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

by

Fizza Saher1                                    BDS                                            
Mervyn Hosein2                              FDS RCS (Eng), FDS RCSE(Edin), FFDRCSI(Ire)
Abne Hasan3                                   M.D.
Jabbar Ahmed Qureshi4                BDS
Tazein Amber5                                MBBS
Nisa Fatima Sunderjee6 

 

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.

KEY WORDS: Oral mucositis, oil pulling, magic mouthwash, coconut oil.

HOW TO CITE: Saher F, Hosein M, Hasan A, Qureshi JA J, Amber T, Sunderjee NF. Effects of oil pulling on chemoradiotherapy induced oral mucositis in head and neck cancer patients. J Pak Dent Assoc 2019;28(1):03-12.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.25301/JPDA.281.3

Received: 25 October 2018, Accepted: 17 December 2018

Download PDF