Monday, June 27, 2011

Flossing


It's kind of gross when you floss after not having done it for a while. You never know what you'll find buried in your back teeth. I think I found a bit of brontosaurus flesh back in there just now. And the gums tend to bleed a bit as well.
I've heard from a couple of different people lately that there's no evidence to back up the idea that flossing does any good. Which just seems ridiculous, and I think just an excuse for people to justify their laziness in not flossing. It just makes sense, there's spaces between the teeth where food lodges and brushes can't reach, but flossing can. How is that not obvious? A dentist who shall remain unnamed told me that 80% of cavities can be avoided by flossing once a day. I'll take Jin's word over yours, I guess is what I'm saying.


Update:

4 comments:

Clayton McIntosh said...

This is your worst post ever.

SDAL said...

What, didn't I make the teeth bloody enough? Not enough empirical evidence? Should I have some kind of bar graph? Bar graphs make things cooler. I'll try up date with a bar graph.

richard said...

http://jdr.sagepub.com/content/85/4/298.short

Our aim was to assess, systematically, the effect of flossing on interproximal caries risk. Six trials involving 808 subjects, ages 4 to 13 years, were identified. There were significant study-to-study differences and a moderate to large potential for bias. Professional flossing performed on school days for 1.7 years on predominantly primary teeth in children was associated with a 40% caries risk reduction (relative risk, 0.60; 95% confidence interval, 0.48–0.76; p-value, < 0.001). Both three-monthly professional flossing for 3 years (relative risk, 0.93; 95% confidence interval, 0.73–1.19; p-value, 0.32) and self-performed flossing in young adolescents for 2 years (relative risk, 1.01; 95% confidence interval, 0.85–1.20; p-value, 0.93) did not reduce caries risk. No flossing trials in adults or under unsupervised conditions could be identified.

Brad said...

What's with the blood? Did you remove plaque or just but yourself?