What is oil pulling?
Oil pulling is a great way to clean and detox your mouth. It is best to do it on an empty stomach and before brushing your teeth. For me this generally means morning or night, during the day is just too hectic. It also needs to be during a time that you do not need to be talking, unless you enjoy playing charades or know sign language.
If you forget to do it on an empty stomach and before brushing your teeth, it is always better to just do it, than to skip because you cannot follow all of the “rules” at that exact moment.
What oil should you use?
The most common oils that are used are olive oil, coconut oil or sesame seed oil. I personally prefer coconut oil because coconut oil has been shown to balance hormones, blood sugar and improve digestion among many other things. Plus, coconut oil whitens your teeth and who doesn’t love whiter teeth?!? I also try to avoid polyunsaturated fatty acids as much as possible, which leaves coconut oil.
When picking your coconut oil look for coconut oil that does not have any additives. You also want it to be cold pressed and unrefined. It should be solid below 76 degrees Fahrenheit and liquify above that temperature.
Spit the coconut oil in the trash when you are done and not your sink. As I mentioned above coconut oil solidifies at room temperature, so spitting in the sink will eventually clog the sink. That is not something anyone wants to deal with.
Benefits of Oil pulling
- Helps prevent plaque
- Reduces bad breath
- Whitens teeth
- Helps prevent and can even reverse cavities
- Helps prevent gingivitis
- Gets rid of bacteria, fungi and viruses
- Detoxing
- Balancing hormones
- Improve digestion
- Balancing blood sugar
How often should you oil pull?
Starting out oil pulling every day is a good idea as long as you do not have any detox reactions. If you start to have a detox reaction back off and slowly rebuild to once a day.
Eventually you will be able to go down to a couple times a week. When that is, is going to depend on you and what issues you are working at addressing with oil pulling.
Oil Pulling with Coconut Oil
Equipment
- 1 tablespoon
Materials
- 1 jar coconut oil
Instructions
- Measure 1 Tablespoon of coconut oil from the jar
- Liquify the coconut oil in your mouth
- Swish gently in your mouth for 20 minutes, or as long as you can
- Spit the oil into the trash can
- Rinse your mouth with water
- Brush your teeth
Notes
How often should you do this?
Starting out if you don’t have any detox reactions, everyday is good and then you can move to a couple times a week. I should probably include that. Thank you for asking!