Oil pulling
A spoonful of coconut oil pulled through your teeth. Against the rinse a dentist prescribes it held its own, and it does not stain.
How to use it
A spoonful of coconut oil in your mouth, let it melt, pull it through and between your teeth for a few minutes, and spit it out. Then brush.
The best version
Virgin, cold pressed, unrefined coconut oil. There is nothing else to look for, and an expensive jar with a label on it does nothing extra in your mouth.
How to prepare it
Spit it into the bin and not the sink, because coconut oil sets as soon as it cools and your drain is cold.
What it does
Twenty-nine people rinsed for four days with coconut oil and four days with 0.2 percent chlorhexidine, with a washout in between. Plaque came back to the same degree, 1.67 against 1.61, and the coconut oil stained the teeth less: 0.21 against 0.47.
Watch out
This does not replace your toothbrush and it is not a treatment for gum disease. What was measured is plaque over four days in twenty-nine people.
Everything sold alongside it about pulling toxins out of your body is invented. What you spit out is oil with bacteria in it, and that is reason enough to do it.