid of bacteria responsible for bad breath. This should keep your mouth smelling clean and fresh throughout the day, even if you eat regular meals plus snacks.
Headaches and Hangovers
Oil pulling has also been credited with helping alleviate both headaches and hangovers.
Accordingly, the toxic stress causes the headache and oil pulling can relieve the pain. The same goes for hangovers – remnants of the alcohol are removed from the body as well as any other toxins causing the pain.
Of course, it’s important to note that no scientific study backs up this claim – but there have been positive reports from people who have tried this method specifically to address hangovers.
Increase Energy
The natural detoxification process also helps boost the energy levels of the body according to some users. This makes sense since accumulated bacteria tends to make a person sluggish and more likely to become vulnerable to diseases. After 1 to 2 weeks of using oil pulling, you should experience a spike in your energy levels.
Common Questions Asked
How often should I do this?
Oil pulling is safe enough that you can do the process once every day. The timing does not matter – you can do it in the morning or in the evening, whenever it happens to be comfortable.
As for the length of use, there have been no noted side effects with daily long-term use of oil pulling. In fact, the benefits have been wonderfully obvious after following the regimen. Within 2 weeks, the significant effects of the process should become obvious.
What other oils can I use?
As already mentioned, you can use practically all types of vegetable-based oil for the procedure. Coconut oil is a very popular choice while in traditional Ayurveda, sesame oil is favored. You can also try sunflower oil if you don’t like the other two options.
Are there any risks involved?
Note that there’s always the risk of allergic reaction so it’s best to test the oil on a small patch of your skin first. Wait 12 hours and if there are no adverse effects, you can try swishing them in your mouth. Other than an allergic reaction however, oil pulling is generally seen as safe. It is also good to note that there are natural home remedies for improving oral health most especially for the gums.
Is it OK to just swish for less than 20 minutes?
Yes. Even 5 minutes of swishing will get rid of bacteria in your mouth. However, if you really want to keep your gums and teeth clean, 20 minutes is the optimum amount.
During this time, you should have swished the oil in practically every nook and cranny of your mouth.