![\"flossing\"](\"https:\/\/www.lakeoconeedental.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/flossing-300x187.jpg\")
<\/a>Eating vegetables keeps you healthy. Water keeps you hydrated. Sun protection keeps you from getting burned. There are some things in life we just don\u2019t have to debate. You don\u2019t need a study, or the results of a survey, to know it\u2019s in your benefit to be healthy, hydrated, and comfortable.<\/p>\n
We accept certain truths about our teeth, as well. For years, dentists have known flossing daily is good for oral health. But a few months ago, that time-honored advice was brought into question.<\/p>\n
The 2016 version of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines no longer included advice to floss every day \u2013 something that had been a standard recommendation since 1979. Why the removal? Government health recommendations must be based on scientific evidence and studies. In a letter to the Associated Press last year, the government acknowledged, \u201cthe effectiveness of flossing had never been researched\u201d as required. So, this year the flossing recommendation was removed.<\/p>\n
That had a lot of people asking, \u201cSo, we don\u2019t need to floss anymore, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, before you swear off flossing forever, it\u2019s helpful to take a closer look at what was actually said.<\/p>\n
While it is true the effectiveness of flossing has never been researched, there\u2019s actually a reason why that\u2019s the case. Simply put, studying the effectiveness of flossing is a near-impossible feat.<\/p>\n
For a successful clinical study, you need a test group and a control group. For flossing, that would require a group of people to floss, and a control group to not floss, for a very long time \u2013 possibly even years. That\u2019s not exactly ethical if flossing turns out to be beneficial.<\/p>\n
On top of that, the many variables involved in a flossing study make it difficult to get accurate results. After all, if you told 1,000 people to floss, they\u2019d all do it a little differently, yielding varied results. Additionally, the results of clinical studies are determined by checkups and surveys and, call it dentist\u2019s intuition, but I have a feeling plenty of people have fibbed about flossing at least once.<\/p>\n
Because there will likely never be a study on the benefits of flossing, we can only consider anecdotal evidence. Here\u2019s what I can tell you as someone who looks at teeth all day, every day: People who floss regularly have healthier gums, because floss helps remove plaque and bacteria that could cause bigger problems (like gum disease) down the road.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no shame in wanting to believe a headline as scandalous as \u201cBenefits of Dental Floss Unproven.\u201d It\u2019s confusing, but stories like this are great opportunities to take a closer look at what medical research is saying (or not saying).<\/p>\n
After all, there is also no scientific evidence that toilet tissue has a benefit, but you probably don\u2019t want to stop using that any time soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eating vegetables keeps you healthy. Water keeps you hydrated. Sun protection keeps you from getting burned. There are some things in life we just don\u2019t have to debate. You don\u2019t need a study, or the results of a survey, to know it\u2019s in your benefit to be healthy, hydrated, and comfortable. We accept certain truths […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9,10,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n