Don’t you just love these studies that tell you what’s good and what’s not? I mean, besides the obvious, there’s a bunch of studies for on topics like is mouthwash actually good, or whether coffee is detrimental to your health or not. Last week, we came across one such report relating to dental flossing, which naturally, made me raise my eyebrows. According to the report, “there’s little proof that (dental) flossing works,” and the U.S. actually admitted that its (dental flossing) effectiveness “had never been researched, as required.”
What’s more, apparently, flossing was not a recommended oral care regime in the recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans, though it had been advised, by the Federal government, that folks do so since 1979. So, since there’s no conclusive study with regards to flossing, then why the hell dentists all over keep telling patients to do so? I mean, they are the oral pros, aren’t they? And so, shouldn’t we take their words for it? Besides, it is fact that when you floss, you sometime do remove some pretty nasty stuff, which happens to be the remnant of the once delicious food, from between your teeth which the toothbrush failed to do (damn it, toothbrush! You had one job!).
Unless you are telling me that those nasty stuff does not have long term ill effect on our gum and teeth, but I am sure logic will tell us that can’t be true. We have to remove those stuff because they are nasties and they are detrimental to our oral hygiene. I should know first hand, but I am not going to go into that. Anyways, we don’t see this piece of good news for flossing haters will affect floss sales. In any case, floss does not form the biggest chunk of sales for most oral care product makers and like I said, any folks who floss would have witnessed what that thin nylon or Teflon strings have pulled out and that kind makes its effectiveness indisputable, is it not?
I am sure many dentists, if not all, will beg to differ and continue to promote flossing. Even the American Academy of Periodontology stated on its website that flossing does help. So where that “there’s little proof that (dental) flossing works” comes from is totally beyond me. I am not pro-flosser, btw, but the result pretty much speaks for themselves and that’s that. Besides, if flossing does not hurt you, I’d say don’t stop, or maybe just don’t over do it. I heard some did it as much as three times a day, which is obviously borderline excessive.
Image: AP Photo/Juio Cortez.
via MarketWatch
