Local dentists say, yes, you do have to floss
Aug 4, 2016, 6:15 PM | Updated: Aug 5, 2016, 8:38 am
“Finally, an excuse not to floss!” Americans cried this week upon learning that the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services dropped flossing from their health guidelines.
This caused a media flurry. Headlines like “Medical benefits of dental floss unproven” and “Flossing is nonsense – and my laziness is vindicated” were everywhere.
Related: Flossing turns out to be nothing more than a cheap thrill
And these headlines are killing dentists who have spent years persuading their patients to floss.
“I feel like this type of information is undermining our profession,” says Covington dentist Dr. Kyle Blair. “Basically saying that flossing isn’t important when it actually is, regardless of the lack of substantiated clinical data.”
Dr. Blair says there’s a reason you can’t get the kind of clinical data that would show the benefits of flossing.
“We know that the people who wouldn’t floss would develop gum disease and you would have to do that over a number of years and it would be completely unethical to run a study like that to get that level of evidence because we would be suspecting people to what we know will cause gum disease.”
But Seattle Dr. Thomas Roberts, my dentist, says there are studies that prove that flossing works.
“There are plenty of studies! That’s the funny thing. One I was reading just recently was a study on twins. One twin flossed and one twin didn’t and it was a significant difference in the health of their mouths. Also, any dentist who has been doing this for any period of time knows absolutely that if people stop flossing they’re going to have more problems. Either gum disease and/or cavities. So it’s black and white.”
He says this study is just going to make his job harder because no one ever wants to floss.
“Who wants to stick their hands in their mouth? It is a pain in the neck. But the downside is, if you don’t it’s even worse. I get it, I don’t like to floss but you have to do it if you want healthy gums and teeth.”
Here’s the thing: no one has come out and said that flossing isn’t good for you. It’s just that there hasn’t been enough research done to show its benefits. Dr. Blair says it’s easy enough to connect the dots.
“There’s a common understanding that if you floss your teeth, you’re removing the bacteria that are known to cause gum disease and cavities. The connection between bacteria and gum disease and cavities has been proven by numerous scientific articles and studies. But they had been unable to establish that connection between flossing to remove the plaque, to prevent gum disease. That whole cascade has not been established with credible scientific data.”
Dr. Roberts says, in the end, it’s up to you if you want to floss or not, but offers this sage advice.
“You only need to floss the ones you want to keep.”
