Oil pulling - application and effect

Oil pulling - application and effect /

oil pulling

Oil pulling is a method of folk medicine known from India, Russia and Ukraine. We also refer to it as oil suction and oil chewing. This expresses what this action is: We suck vegetable oil into the mouth, chew it and pull it with the saliva through the teeth and the pharynx. This should serve to remove pollutants from the body.


contents

  • oil pulling
  • Oil Suction - The most important facts
  • Oil treatment to clean the teeth
  • How does oil pulling?
  • Do not swallow!
  • side effects?
  • Teeth white by oil pulling?
  • Oil Suction - A long story
  • On the other hand, oil pulling should help?
  • What should the benefits of oil pulling be?
  • Scientific evidence
  • purify?
  • An ancient healing method?
  • Oil pulling - yes or no?

Oil Suction - The most important facts

  • When oiling, we pull oil through the mouth to flush toxins out of the body.
  • Oil pulling should cleanse the teeth and help with a variety of diseases - from kidney problems to thrombosis and bronchitis.
  • We know oil-drawing from Indian as well as Russian folk medicine, and they probably originated independently of each other.
  • There is no scientific evidence for the medical effects of oil suction.
Oil pulling is an ancient ayurvedic method of oral hygiene. (Image: Dušan Zidar / fotolia.com)

Oil treatment to clean the teeth

Oil suction should cleanse the teeth and rid the oral flora of harmful substances that stick in the oil. So it helps against

  • Bleeding gums,
  • Caries,
  • tooth discoloration,
  • dry mouth,
  • chapped lips,
  • halitosis
  • and plaque.

How does oil pulling?

First, clean the tongue with a tongue scraper and spit out the residue. The cockroaches roughen the tongue and so the oil can penetrate into the pores. You now take about two tablespoons of cooking oil in your mouth, you can do it for example

  • Sunflower oil,
  • rapeseed oil,
  • coconut oil
  • or olive oil

use and pull this in the mouth for at least ten minutes, throughout the pharynx. In doing so, press the oil between the teeth and pull it through well. Also, be sure to rinse the oil through the mouth pockets in the back jaw area. You do not grasp this area while brushing one's teeth, and it is here that food remains, foreign matter and waste matter, which serve as the basis for the bacteria, collect. These bacteria cause bad breath. If these residues remain in the oil, the smell of your breath will improve.

Do not swallow!

Do not swallow the oil, but spit it into the sink. It is loaded with concentrated impurities. For many, it is unpleasant to keep the oil in your mouth for ten minutes and not be able to speak and swallow properly during this time. You can pass the time by listening to your favorite music, reading a book or chatting on the internet. If you spit out the oil, rinse your mouth with plenty of clear water. Then brush your teeth extensively with a toothbrush and tooth water.

side effects?

Oil pulling has no directly harmful side effects. The vegetable oils used are food. Some people, however, show psychologically related reactions, because they find pure oil in the mouth unpleasant - then even a gag reflex can occur.

Allegedly, the oil pulling should help to combat the discoloration of the teeth. (Image: Patrick Daxenbichler / fotolia.com)

Teeth white by oil pulling?

Fans of oil pulling see it as a cost-effective alternative to professional teeth cleaning at the dentist and swear that daily Ölziehen over a longer period leads to lighter teeth. That is not excluded. The ugly, greyish yellow coating on the teeth is caused by bacteria, food residues, tea and coffee consumption or smoking.

Oil may bind such a coating and can wear it off over time. But do not expect miracles. You will only see a possible effect, ie lighter teeth, if you pull oil daily for ten minutes over a period of several weeks and regularly brush your teeth with an antibacterial toothpaste on a regular basis. Except for anecdotal reports missing for such a teeth whites the evidence.

Oil Suction - A long story

In India, oil-pulling is already documented in the oldest script of Ayurvedic medicine, the Charaka Samhita. There the method is called Kavala Gandoosha. According to this 2,000-year-old paper, the oil treatment should be carried out with sesame oil and help against more than 30 diseases. In Russia and Ukraine, on the other hand, sunflower oil was the drug of choice. At least in this form, the extraction of oil can not have been ancient, because the sunflower only came to Russia with the conquest of America by the Europeans.

On the other hand, oil pulling should help?

The oil is intended to remove pollutants from the body via the tongue and oral mucosa by stimulating the salivary glands. It is, according to the supporters, an all-round means against

  • a headache,
  • eczema,
  • Acne and psoriasis as well as atopic dermatitis,
  • arthrosis,
  • thrombosis,
  • Bladder and kidney problems,
  • bronchitis,
  • flu infections,
  • period pain,
  • Menopausal,
  • Stomach problems, gastrointestinal disorders,
  • heart disease,
  • blood diseases
  • and liver complaints.
Even the Ayurvedic tongue scraper is now part of many people's daily oral hygiene. (Image: Ramona Heim / fotolia.com)

What should the benefits of oil pulling be?

An advantage of oil pulling, compared to toothpaste, is that the oil also travels through the spaces between the teeth, where foreign matter, food remains and bacteria settle. This also applies to oral care gels, which have a similar consistency.

Scientific evidence

Scientifically proven disease remissions by oil pulling are not. There are only a few studies that show that the ritual has a positive effect on the dental health and should act against plaque and gingivitis similar to an antibacterial mouthwash. However, these studies have methodological errors and very low numbers of participants, so are not meaningful. However, this also applies to studies, according to which oil pulling has a worse effect than mouthwashes. Eight clinical trials only lasted a few weeks. In such a short time can not be tested whether oil chewing, as claimed by the trailers, protects against decay.

The advocacy represented by advocates was also not proven and also contradicts scientific findings: toxins can not "pull" from the oral mucosa.
There is no research on the effects of oil pulling that are said to affect him, such as headache, rheumatism, bladder and kidney problems, osteoarthritis or skin problems.
Two studies examined whether oil chewing protects against gingivitis. The oil pulling was compared with an antibacterial mouthwash containing chlorhexidine. Only 20 people participated in the studies. With such a small group, the results vary widely.
Other studies should show how oily eyes affect the amount of caries bacteria. The shortcoming: The number of these bacteria changes within hours, for example when we eat something or brush our teeth. The amount of bacteria on the teeth at the time of measurement therefore says virtually nothing.

In addition to sunflower oil, coconut oil is one of the oils most commonly used for oil pulling. (Image: PhotoSG / fotolia.com)

purify?

Oil pulling is recommended by followers as a "holistic medicine" to "detoxify and purify" the body. Behind this lies a premodern explanatory model, according to which toxins and "slags" accumulate in the body as in a coal mine and lead to diseases. This idea was widespread in Germany in the late Middle Ages. In the Enlightenment of the 18th century, however, it gave way to empirical research into the causes of diseases. Modern medicine has shelved this imaginary danger with the discovery of viruses and bacteria as pathogens. As there are no such "slags" in the body, there is nothing to detoxify - neither with oil, nor with fasting or meditation.

An ancient healing method?

Although in ancient Ayurveda, oil extraction with sesame oil has been known as a cure for over 2,000 years, it may conceal a much more practical reason why people in India soak up oil for oral hygiene. Until very recently, and still today, industrially produced toothpaste is hardly available in many Indian villages. Oil pulling, no matter what healings of illnesses were said to him, is so first of all a method to clean the teeth, since oil was always available in contrast to toothpaste. In fact, larger particles can be drawn out of the oral cavity with the oil, so the oil care always has a cleansing effect. But suspicion is that here a traditional Indian home remedy for oral hygiene was discovered as the latest cry for the health market in Western countries.

Oil pulling - yes or no?

A medicinal effectiveness of the Ölziehens is not proven and unlikely. In addition, hygienic mouthwashes contain antibacterial agents and spread a pleasant smell when exhaling. And for most people, it's better to gargle vigorously with a mouthwash than to draw ten minutes of oil in the mouth every day, even if the oil is gentler on the healthy oral flora. A medical reason to draw oil does not exist according to the current state of knowledge. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)