The randomized trials are stronger than the skeptics admit, and the case against chlorhexidine is stronger than your dentist mentions. With a quick how-to from Dr. Kansara.
A word of caution to take care to not choke on it or accidentally inhale it, due to risks of lipid pneumonia. Definitely do NOT attempt to gargle with oil liquids!
Swoosh gently. Before I had a serious calculus scraping, I had been coconut pulling for about a week (15 minutes at a time), and a big chunk of calculus broke off, having become detached, right down to the bare teeth, and extending under the gum line after I pulled it out.
This is part of my daily dental health routine. I use coconut oil. I encourage people to spit it out in the toilet or spit it out. Otherwise it does fill up your drain system and clog the pipes. But for sure, using oils beats the chemicals in toothpaste, mouthwash, all of the nasty chemicals, we put in our mouths and act as if they have no effect on us.
I'd go outside an spit it in the yard away from areas I walked in. I wouldn't spit it in the sink or toilet. Trash works, though, if it's cold outside.
Oil pulling is kind of gross. And there's a much better tool.
Xylitol toothpaste. It normalizes mouth pH, which stops cavity etching.
Causes more saliva to be generated. And kills Streptococcus mutans, the bacteria that causes cavities. The bacteria takes it in as food, but gets nothing from it and starves.
It also helps normalize sinus mucus flow.
Xylitol toothpaste cleans up plaque too.
Xylitol is a natural fruit sugar.
One downside: it reduces dentist profits.
This is tons better than oil pulling. Makes flossing unnecessary.
Xylitol raises the pH of the mouth so cavities cannot progress through etching, stimulates saliva production which aids remineralization. Also limits the growth of other bacterial strains and disrupts plaque/biofilm.
Xylitol apparently spares beneficial bacteria in general, S. Sanguinis, S. mitis, etc.
My experience with Xylitol toothpaste has been very good.
Even the plaque on my molars was gone in a week or so.
That's wonderful for you. I used a couple different xylitol toothpastes for a year with zero benefits noticed. What brand are you using? I also used NOW xylitol and swished it in my mouth because there are videos of a dentist promoting it as well as others. Even though I wasn't swallowing it I was absorbing it and was stomach and liver were bothered by using it so I quit.
Quite a number of folks are sensitive to sugar alcohols. Sugar alcohols are from chemistry processes concentrating a substance from a substrate, & are no longer natural.
Baking soda discourages anaerobic bacteria (most pathogens), which prefer acidic environment, like mouths that eat animal foods, high proteins, sugars, starches.
Baking soda causes alkaline environment in mouth, encourages aerobic bacteria that can help some things, & avoids cascading thru digestive system harming gut biota & immune system. Cleans teeth nicely, very cheaply.
Finding a toothpaste or powder with baking soda, that also includes hydroxyapetite, can also help remineralize or avoid losing minerals from teeth.
How much toothpaste do you consume when you brush your teeth?
Sure, many people are sensitive to sugar alcohols. You're not supposed to EAT toothpaste. Sensitivity is generally to foods, like candy, that contain a fair amount of it.
Baking soda is helpful. But Xylitol does a whole lot more. It stimulates saliva production which helps re-mineralize teeth. Studies in school children show both reduced plaque, but Xylitol toothpaste produced a greater reduction.
Baking soda is abrasive. Daily usage can be detrimental. Daily use of Xylitol toothpaste shows increased protection over time. Regular use ends proliferation of cavities and slowly rebuilds teeth from previous attacks, due to increased saliva flow. Never getting a cavity again is a pretty cool prospect.
Xylitol is also used to treat sinus problems, reducing bacterial load and improving the general respiratory mucosal environment, so it's pretty healthy stuff.
Tom's of Maine Fluoride-Free Antiplaque & Whitening Natural Toothpaste
It's the only one I've found locally. I've tried Xylitol after-dinner mints, but since I found the toothpaste I just use that.
Toothpaste can be used as a topical treatment, meaning you rinse thoroughly after brushing. (That's the only safe way to use fluoride.)
With Xylitol toothpaste, before bed, I spit then don't rinse, to keep the protective Xylitol on my teeth longer. It's buffering the pH, so the longer the better.
I have had stomach issues from eating too much candy sweetened with sugar alcohols, like Sorbitol.
Toothpaste use is way lower than that.
It really changes the game. All the rough abrasive treatment that you and your dentist thought was okay, becomes completely unnecessary.
Dentists do 'deep cleaning'. Regular brushing with Xylitol toothpaste does the same thing, with a soft brush and nothing more. The plaque falls away.
Cavities can't etch if the pH isn't low enough. Problem solved.
Some people just naturally never get cavities. Xylitol toothpaste makes that possible for the rest of us.
I personnaly drink 3 green teas in the morning added with 2 cloves and since that day I have no more problems in my mouth. I strongly dislike oil pulling because I strongly dislike touching oil. for me it is disgusting. the simple fact to think about makes me sick ;-)
I have been using a coconut toothpaste and it has made my gums less sensitive and my teeth have gotten whiter. I will try the oil pulling. I wonder, could castor oil or jojoba oil be used?
I was told by a holistic dental hygienist not to oil pull with coconut oil if I have amalgam fillings, which I do have. Is that true? Is so should I oil pull with sesame oil instead?
Again, kinda like baking soda does those things. :)
Xylitol does taste better than baking soda; oth, when bad bacteria is colonizng mouth, & the good ones are struggling, baking soda can seem to taste sweet-ish.
I’d be interested to see research supporting how xylitol helps remineralize teeth. There have been loads of hyped claims for xylitol, that grew over time from misunderstood or misstated science papers. (Epic amounts of badly done research, too, done to support indust’ys profits).
In the past, I’ve used xylitol toothpaste, throat spray, nasal spray, as-needed, w/decent effects.
Also had tried using it as alternative sweetening to make cake— that did not work so well. Texture was wrong, & the xylitol interfered w/the cake rising, indicating a poor chemical reaction btwn xylitol & baking powder used to make cakes rise. Cakes became dense, sticky, & barely rose.
Over the last ~35 years of trying various kitchen chemistry experiments for diabetic family & friends, & working w/patients, it’s clear, concentrated elements in cooking & in healthcare field can have downsides.
There are drawbacks to using concentrated elements (like MSG— it’s naturally occurring in many plants, but not remotely near what indust’y adds to prepared foods!!)
For instance, industry pushed concentrated granulated fructose in the 1990s, which they quietly backed-off overtly pushing when it for diabetics when it started harming their livers, & jacking-up obesity (indust’y has not throttled using fructose as ingredients in huge amounts tho, because it does not get counted as “sugar” in the nutrition list, & sweet flavors sell like crazy!).
Sugar alcohols got pushed as alternative sweetening for diabetic-safe goodies, but had some adverse effects— like triggering diarrhea when someone w/a sweet tooth overate sugar alcohol sweets (til folks wised up to it). Others’ systems couldn’t tolerate those for various reasons.
There are commonly problems with concentrated elements used to manufacture foods.
Food indust’y (& others) got clever w/chemistry, but failed to stick to safety guardrails. It’s all about profits.
If you do well using xylitol, then farfergnuggen! (Terrific!)
All I’m saying, is that baking soda can do that kind of action, at lower cost, & likely without causing harms that some folks experience from xylitol— & also, a great many other things baking soda works great for (including cleaning, anti-bugs, & snuffing-out fires on stoves).
Great article. In addition, oil pulling can also reduce Porphyromonas gingivalis, the bacteria that causes periodontitis, which has also been found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients (migrates via tri-geminal nerve and/or blood). Also, fusobacterium, the bacteria associated with colon cancer, originates in the oral cavity.
I did see the following mentioned once but I wanted to further stress: DO NOT spit the used oil into the sink! You will need a visit from a plumber within a few months to clear the drain and the city sewer will have many problems downstream and ratepayers will have to foot the bill.
I have an issue with oil pulling I've never seen discussed. My mouth rapidly fills with saliva. So I start with a tiny amount of coconut oil, but I still can only do a few minutes before my mouth is overflowing and I have to spit it out.
My husband was prescribed chlorhexidine for gum inflammation recently. On the pharmacy handout, it mentioned a side effect of increasing tartar. How convenient! When he mentioned it to his dentist, the dentist chuckled & said ‘funny how so many things seem to work that way’!
A word of caution to take care to not choke on it or accidentally inhale it, due to risks of lipid pneumonia. Definitely do NOT attempt to gargle with oil liquids!
Swoosh gently. Before I had a serious calculus scraping, I had been coconut pulling for about a week (15 minutes at a time), and a big chunk of calculus broke off, having become detached, right down to the bare teeth, and extending under the gum line after I pulled it out.
Holy cow!
This is part of my daily dental health routine. I use coconut oil. I encourage people to spit it out in the toilet or spit it out. Otherwise it does fill up your drain system and clog the pipes. But for sure, using oils beats the chemicals in toothpaste, mouthwash, all of the nasty chemicals, we put in our mouths and act as if they have no effect on us.
The toilet is cold which resolidifies the coconut oil. In the trash is best in my experience.
Yup, spit right into the trash.
I'd go outside an spit it in the yard away from areas I walked in. I wouldn't spit it in the sink or toilet. Trash works, though, if it's cold outside.
Same here Linda. Love it.
Oil pulling is kind of gross. And there's a much better tool.
Xylitol toothpaste. It normalizes mouth pH, which stops cavity etching.
Causes more saliva to be generated. And kills Streptococcus mutans, the bacteria that causes cavities. The bacteria takes it in as food, but gets nothing from it and starves.
It also helps normalize sinus mucus flow.
Xylitol toothpaste cleans up plaque too.
Xylitol is a natural fruit sugar.
One downside: it reduces dentist profits.
This is tons better than oil pulling. Makes flossing unnecessary.
Xylitol is made from corn or birch bark.
It supposedly only works on certain types of bad bacterias though.
Xylitol raises the pH of the mouth so cavities cannot progress through etching, stimulates saliva production which aids remineralization. Also limits the growth of other bacterial strains and disrupts plaque/biofilm.
Xylitol apparently spares beneficial bacteria in general, S. Sanguinis, S. mitis, etc.
My experience with Xylitol toothpaste has been very good.
Even the plaque on my molars was gone in a week or so.
Kinda like simple baking soda…
That's wonderful for you. I used a couple different xylitol toothpastes for a year with zero benefits noticed. What brand are you using? I also used NOW xylitol and swished it in my mouth because there are videos of a dentist promoting it as well as others. Even though I wasn't swallowing it I was absorbing it and was stomach and liver were bothered by using it so I quit.
Quite a number of folks are sensitive to sugar alcohols. Sugar alcohols are from chemistry processes concentrating a substance from a substrate, & are no longer natural.
Baking soda discourages anaerobic bacteria (most pathogens), which prefer acidic environment, like mouths that eat animal foods, high proteins, sugars, starches.
Baking soda causes alkaline environment in mouth, encourages aerobic bacteria that can help some things, & avoids cascading thru digestive system harming gut biota & immune system. Cleans teeth nicely, very cheaply.
Finding a toothpaste or powder with baking soda, that also includes hydroxyapetite, can also help remineralize or avoid losing minerals from teeth.
How much toothpaste do you consume when you brush your teeth?
Sure, many people are sensitive to sugar alcohols. You're not supposed to EAT toothpaste. Sensitivity is generally to foods, like candy, that contain a fair amount of it.
Baking soda is helpful. But Xylitol does a whole lot more. It stimulates saliva production which helps re-mineralize teeth. Studies in school children show both reduced plaque, but Xylitol toothpaste produced a greater reduction.
Baking soda is abrasive. Daily usage can be detrimental. Daily use of Xylitol toothpaste shows increased protection over time. Regular use ends proliferation of cavities and slowly rebuilds teeth from previous attacks, due to increased saliva flow. Never getting a cavity again is a pretty cool prospect.
Xylitol is also used to treat sinus problems, reducing bacterial load and improving the general respiratory mucosal environment, so it's pretty healthy stuff.
No one is supposed to swallow dental products, but it happens, esp. w/children & elders. & some just think it’s ok to do.
(None were ever spiced to eat tide-pods either…)
Tom's of Maine Fluoride-Free Antiplaque & Whitening Natural Toothpaste
It's the only one I've found locally. I've tried Xylitol after-dinner mints, but since I found the toothpaste I just use that.
Toothpaste can be used as a topical treatment, meaning you rinse thoroughly after brushing. (That's the only safe way to use fluoride.)
With Xylitol toothpaste, before bed, I spit then don't rinse, to keep the protective Xylitol on my teeth longer. It's buffering the pH, so the longer the better.
I have had stomach issues from eating too much candy sweetened with sugar alcohols, like Sorbitol.
Toothpaste use is way lower than that.
It really changes the game. All the rough abrasive treatment that you and your dentist thought was okay, becomes completely unnecessary.
Dentists do 'deep cleaning'. Regular brushing with Xylitol toothpaste does the same thing, with a soft brush and nothing more. The plaque falls away.
Cavities can't etch if the pH isn't low enough. Problem solved.
Some people just naturally never get cavities. Xylitol toothpaste makes that possible for the rest of us.
It's just done zero helpful things for me. Glad it works for you.
It should keep cavities from happening ever again. And even remineralizing existing ones.
That seems like enough.
Some folks achieve similar rewards from rinsing with baking soda. Xylitol does similar stuff, and a lot more. And it's much more enjoyable to use.
I personnaly drink 3 green teas in the morning added with 2 cloves and since that day I have no more problems in my mouth. I strongly dislike oil pulling because I strongly dislike touching oil. for me it is disgusting. the simple fact to think about makes me sick ;-)
I have been using a coconut toothpaste and it has made my gums less sensitive and my teeth have gotten whiter. I will try the oil pulling. I wonder, could castor oil or jojoba oil be used?
Many people use castor oil, and claim you don't have to pull for as long. I'd like to hear if there's any studies on that specifically.
I was told by a holistic dental hygienist not to oil pull with coconut oil if I have amalgam fillings, which I do have. Is that true? Is so should I oil pull with sesame oil instead?
I only ever used sesame oil. I'd like to know whether coconut oil is contraindicated in some situations, too.
How many minutes should we do the oil pulling? I missed that part.
He said at least three minutes or more. I was taught 15-20 minutes. It's a bit hard to do it that long, at least for me.
Thanks!
It's not helpful for people with mercury amalgams, silver fillings.
Works for me and I have amalgam.
Again, kinda like baking soda does those things. :)
Xylitol does taste better than baking soda; oth, when bad bacteria is colonizng mouth, & the good ones are struggling, baking soda can seem to taste sweet-ish.
I’d be interested to see research supporting how xylitol helps remineralize teeth. There have been loads of hyped claims for xylitol, that grew over time from misunderstood or misstated science papers. (Epic amounts of badly done research, too, done to support indust’ys profits).
In the past, I’ve used xylitol toothpaste, throat spray, nasal spray, as-needed, w/decent effects.
Also had tried using it as alternative sweetening to make cake— that did not work so well. Texture was wrong, & the xylitol interfered w/the cake rising, indicating a poor chemical reaction btwn xylitol & baking powder used to make cakes rise. Cakes became dense, sticky, & barely rose.
Over the last ~35 years of trying various kitchen chemistry experiments for diabetic family & friends, & working w/patients, it’s clear, concentrated elements in cooking & in healthcare field can have downsides.
There are drawbacks to using concentrated elements (like MSG— it’s naturally occurring in many plants, but not remotely near what indust’y adds to prepared foods!!)
For instance, industry pushed concentrated granulated fructose in the 1990s, which they quietly backed-off overtly pushing when it for diabetics when it started harming their livers, & jacking-up obesity (indust’y has not throttled using fructose as ingredients in huge amounts tho, because it does not get counted as “sugar” in the nutrition list, & sweet flavors sell like crazy!).
Sugar alcohols got pushed as alternative sweetening for diabetic-safe goodies, but had some adverse effects— like triggering diarrhea when someone w/a sweet tooth overate sugar alcohol sweets (til folks wised up to it). Others’ systems couldn’t tolerate those for various reasons.
There are commonly problems with concentrated elements used to manufacture foods.
Food indust’y (& others) got clever w/chemistry, but failed to stick to safety guardrails. It’s all about profits.
If you do well using xylitol, then farfergnuggen! (Terrific!)
All I’m saying, is that baking soda can do that kind of action, at lower cost, & likely without causing harms that some folks experience from xylitol— & also, a great many other things baking soda works great for (including cleaning, anti-bugs, & snuffing-out fires on stoves).
Great article. In addition, oil pulling can also reduce Porphyromonas gingivalis, the bacteria that causes periodontitis, which has also been found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients (migrates via tri-geminal nerve and/or blood). Also, fusobacterium, the bacteria associated with colon cancer, originates in the oral cavity.
I did see the following mentioned once but I wanted to further stress: DO NOT spit the used oil into the sink! You will need a visit from a plumber within a few months to clear the drain and the city sewer will have many problems downstream and ratepayers will have to foot the bill.
truly the best.
I have an issue with oil pulling I've never seen discussed. My mouth rapidly fills with saliva. So I start with a tiny amount of coconut oil, but I still can only do a few minutes before my mouth is overflowing and I have to spit it out.
My husband was prescribed chlorhexidine for gum inflammation recently. On the pharmacy handout, it mentioned a side effect of increasing tartar. How convenient! When he mentioned it to his dentist, the dentist chuckled & said ‘funny how so many things seem to work that way’!
Okay, it's "beneficial" for gingival care. How beneficial does that mean? What do the studies show?