substance. Are you saying swishing oil in your mouth, mixed with saliva = soap? Saliva is not a strong alkaline. Instead it fluctuates on both sides of neutral (6.5-7.4) depending on the time of day, what is in the mouth, etc.
Next, off to do some research and here are the results. Please not I did not research before I replied before, and before I wrote the above parts. And here are some random links, some from sites I know, some I don't know but were on page 1 of the search for Oil Pulling.
Snopes agrees it any benefit comes from rinsing the mouth and to beware, that lipid pneumonia could occur (oil enters the lungs)
http://www.snopes.com/medical/homecure/oilpulling.asp
The American Dental Association similarly noted the absence of proper scientific studies demonstrating any beneficial dental- or oral-related effects from oil pulling:
Overall, as is true for many folk remedies, oil pulling therapy has insufficient peer-reviewed scientific studies to support its use for oral conditions.
Current reports on the potential health benefits of oil pulling have clear limitations. Existing studies are unreliable for a number of reasons, including the misinterpretation of results due to small sample size, confounders, absence of negative controls, lack of demographic information, and lack of blinding. To date, scientific studies have not provided the necessary clinical evidence to demonstrate that oil pulling reduces the incidence of dental caries, whitens teeth or improves oral health and well-being.
Based on the lack of currently available evidence, oil pulling is not recommended as a supplementary oral hygiene practice, and certainly not as a replacement for standard, time-tested oral health behaviors and modalities.
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Recent articles in the media recommending oil pulling procedures generally have not described potential adverse health effects, but case reports of lipoid pneumonia associated with oil pulling or mineral oil aspiration have appeared in the literature. In addition, cases of diarrhea or upset stomach have been reported....
This link explains what Snopes says in a more readable manner.
http://www.sheknows.com/beauty-and-style/articles/1032339/what-is-oil-pulling-and-why-is-it-a-thing
These guys say it may do something, is better than nothing if you can't brush, floss, rinse, but it is due to swishing not "removing toxins". They cite a couple studies showing it may help oral hygiene.
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/oil-pulling-your-leg/
Using oil as a rinse for oral care in the time before modern medicine was perhaps not a bad idea, and does have a modicum of plausibility. Just the mechanical act of swishing any fluid around the mouth is likely to dislodge bits of food and clean the teeth. I wouldn’t recommend it over brushing your teeth, but it is probably better than nothing.
Recently several researchers have done small pilot studies looking at the effects of oil pulling. Some are overtly trying to support traditional Indian treatments, but at least they are clear about their biases. In any case, these small studies show that swishing oil in the mouth daily does have an effect, unsurprisingly, on oral bacteria.
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Conclusion
Oil pulling is a suggestive misnomer, implying that something bad is being pulled from the mouth (toxins and bacteria). What little scientific evidence exists shows that it is probably not as effective as standard mouth wash, and what benefit it has is likely entirely due to the mechanical act of swishing to remove particles and bacteria from teeth and gums.
There is no reason either theoretically or based upon any evidence to recommend oil pulling (which should be renamed “oil-swishing”) instead of standard modern health care with flossing, tooth-brushing, and mouth rinse. However, it does appear to be better than nothing, and might have a role in developing countries without access to modern oral care. The one caveat is that extended periods of swishing that are commonly recommended (10-20 minutes) are likely not necessary and further present a risk of lipoid pneumonia from accidentally breathing in small amounts of oil.
Oil pulling for general health or any other indication is pure pseudoscience. Detox claims are based on nothing, as are all detox claims. There is no evidence or plausible rationale to recommend oil pulling for any indication other than as a poor substitute for oral care.
Another random link ends with this, it probably won't hurt, but won't remove toxins, instead cleans the mouth.
http://www.divinecaroline.com/self/fact-or-fad-what-you-need-know-about-oil-pulling
(clip)That all seems logical, if imperfectly so, doesn’t it? However, there are almost as many oil-pulling naysayers as there are oil-pulling enthusiasts. To add to the confusion, since oil-pulling’s benefits aren’t supported by any credible scientific evidence, no credible source decisively debunks the practice. The skeptics do make some good points though. For one, on a physiological level, even the large veins under your tongue don’t carry enough blood to support the theory that the blood that’s cleansed by the oil in your mouth will somehow positively affect the blood any other place in your body. Furthermore, there’s the inescapable oil and water dynamic. Toxins in your bloodstream, it is argued, are most likely to be water soluble, so would therefore not bind to any fat-based anything. So the fat-soluble toxins would be stored in your fat cells and left to be expelled in some other way.
Where does that leave us then? What might oil-pulling do for you—or to you—if it won’t cleanse your entire system of every little microbial baddie it can stick to? One thing it will likely do is help with your overall oral health by way of the simple emulsification that happens as the oil mixes with your saliva. For the layperson, emulsification is what makes soap. And we all know that soap makes things clean. So, in a sense, oil-pulling is like making soap to clean your mouth. To support this, the majority of testimonials as to the benefits of oil-pulling do focus on renewed health of the teeth, gums, palate, and tongue. The long and short of it is that no matter what, oil-pulling will not likely cause you any harm at all. You’ll just have to consider if that’s how you want to spend twenty minutes every morning.
This last one is rather rude about the "toxin" and health claims
http://news.discovery.com/human/psychology/can-oil-pulling-improve-your-health-140311.htm
(clip) It’s ridiculously simple, and, it is claimed, amazingly effective. According to science writer Mike Rothschild’s blog for the Skeptoid podcast, “Oil pulling is said to treat chronic pain, insomnia, cavities, allergies, thrombosis, diabetes, asthma, bad breath, gingivitis, digestive issues, meningitis, low energy, heart disease, kidney disease, ‘toxic bodily waste,’ PMS, leukemia and even AIDS. Oil pulling, it would seem, is truly a life-changing medical miracle.”
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The fact that oil pulling has been used for thousand of years (if indeed it has) is asserted as proof of its efficacy but in fact means nothing. This is an example of a logical fallacy called the “appeal to tradition.” Just because a practice has endured for hundreds or thousands of years does not mean it is valid. For nearly 2,000 years, for example, physicians practiced bloodletting, believing that balancing non-existent bodily humors would restore health to sick patients.
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Vegetable oil is not needed to “detoxify teeth and gums” for the simple reason that teeth and gums are not toxic in the first place. Claims of “detoxification” and “cleansing” have been important (and lucrative) for the New Age and alternative medicine industries. The world is full of dangerous toxins, they claim, and in order to get healthy and you need to periodically remove impurities from your body.
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So what does oil pulling actually do? Probably nothing. Only a handful of medical studies have been done on the benefits of oil pulling, all of them from India and none of them seeming to show a consistent benefit for any particular condition. There’s nothing wrong with gargling or swishing your mouth out with natural oils (diluted peppermint oil, for example, is a natural antiseptic that will leave your breath nice and fresh). But there’s nothing unique or particularly healthy about swishing oils in your mouth.
So, aside from inhaling oil into your lungs, my take is that it won't hurt you. A good oral hygiene routine of brushing and flossing and rinsing will do more to keep your mouth healthy. Adding swishing of anything won't hurt, could help with mechanically removing material, rather like a long rinse and what liquid you use doesn't really matter. It won't cure health problems, does not "remove toxins", forget those claims.
Thank you for replying and inspiring me to do some research on this. That is meant seriously.
ETA of course one more study popped up. This one is interesting as it gives some advice as to why to use water vs oil which seems appropriate (availability, cost, disposal). They used tap and distilled water and oils.
http://www.healingteethnaturally.com/water-pulling-vs-oil-pulling.html#
Water pulling as effective as oil pulling for teeth and gums?
First trial study: no statistically significant difference in oral bacteria and plaque reduction potential....(more)
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