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> People don't pay for studies of something they think is obvious. Then why do they pay for a study of the effect of flossing? And why is the result that it re
by tinus_hn 5y ago
> People don't pay for studies of something they think is obvious.
Then why do they pay for a study of the effect of flossing? And why is the result that it really doesn’t help a lot?
> Dentists can tell who's flossing and who's not just by looking, and they know that their healthier patients floss.
But can they? Or do they see someone with healthy teeth and say it’s someone who flosses correctly?
- jfengel 5y agoI think most of those poor-quality studies are something they can show the FDA: "We want to put this new variety of dental floss on the market. Here's the crummy study we did showing a bare minimum of effort. Can we?" (I don't know much about dentistry, but that's what they do with new food ingredients and supplements, with which I have a little familiarity.) As for dentists, yes, they ask people about their flossing habits. That's not as good as a formal mathematical study, but we're talking about so many people that a real effect would be obvious. (We put too much weight on statistical significance. It's great to have a rigorous process, but in a lot of ways, if you can't see the effect at a glance, then it's not really going to do all that much good. We have a number of drugs that are better than placebo or alternative drug, but not that much better.)
- tinus_hn 5y agoRight, you don’t know much about dentistry but this is what you think is obviously true, never mind that science shows it’s not.