Effects of Poor Dental Health on Your Body

   I love this graphic about oral disease.  Sometimes dentists and patients talk about the mouth as if it is not connected to anything else.  Here is what can be effected by not cleaning well/regularly.

Oil Pulling

Oil pulling is the process of swishing an oil such as sesame or coconut in the mouth to prevent decay and gum disease.  It is said to treat diabetes and heart disease.It is an ayurvedic practice that has been around for thousands of years.   The research is a little thin ,but, theoretically it should work.  There is a link between Heart disease and gum disease.  Diabetes is tougher to link to being helped by Oil Pulling  First off lets be serious and realize that a double blind large scale study is never going to be done.  No one is going to pay a researcher a ton of money to investigate a substance that is inexpensive to buy. That being said there is no reason it shouldn't work for the mouth.  Both of these oils have antibacterial properties and coconut oil might have antifungal effects.  If exposing your mouth to xylitol can prevent cavities(see earlier post) then using other substances probably will work as well. I guess the trick s finding out which ones work,  which ones don't work, and which ones do harm. So if you swish oils around your mouth everyday and it has an enormous effect awesome, if it only  a slightly beneficial effect good.  It is an easy enough thing to do and if combined with good oral hygiene keeps you out of the dental/ medical office then it is a win.  Therefore I would give it a thumbs up,I wonder what the other four dentist would say?