Effects of Oil Pulling On Chemo-radiotherapy Induced Oral Mucositis in Head and Neck Cancer Patients

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effects of coconut oil pulling on chemo-radiotherapy induced oral mucositis in head and neck cancer patients with Magic mouthwash. METHODOLOGY: This was a double-blind, randomized controlled trial, total of n=80 patients of chemo-radiotherapy induced oral mucositis of head and neck cancer were randomized into two arms A and B. A= Oil pulling using pure coconut oil and B= commercially prepared Magic Mouthwash. Each arm consisted of n=40 patients evaluated for a total duration of nine weeks using the WHO scale of oral mucositis and four different pain scores including Verbal pain intensity scale, Numeric pain intensity scale, Visual analog scale and FACES scale. Patients were evaluated at baseline 0, week 3, 6 and 9.Data was analyzed by using SPSS version 20. RESULTS: Total of n=72 participants completed the study between December 2017 to August 2018; randomly assigned to Group A (n=36) and group B (n=36).Of these n=48 were male and n=24 female. In both groups there was a reduction in WHO oral mucositis scores over the time of nine weeks; however, the differences were not statistically significant (p=0.633). The two treatments did not differ on the main outcome measure i.e. WHO mucositis scale from baseline, or on any other measure of pain, while followed for the nine weeks of trial period. Adverse effects were similar between the two arms and the most frequently reported side effects were radiation induced rash, mouth fatigue and dry mouth. CONCLUSION: Oil pulling and magic mouthwash was similar in reducing both the severity of oral mucositis and relieving the pain of chemo radiation induced oral mucositis in head and neck cancer patients. Oil pulling with coconut oil can be used as an alternative therapy to magic mouthwash for treating chemoradiation induced oral mucositis.

The effect of oil pulling with coconut oil to improve dental hygiene and oral health: A systematic review

“…[ 15 ] 2018 Incorrect intervention Asokan [ 40 ] 2008 Letter Shetty [ 41 ] 2019 Unable to access journal Kablian and Ramamurthy [ 42 ] 2016 Incorrect intervention Halim et al. [ 43 ] 2014 Full text unavailable Shino et al. [ 44 ] 2015 In vitro study Lavine et al.…”