In an effort to maintain or restore health, patients often turn to traditional methods. It is believed that only natural remedies can provide the expected result without the risk of side effects.
Treating the mucous membrane of the oropharynx with tea tree oil and other oils is considered one of the safest home therapy options.
It is used not only for the treatment of inflammatory diseases - stomatitis, gingivitis, pharyngitis - but also for the purpose of prevention.
Can gargling with oil really be beneficial and how to properly use it? Does he have any contraindications?
The essence of the procedure
A standard rinse solution is usually prepared with water, salt, soda, herbal infusions, or vegetable juices. It has a liquid consistency, it is easily washed off from the mucous membrane, while providing a cleansing and moisturizing effect. What is oil gargling and how beneficial is it?
It should start with the fact that there are two main ways of using oil products for diseases of the oropharynx:
- Rinse directly with the base material. However, it does not need to be mixed with other ingredients. It is enough to take only the amount required in the recipe. However, the essence of the procedure differs from the essence of rinsing in the usual sense. A small volume of the main substance is used, which cannot be irrigated to the throat - it will be very difficult to process the mucous membrane, there is a risk of simply swallowing the agent.
- Rinse with oil added to the water. This medicine cannot be called a solution unless an emulsifier is used, which is salt, soda or honey. There are recipes in which a few drops of oil are added to prepared water. However, oil particles are not able to dissolve in an aqueous medium, forming a homogeneous liquid. Therefore, a natural emulsifier is required to obtain a complete solution.
It is possible to use oil medicines for many pathologies of the oropharynx, however, one should not forget about the likelihood of an allergic reaction. If an ingredient has not been used before and the patient is unsure of its potential safety, caution should be exercised.
Oil flushing is a procedure that requires patient care. After the necessary ingredients are selected, you should decide on the frequency of use, dosage.
Depending on the purpose of use, the amount of the main component of the drug also differs.
The oils cleanse and deodorize the mucous membrane, help to maintain the moisturizing effect for a longer time.
Moreover, they do not have the same structure as aqueous solutions, so the number of procedures is reduced. Sometimes it is recommended to use oil products after rinsing with salt dissolved in boiled water.
Selection of ingredients
There are a large number of oils and medicines based on them, but not all of them can be used to treat inflammation of the oropharynx.
To help a patient with a sore throat, oil can be used:
- essential (lemon, eucalyptus, tea tree);
- sea buckthorn;
- lean from sunflower seeds;
- from the fruits of the European olive.
Essential oils are prized for their pleasant aroma. Some of them have bactericidal properties.
Lemon is described as having antiviral activity, and the product derived from eucalyptus and tea tree is useful for bacterial, viral and fungal infections.
Sea buckthorn oil, as a rule, is not rinsed. This tool is intended for external treatment of the mucous membrane of the oropharynx, but in a different way - it is applied to the inflamed surface using cotton turundas.
The vegetable oil of sunflower and the product from the fruit of the olive are used for absorption in the oral cavity. Rinsing the throat directly with sunflower oil is not performed.
How to decide on the type of product? For infectious diseases of the oropharyngeal cavity, the essential oils listed in the list are most useful. They help fight off pathogenic agents.
If the patient does not notice an individual hypersensitivity to them, such treatment is permissible as an auxiliary method.
Lean and olive oil are good for chronic inflammation.
They are also good for cleaning the mouth before eating after sleeping. In addition, these products can be used by people who are concerned about intense sore throat. However, we must not forget that oil rinses will not replace the main treatment.
Method of application
As mentioned in the previous sections, the oily product can be absorbed in the mouth or added to water, saline solution. In the first case, it is enough to take a teaspoon or tablespoon of the product (depending on the patient's desire) and hold it in the mouth for up to 20 minutes. It is believed that the effectiveness of the procedure is determined by the color of the mass that the patient spits out. It should turn white. Official medicine does not know how useful this method is, but many patients speak well of it.
To prepare a gargle with essential oil, you need:
- The volume of water is about 0.2 liters.
- A few drops of oil product (3 to 5).
This is the simplest recipe. The water should be warm. The rinse is used immediately. It is also permissible to add oil to a saline solution (a teaspoon of salt is added to the water, onto which 3 drops of oil are previously dripped).
A honey gargle is also prepared. Oil in the amount of 4 drops is dripped onto a spoonful of honey. Then add honey to warm, pre-prepared water.
Wait until the ingredients are completely dissolved, but make sure that the product does not cool down.
The mouthwash should not be swallowed.
This rule applies regardless of which method of treatment with an oil product is used. All oil-based medicines are for topical topical use only.
Precautionary measures
Although oil is a familiar and familiar product, its use in treatment must be informed, informed and careful. In order for oil therapy to bring only benefits, you should remember the following rules:
- refusal to use if allergy is suspected;
- refusal to use for small children;
- refusal to mix a large number of oil ingredients at the same time.
Both the "olive" and "sunflower" recipes are similar in their effectiveness - these oils can replace each other if necessary.
Many people know about the benefits of essential oils. But it is still not worth using them for children. A small child can swallow oil; in addition, he is not always able to correctly and timely indicate the signs of an allergic reaction.
Mixing many ingredients increases the risk of side effects. For one procedure, it is better to choose one type of oil product, if necessary, supplement the recipe with, for example, salt.
Treatment with oil products is attractive to the patient due to the cost and availability of ingredients.
However, it should be understood that no home remedy can completely destroy pathogens, therefore, along with the use of oil rinses, it is required to apply all the methods prescribed by the doctor.
