Oil pulling

Quality 0.50 · 3 views · Updated 2 months ago

Alternative medical practice

title: "Oil pulling" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["alternative-detoxification", "ayurveda", "oral-hygiene", "naturopathy", "pseudoscience"] description: "Alternative medical practice" topic_path: "general/alternative-detoxification" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_pulling" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Alternative medical practice ::

Oil pulling is an alternative medical practice in which an edible oil is swished around the mouth for a period of time and then spat out, similar to mouthwash. It originates from Ayurvedic medicine.

Practitioners of oil pulling claim it is capable of improving oral health. Its promoters claim it works by pulling out toxins, but there is no credible evidence to support this.

History

Oil pulling stems from traditional Ayurvedic medicine, whose practitioners may use sunflower oil, coconut oil, olive oil, or other herbal oils.

Criticism

There is no high-quality research on oil pulling, no understanding of a possible mechanism explaining how it would work, and no evidence that it provides any benefit.

The Canadian Dental Association assessed the practice of oil pulling in 2014 stating: "We sense oil pulling won't do any harm, we're not convinced there are any particular benefits to it."

References

References

  1. King A. (13 April 2018). "Bad science: Oil pulling". British Dental Journal.
  2. Butler, Bethonia. (20 March 2014). "Everyone is talking about 'oil pulling.' But does this health practice actually work?". The Washington Post.
  3. Puri, Nividita (2015) "Holistic Approach of Oil Pulling in the Dental World: a literature review". ''The Dental Assistant'' 20–23
  4. Bronson Gray, Barbara. (18 April 2014). "Oil-Swishing Craze".
  5. Cheshire, Sara. (6 August 2014). "Does oil pulling work?". Turner Broadcasting System.
  6. (June 2016). "Effect of oil pulling in promoting oro dental hygiene: A systematic review of randomized clinical trials". Complementary Therapies in Medicine.
  7. (2013). "Perspectives of oil pulling therapy in dental practice". Dental Hypotheses.
  8. "Oil Pulling". American Dental Association.
  9. Anna Lazowski. (5 June 2014). "Oil pulling: Ancient practice now a modern trend". [[CBC News]].

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

alternative-detoxificationayurvedaoral-hygienenaturopathypseudoscience