2 Weeks of Coconut Oil Pulling

It’s hard to ignore all of the pictures of dazzling white teeth that litter my Pinterest. I’ve always wanted a Hollywood smile but years of laziness and sporadic use of teeth whitening strips hasn’t really amounted to much. I guess I couldn’t help but be bought in by the whole idea that coconut oil pulling will help me achieve the teeth I so desperately desire.

I’ve been coconut oil pulling for 2 weeks now and I’m still confused by the whole idea of it. For starters, why is it called “pulling” when it involves no such thing? Also, who actually discovered this whole trend anyway and why were they swirling coconut oil around their mouth to begin with? These are the questions that keep me up at night.

Despite my inability to actually understand this whole trend, I’ve been swirling a teaspoon – there seems to be some debate as to whether it should be a tablespoon or teaspoon - of oil around my mouth for 20 minutes every day. I hate the texture to the point where I almost threw up the first time I did it. I’ve accidentally spat the oil in the sink on a few occasions despite knowing fine well that doing so is a big no-no (working for a drainage company in the past has taught me that solid cooking oil and grease in a drain is not a pretty sight nor is it a cheap thing to rectify) and I look like a chipmunk whenever I’m carrying out this odd craze.

I would love to say that even though I find it to be disgusting and annoying there are some benefits but I’ve yet to reap them. My teeth are possibly that little bit brighter but I could be kidding myself. I swear they look better after the 20 minutes but by the end of the day, they’re back to their original colour. As for the better mouth hygiene, prevention of heart disease, no more cavities and whatever else coconut oil pulling is supposed to do, well, I just don’t know. If I manage to go my whole life without ending up with heart disease or another cavity then I will update this post accordingly but until then, I can’t really comment.

All I know is coconut oil pulling is strange but I’m going to finish my whole jar before deciding on whether I want to continue with it or not. There is one thing I’ve decided on though, those dazzling white smiles on Pinterest that were achieved through coconut oil pulling are either incredibly Photoshopped or were taken in amazing lighting. Either that or my teeth just don’t want to be that blinding.