Re: research study on OP

Thank you for posting that Jennifer.

This is the first "study" we've seen yet on OP. I would be very curious to see what Dr. Karach did. I think with all the attention OP is getting, that someone, someday will publish his findings instead of some obscure comments regarding it.

Here is what the Skeptic Society said about that study, which our buddy Kebod posted. (she likes to play with that group).

Here it is:

"An interesting read. This is only a preliminary study, with 10 participants over 45 days. Each had to swish refined sunflower oil in their mouths for 8-10 minutes a day, early in the morning light, on an empty stomach. A significant reduction in "plaque score" and "gingivitis score" was found.

The major problems I see with this study are:

1. No control group. The participants were limited to those who did not perform any other type of oral rinse. It's not clear whether the same effects could have been achieved by swishing water around. There is a discussion at the end comparing their reductions to those in other studies, but it is not at all clear how their scoring method compares.

2. Not blinded. The participants were supposedly blinded to the purpose of the study, but this seems unlikely to have been effective, given all that the patients had to be instructed on. The experimenters were completely unblinded.

3. Single, unblinded subjective evaluation of the results. A single person evaluated the results for all subjects on flexible, subjective criteria. The evaluation of repeatability showed that the initial/subsequent evaluation of the same tooth on the same day had a correlation of .81 for plaque and .75 for gingevitis. That doesn't seem very reliable. (But I'm no expert.)

All in all, I'd say it's not a meaningful study. Maybe they can use it to get funding for a real study on these effects."

--James