Everything about Oil Pulling: Benefits, Steps and Other Details

Oil pulling is an ancient Ayurvedic technique that promotes oral hygiene by pulling toxins from soft tissues. This blog enumerates the benefits of oil pulling, steps, and other crucial details. Read along!

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What Is Oil Pulling?

Before delving into the steps and benefits, it is crucial to understand what exactly oil pulling is. Oil pulling or Gandusha kriya is an Ayurvedic oral therapy. In this, patients need to swish approximately a tablespoon of oil in their mouth for around 20 minutes and then spit it out.

This technique helps remove toxins without disturbing the micro-flora and facilitates the healing of cells, organs, and tissues.

How to Do Oil Pulling?

Given below are the steps for the oil pulling method:

Step 1: Fill your mouth with one tablespoon of oil.

Step 2: Swish it around your mouth by pulling the oil front and back and left and right. Ensure that your head doesn't tilt and that you don’t gargle. Pull the oil between your teeth and roll it around the tongue.

Step 3: Slightly tilt up your chin and make a chewing motion. This will produce extra saliva and enzymes in the mouth and gives rise to a digestive cascade.

Step 4: After around 20 minutes, spit it out. You must not swallow the oil as it contains bacteria and toxins. Additionally, keep in mind that spitting it out into the basin might clog the sink pipes, so consider spitting it out into the toilet.

Step 5: Rinse your mouth thoroughly with warm water.

Step 6: Finally, brush your teeth with non-fluoridated toothpaste.

What Are the Benefits of Oil Pulling?

The following is a list of benefits of oil pulling:

Helps in Teeth Whitening: Stained teeth reduce self-confidence and give rise to awkward social skills. Regularly engaging in oil pulling can whiten teeth naturally and safely. The oil pulls away bacteria and other impurities and gradually removes stains from the teeth.
A Good Technique for Detoxing: Accumulated toxins can cause major health problems. This Ayurvedic technique of swishing oil in the mouth removes such toxins from the mouth. According to Ayurveda, the saliva that oil pulling activates can absorb biological toxins, chemical toxins, and environmental toxins. After their absorption, they get removed from the body through the tongue. This is how oil pulling facilitates detoxification.
Improves Oral Hygiene: If one does this Ayurvedic practice regularly, the overall health of his/her teeth and gums will improve. Oil pulling, done daily, creates an oil film upon the teeth, which helps prevent plaque formation. In fact, as per recent studies, a proven benefit of oil pulling helps to treat gingivitis and plaque by removing harmful microorganisms.
Promotes Sinus Health: Ayurvedic practitioners and researchers have stated that regular oil pulling removes bacteria from the mouth and improves tissue circulation. These improve sinus health. Patients who suffer from sinusitis experience relief if they practice oil pulling.

How Often Should One Practice Oil Pulling?

One should practice regularly to experience the benefits of oil pulling therapy. An individual can start by oil pulling every morning for two straight weeks. If the person is already dealing with certain issues like infection, periodontitis, or gum inflammation, he or she will want to continue oil pulling for a month.

After continuing it every day for two weeks, one can choose to do oil pulling on alternate days for two weeks. Generally, people perform this Ayurvedic practice once or twice a week after completing the initial month.

If someone chooses to perform this Ayurvedic technique as a preventive measure, one can start by practising it once or twice a week.

What Are Things to Consider While Oil Pulling?

Given below are important things to consider with regard to oil pulling:

One must remember that oil pulling is not a substitute for everyday oral practices like brushing teeth, flossing, or cleaning tongues. An individual must perform this Ayurvedic practice along with the daily activities required to maintain oral hygiene.
Regular oil pulling can help prevent the decaying of teeth and the development of cavities in the future. However, it will not be able to solve the problem of decayed teeth and cavities. If an individual has such problems, he/she should consult a dentist instead of treating oil pulling as a magical remedy.
Oil pulling helps to remove plaque from the mouth as well as any tartar buildup. Research has shown oil pulling with coconut oil leads to a reduction in dental plaque. However, if someone has an excessive buildup of tartar in their mouth, he/she needs to visit a dentist.
One needs to keep breathing normally through the nose while swishing his/her mouthful of oil. There’s no need to hurry as it may result in breathlessness which might cause one to spit out the oil.

What Are Possible Side Effects of Oil Pulling?

Enumerated below are side effects of the oil pulling therapy:

Dangers of Swallowing Oil: This can cause Lipoid Pneumonia, a lung disease caused by inhalation of oil or oily substances. If an individual inhales or swallows the oil full of toxins and oral pathogens, these are bound to enter into air passages and lungs.
Tooth Sensitivity: An individual may experience tooth sensitivity in the first few days of practising oil pulling. However, this will reduce with time as the person gets used to it.
Stomach Upset and Nausea: Swishing a large quantity of dense oil in the mouth may result in nausea and diarrhoea. Moreover, swallowing these oils may cause one to fall very sick.

This blog has listed all the crucial details related to the benefits of oil pulling. Performing this ancient Ayurvedic technique along with usual brushing and flossing practices will improve oral hygiene. This practice might result in side effects, so it's advisable to follow the correct steps and be mindful of the important things mentioned above.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Which oil should one use for oil pulling?

One can perform oil pulling with coconut oil, sesame oil, sunflower oil, or Vitamin E oil.

When do I brush my teeth after oil pulling?

While some experts suggest brushing teeth immediately after oil pulling, others advise waiting for some time before it. This is because rebalancing the oral microbiome requires time. Additionally, experts suggest that people should use a different toothbrush after oil pulling and not the one they use for daily purposes.