What I'm Trying : Oil Pulling

Oil pulling was originally brought to my attention on the Kitchen Beautician page of The Beauty Departments website. Essentially this page is for the DIY-er who wants to make their own beauty products at home. In my case I'm just poor and think beauty products are radically over charged. But in any case I visit the page regularly and was pleasantly surprised to see a new article on natural teeth whitening. 

Here's a little back story for you folks who don't already know why I'm obsessed with my teeth. When I was 'little Kendra' and teething I caught the chicken pox. This interrupted what should have been my natural teething process and turned it into years of oral-financial stress and endless Ortho/dentist appointments. My two incisors (right beside the two front teeth I believe) didn't come in naturally when the baby teeth fell out, leaving me with gaps. Ever since then I've had veneers attached to a very discreet retainer in my mouth. Anyone meeting me after this point can never tell so I'm pretty happy with the outcome. This can make whitening your teeth a challenge though because the veneers are made to match all your other teeth. 

Here's where the oil pulling comes in handy. Although I receive endless groupons for teeth whitening treatments and see about a half dozen 'New client whitening' ads everyday I still don't feel comfortable chemically forcing my teeth to change colour. I tried a formula last month using Hydrogen Peroxide, water, baking soda, and toothpaste (containing fluoride) but the results just didn't do it for me. So we shall see if the oil pulling technique can walk the walk. 

Here's the website with the steps I followed: 

http://thebeautydepartment.com/2014/03/kitchen-beautician-8/

And here's what I did: 

Step 1: Get coconut oil. Seriously it has almost endless uses and I bought a huge can of it at Wal Mart for $2. You can use to get make up off, as a moisturizer, cooking, hair treatment, etc... It's pretty amazing stuff. 

Step 2: Grab a teaspoon and scoop out a fair share amount of the coconut oil. Because the coconut oil is solid I heated up a mini dish in hot water and let the oil melt into the dish. 

Step 3: Let the coconut oil melt and use the spoon to mash it up. Basically until it's at a liquid consistency. 

Step 4: Ok. Put it in your mouth. It's gross in the beginning but I tell you after 1 minute your own natural saliva kicks in and you don't even notice what's going on. Swish for 20 minutes. 

20 MINUTES. 

Step 5: Spit into a garbage. This is important because coconut oil will cool and harden in your pipes.

Step 6: Rinse your mouth with water and spit into the garbage. 

Step 7: Brush your teeth as normal and don't forget to floss!