Jenni Gilbert Gwyneth Paltrow gets a lot of mileage (particularly in terms of traffic to her website Goop and products sales on same) out of her weird wonderful (and, at times, downright ridiculous-sounding) health and beauty regime.
We’ve learned of bee stings to improve her complexion to drinking algae-based “sex dust” and sitting on herb-infused steam pots to keep her vagina healthy.
Now here’s her secret for a stunning white smile – no nasty chemicals or machines involved: oil pulling.
Frankly, I think I discovered it first. Oh, okay, it’s a practice that’s been around a couple of thousand years; an ancient Ayurvedic dental technique that involves swishing a tablespoon of oil in your mouth on an empty stomach for around 20 minutes.
The theory is that the lauric acid found in coconut oil can whiten teeth and help get rid of the bacteria responsible for producing plaque.
I’d only vaguely read about oil pulling and thought it sounded a bit far-fetched until I was sent a kit of Keeko coconut oil sachets to try out.
Keeko is an Australian company making oil pulling simple and accessible through an easy 14 day treatment. The 14 sachets in each pack contain a combination of organic coconut oil in a choice of three natural flavours. The products are not tested on animals and are vegan.
So I decided to give them a try. You soften the contents of each sachet with your fingers before opening it and then squeeze the contents into your mouth.
Then you swill it around for between five and 20 minutes, spit it out and brush teeth as normal.
It doesn’t taste bad (or great, just kind of bland) and swilling for 20 minutes (I thought I might as well go the whole hog) gets a bit boring, plus I have to make a conscious effort not to accidentally swallow it.
Not that it would be harmful but just not a delicious ingestion would it make either.
I’ve had a chronically inflamed and bleeding area of my gum for years. This of course is Not A Good Thing, as diseased gums can lead to serious health problems, such as heart disease.
A dentist told me a while back that it could never be cured, only controlled, by cutting away the worst bits at regular intervals and of course being diligent about dental hygiene.
The first day I tried Keeko I was spitting out a seemingly enormous amount of blood. It subsided somewhat on Day Two, and by Day Three there was no more blood when I dispelled the swill.
Indeed, my gum no longer bled, even when I flossed. Over the ensuing week the area entirely healed, and hasn’t relapsed in the months since.
Interestingly, a week or so after I started using Keeko it also dislodged what appeared to be a bit of dental plastic that had clearly been lodged for goodness knows how long between the teeth where my gum had been infected.
AND at the end of the fortnight my teeth looked a whole lot whiter and felt very much cleaner, as did my whole mouth.
Of course if you keep eating and drinking things that stain your teeth (eg. coffee, tea, red wine) you’re not going to get as good results as you could.
Why not consider stocking Keeko (there’s no vested interest here!) to retail to clients in the lead-up to party season and summer holidays?
