Y’all.

It’s really embarrassing to admit this, but…

I think I jumped the gun when I wrote my post praising the virtues (or at least the potential) of oil pulling a little while back.

I mean, I knew that I was writing a bit prematurely since I had only been doing it for 2 1/2 weeks, but I had seen such improvement in the whiteness and cleanliness of my teeth that I just couldn’t resist.

Lesson learned.

A little less than a week ago, I started noticing some odd, mottled yellowing beginning along my gum line, especially on my bottom teeth, and within a few days, more and more discoloration started to show up on several of my upper teeth as well.

As much as I don’t want to show you this, I really feel like it would be better if you had a realistic expectation of the side effect you could experience if you started oil pulling as a result of my post (sorry!) or have been doing it for some time.

april fools 1

{It’s way too embarrassing to show you a closer up picture, but this one is gross enough to give you an idea, I think}

Of course, I freaked out and ran to the trusty (or not so much?) internet to self-diagnose.

And this is what I discovered: apparently, some people can have a weird reaction between the coconut oil and the plaque build-up on their teeth, producing this unsightly brown discoloration.

In fact, awesomely enough, there seems to be some sort of connection with exercise, so the more you exercise, the more likely you are to have this reaction.

Just my luck.

And the awesomest part of all? It takes (at least one) trip to the dentist to fix it. Some people said theirs only went away with expensive professional whitening.

Y’all. I am SO sorry to have led you astray like this. I promise to do a better job in the future of vetting my information (I don’t know how I missed all of this during my initial research). And I reeeeeally hope none of you who have started as a result of my post have experienced any of the same issues I’m having.

Really, that’s all. I feel so bad.

But before I leave you totally depressed and down for the day, I did just want to say one more thing…

 

 

……………………………………………………………..

 

 

april fools

P.S. To be very clear, while I am in no way claiming that oil pulling is the cure-all for, well, anything, I have experienced zero adverse effects from using it and continue to see the same good results that I reported in my initial post.

Happy April Fool’s Day!

(I’m off to plan something maniacal for my children!)

0 Comments

  1. Well, I hate to be the one that “got away”, but I can honestly say that I have definitely benefited from “swishing”. So when I (just now) read your attempted deception, I honestly thought, “Oh well. Sey la vie—it’s working for me!”

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  2. You got me and it wasn’t even April Fools anymore LOL. I heard that olive oil really can cause discoloration though, so I wasn’t super surprised until you said you used coconut oil!

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  3. oh my WORD….. i just about freaked out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that was the best april fools yet.

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  5. Heavens to Betsy!!!! I tried talking my boys into doing this over the weekend with no luck! When I started reading this post I thought my goodness, glad those boys didn’t give in. You are hilarious!!!!!!

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  9. Good gracious! You got me too! I’ve been doing it for a couple weeks. For the first time ever I thought, YESSSS! I don’t exercise. Maybe mine won’t be as bad as yours. HA!

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  10. Good one! I was feeling so sorry for you that you felt you had to show us such a disturbing picture of your teeth.:)haha

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  12. Well played:) I just started about a week ago as well although not religiously every morning but I don’t exercise either but enough to make me want to run to the mirror LOL

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  14. This is hilarious. I had to click on the blog title because I thought it was type of fracking thing! Shows you I am from Colorado! I was looking at your teeth like oh my gosh this is horrible! well played!!!! laura

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  24. You totally got me!!! I’ve gotten my mom on board to start oil pulling. I was seconds away from frantically calling her to tell her to STOP!!! So glad you are noticing good things still. I’ll keep at it. Can’t wait to hear how your kids react to your pranks. Being silly with our little ones is so fun, isn’t it!

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  26. Bah!!! I’m glad I’m not alone in being had! The fact that I started oil pulling just this week had me nervous. It’s a practice that’s all over the Internet these days, and I was just stunned that no one had ever mentioned potential side effects like this.

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  27. Oh, that was mean!! Especially the exercise part! I was totally buying it because I found out recently that there actually is a correlation between how active you are and how many hotflashes you have–something I’ve been dealing with lately, lol–as in, the more active you are, the MORE hotflashes you have!! So I was thinking here is another case where exercise is a negative thing–and how can that be? and man, this stinks! and on and on… and then you zinged me. I may not recover. 🙂

    Reply

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