ESPN Gameday’s Lee Corso's catchphrase, "Not so fast, my friend!” with pencil always in hand, is usually directed at Kirk Herbstreit, in disagreement with Herbstreit's predictions, but in this case we mean to refer it to mean that Oil Pulling - the Ayurvedic practice of swishing oil in your mouth—may not be bad for you, but there's little evidence that it cleans teeth and none that it can cure anything else.
Don’t you just love the Internet? This new quasi-health obsession is actually very old. The claims are, “you swish coconut or sesame oil in your mouth, when you wake up and spit it out. It’s amazing! It really makes your teeth whiter, because the plaque on your teeth is not water soluble, it’s fat-soluble. So the lipids have to dissolve in fats, which is why oil works in your mouth.” OK, if you say so, Mr. Internet! But dental plaque sticks you your teeth and absolutely nothing will dissolve it off – that won’t harm or kill you (read pool chlorine or turpentine)!
Seriously people, like reading a newspaper or watching the evening news, do you believe everything you read or hear? The main claims being bandied about are that this oil-pulling practice cleans and whitens your teeth, helps with bad breath, and eases jaw pain. More dubious are the assertions that it cures diabetes, hangovers, acne, and all manner of other bodily ills. This was all based on case-studies (of individuals) and small groups (20 people or less), mostly from India. Where are the university based studies on thousands of people?
Here’s what the dental scientific community leader, the American Dental Association, says about the practice, “Based on the lack of currently available evidence, oil pulling is not recommended as a supplementary oral hygiene practice, and certainly not as a replacement for standard, time-tested oral health behaviors and modalities.”
There you have it, now get back to brushing and flossing and home whitening and regular dental checkups.
