oil pulling

I have been researching oil pulling today.

I heard about oil pulling for the first time a couple of mouths ago. I'm not sure if it's a relatively new thing to gain a following in western circles or whether I have just never come across it before.

I have a sore back tooth and am pretty worried it might be a candidate for root canal, or some other horribly expensive dental procedure. I haven't been to the dentist about it yet, but am considering whether I should just have it pulled, rather than spend stacks of money on it.  Oh how I now wish I still had my wisdom teeth.

I decided to do an internet search on oil pulling as it related to oral health.

From my reading  it seems the basic premise is to swish a teaspoon- a tablespoon of oil (sesame, sunflower and coconut seem to be the most popular choices) for about 20 minutes every morning.
Spit out the gunk -DO NOT SWALLOW, then clean your mouth and sink thoroughly because they will be swarming with harmful bacteria.

I am currently swishing a teaspoon of coconut oil around my mouth as I write this. I happened to have coconut oil in my cupboard based on a recommendation from a naturopath.  It seems that coconut oil is new 'next thing' in health circles and there are countless website dedicated to its virtues. As so many health nuts swear by the coconut oil for everything from cooking to rubbing on your body, to oil pulling, I thought I'd use it.

It was with trepidation I took my first spoonful. I'm not a big fan of oil.  I was having it in my morning smoothie, but couldn't get over the way it made me feel nauseous about 2 hours post breakfast.  I still have nightmares about the time I consumed an entire glass of olive oil, neat, in a gall bladder cleansing regime.  It was probably the most disgusting thing I have ever done to myself.  I still gag a bit when ever I taste olive oil.

So a mouthful of oil is definitely not my favourite thing, but at least coconut oil feels a little less oil like and has a more pleasant flavour than other oils do when they are taken straight.  As I swish it around my mouth it quickly becomes liquid.  The plaqueing feeling stuff on my teeth still feels fairly firmly stuck there after my twenty minutes of swishing.  The other thing I notice is that I can't talk while I have my mouth full of oil.  That could be a problem on busy mornings when the kids need a bit of a rev up to get them ready for school.

Well I have just spat out my oil and as promised it was very white.  I rinsed out my mouth well and then went on and brushed my teeth to try and remove as much of the residue as possible.  My teeth still felt furry, before I brushed them and I seemed to need to spit out a bit of gunk from the back of my throat too.  I can still taste coconut oil in my mouth and the ache from my sore tooth has gone for now.

The basin got a good clean too.  A daily clean of the basin will be a surprising side effect of this technique. Usually, it's lucky to have a once a week clean.

Will I go on and make it part of my daily ritual? Like many of these alternative techniques there seems to be a process whereby you get sicker at first before you reap the wonders of wellness.  Maybe I need to read more to convince myself that it is worth the trouble to go ahead and embark on an oil pulling regime.

Watch this space and I'll report back on how I went.