I love learning new things from my patients! Today I learned about oil-pulling! 
This is a way to supposedly pull toxins out your lymph and body while also disrupting the dental bacteria and plaque leaving your teeth slick and smooth and plaque free. There have been lots of commercial rinses researched and tested that look at using essential oils to help combat plaque, so that idea is not that unusual. But the idea of swishing with sesame or sunflower oil for 20 minutes a few times a day to cure all kinds of ailments seems a bit strange.
The mom that introduced me to this has REALLY REALLY clean teeth (I had to have her get in the chair and look myself). I want to follow up with her in six months and test her bacteria to see if it actually changes the bacteria environment or just keeps them from sticking to the teeth in great numbers (reduces plaque).
As I researched this technique on the internet, there are actaully clinical studies (mostly from India) that show gingivitis significantly improves and overall bacteria load is reduced by oil-pulling.
We are always on the look out for new, innovative, and interesting ways to help patients out. It is even better when they are simple and inexpensive.
So you wont hear about this from your physician or pharmaceutical company, but you may just want to google it and give it a try. Or start at www.oilpulling.org and www.oilpulling.com. I'm going to be recommending it to select patients and get some feedback as well as try it myself (maybe even talk my wife into another one of my experiments!). There is no harm to the technique, and it is all hype and cures no illness, at least it will leave your teeth shiny clean and you body will absorb a lot of good omega 3 and 6 fatty acids (the good, healthy kind).
This is a way to supposedly pull toxins out your lymph and body while also disrupting the dental bacteria and plaque leaving your teeth slick and smooth and plaque free. There have been lots of commercial rinses researched and tested that look at using essential oils to help combat plaque, so that idea is not that unusual. But the idea of swishing with sesame or sunflower oil for 20 minutes a few times a day to cure all kinds of ailments seems a bit strange.The mom that introduced me to this has REALLY REALLY clean teeth (I had to have her get in the chair and look myself). I want to follow up with her in six months and test her bacteria to see if it actually changes the bacteria environment or just keeps them from sticking to the teeth in great numbers (reduces plaque).
As I researched this technique on the internet, there are actaully clinical studies (mostly from India) that show gingivitis significantly improves and overall bacteria load is reduced by oil-pulling.
We are always on the look out for new, innovative, and interesting ways to help patients out. It is even better when they are simple and inexpensive.
So you wont hear about this from your physician or pharmaceutical company, but you may just want to google it and give it a try. Or start at www.oilpulling.org and www.oilpulling.com. I'm going to be recommending it to select patients and get some feedback as well as try it myself (maybe even talk my wife into another one of my experiments!). There is no harm to the technique, and it is all hype and cures no illness, at least it will leave your teeth shiny clean and you body will absorb a lot of good omega 3 and 6 fatty acids (the good, healthy kind).
