Ask Lemmy @lemmy.world cheese_greater @lemmy.world 2w ago

Doing my first oil-pulling today (swishing coconut oil in my mouth for 15 minutes to gradually whiten them), any tips?

~10-15 minutes
100% MCT oil
1 or 2x day?
any warnings?

19 comments

I heard that snake oil works better for this instead of coconut oil.
Just talk to your dentist
- Thanks for stopping by, that costs money I aint got rn, foo ;)
  
  I’m sorry. I know US healthcare sucks. However, your best bet for healthy teeth is to brush and floss regularly, not to use unscientific home remedies.
  
  Permanently Deleted
Although I understand the downvotes for "alternative medicine", I wouldn't mind an update in a few weeks, just out of curiosity.

Is there anything to this? Did you get results? Keep track of it "for science" and let us know what you think.
any tips

If I wanted to whiten teeth at home -- I don't, but if I did -- I'd probably use those whitening strips, which it looks like use hydrogen peroxide.

Coconut oil is what movie theaters use on popcorn and IMHO is the best use for it if you've got some. I used to keep a jar of it along with some Flavacol to get the movie-theater experience.

EDIT: I later switched to a mix of chili oil and olive oil for popcorn, which is not as authentic but can be misted with a mister without congealing in the mister and is also pretty good.
- Only needed about 6 takes to read your edit. How often do you mist things?
  
  Works great on salads!
Oil pulling itself doesn't benefit your oral health. What does is you taking a sudden interest in your oral hygiene, and rinsing very fucking thoroughly (often also brushing far more thoroughly too).

Cut sugars (even natural), cut acids (anything sour, tart, fizzy - yes even sugar free pop!), brush with as high a fluoride concentration toothpaste as you can (e.g., clinpro 5000 or neutrafluor/duraphat 5000), floss and use interdental brushes, don't graze, manage your gastric reflux and dry mouth... Taking on board at least some of these will improve your oral health.

And for whitening, the whitening strips from crest/oral b work well if your teeth and gums are healthy and clean.
- Did OP claim that this would replace dental hygiene? The post only says they want to whiten their teeth.
Curious why you would ask this here instead of just doing a web search? If you don't like reading search results, you can just get an AI summary. It's at least as reliable as asking a bunch of internet randos chiming in. Here you're probably more likely to get "10W-40, twice a day" answers over serious ones.

Personally, I prefer 5W and only oil pull once a month.
- Because 95% of SE results are either paid in one way or another, or AI generated SE optimized crap mithout meaning.
  
  When I want some actual opinions from real people, I always search "how to X lemmy" or "how to X reddit" (yes thats the only thing I still use reddit for, because it has so many more users)
- Advertising
  
  Lol, who's profiting? Big coconut oil?
  
  Maybe spreading misinformation that unscientific home remedies are a substitute for modern dentistry, but that's a larger assumption than I wish to make of OP. I'll just go with good ol', "I forgot Google search exists".
If you do something that isn't recommended do a google search for how to do it safely
I have a friend who did it and i think she felt like it was really effective for her. I'll ask for details and report back
In was gonna get my teeth whitened but then said fuck it. I'll get a tan instead.

-RIP MH

19 comments