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> afaik studies find very little to no benefits to flossing. My gut reaction to that statement was incredulity, but the intro to the wiki article for flossing

> afaik studies find very little to no benefits to flossing. My gut reaction to that statement was incredulity, but the intro to the wiki article for flossing confirms it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_floss https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_floss > ...empirical scientific evidence demonstrating the clinical benefit of flossing as an adjunct to routine tooth brushing alone remains limited. Who knew?! I'm not going to stop flossing though. I didn't always and I believe it had a very positive impact on my gum health in particular. I always get high marks from the dental hygienist.

gpt5 4y ago
The main problem is that there are zero long term studies on flossing. Gum recession and Gengivitis take decades to develop, until you are old and don't have enough of gums left to hold your teeth.
- softsound 4y ago
  Decades? Nah just a few years is all you need, a lot of it is more apparent from eating disorders. Even with flossing + brushing daily it can be hard to overcome for some people once you have it. Sadly can confirm as I had no cavities in high school, did terrible in my 20's especially around 20-27 went through a lot of depression, lack of money/medical care/ in and out of work a lot and I'm trying to fix what I can just starting my 30's after losing 2 teeth It can be hard to overcome shame when already depressed so it's hard to visit a dentist moreso if you have no money to do anything. It's easy to screw up even more so if you have bad genes on top of it, a lot of my family has issues with teeth. At least stem cells can be found within your teeth and there is a process now to regrow some of your teeth with your own stem cells, doesn't replace implants though but helps. This process isn't popular yet but at least it's possible in a few areas in the states.
  - cableshaft 4y ago
    Lost four teeth when my fillings kept popping out, then eventually was told "you'll need crowns, those will be $2500 apiece" while I was in between jobs. I ended up letting them rot until they needed pulled, and that was something I wish I could take back today. I eventually was able to afford to get two dental bridges put in, but I've had issues with them off and on ever since: one of the anchor teeth needed a root canal and eventually cracked in half, now I need to get that and the other tooth pulled and get implants at some point. And I've got pretty bad gum issues around one of the anchor teeth (a pocket of size 5, just under serious periodontal disease) on my other bridge, and have gotten it deep cleaned and given antibiotics under the gumline a few times that so far hasn't reversed the process at all. If I could go back in time I'd be more diligent about dental hygeine, and/or would have borrowed money from someone or sought cheaper ways to get those crowns in, because it's a lot easier to keep crowns flossed than bridges.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
treis 4y ago
There's little evidence that check ups/cleanings do anything either. Same goes for annual physicals.
- hallway_monitor 4y ago
  I would like to recommend the book Kiss your Dentist Goodbye, by Ellie Phillips, DDS. If you want to understand oral hygiene this book is great. It also has a care program involving three different mouthwashes!
LeonenTheDK 4y ago
Well there's a surprise, my hygienist and dentist always encourage flossing, and anecdotally my gums are way happier (no bleeding or puffing) when I'm flossing daily compared to when I'm not. I guess it could be that however my mouth is configured, and with the types of food I generally eat, I benefit from flossing but many others with different mouths and diet wouldn't.
- BeetleB 4y ago
  Same here. I've had ups and downs with flossing (going months at a time with and without it). Without fail, when I see the dentist/hygienist, for the times I've not been flossing they can easily see my gums are in bad shape. Anecdotal, but still.
  - lfowles 4y ago
    I think the tell is mostly that gums bleed after flossing if they haven't been flossed in a while.
    - BeetleB 4y ago
      Yeah that's normal if you haven't flossed for a while. Goes away within a week or two.
    - jrmg 4y ago
      I do floss, but I always think that it’s unintuitive that something that literally causes bleeding when you start doing it ever came to be regarded as a good thing.
      - porknubbins 4y ago
        I think healthy gums do not bleed, bleeding means they were inflamed to some degree. Its not a case of flossing simply toughening up your gums.
        4y ago
Marazan 4y ago
The main problem with a lot of studies of oral hygiene is that peoples oral hygiene technique is often really bad/variable. Like, people who floss often floss with poor technique so it is hard to study the benefits of flossing vs not flossing. Peoplevs toothbrushing technique is all over the place so hard to study the benefits of electric tooth brush vs manual. Etc, etc.
- hallway_monitor 4y ago
  It seems to me like this is a more important issue than most people realize. Most things in life come down to the small details of execution, and behaviors like oral hygiene are even harder to teach and monitor.
marcosdumay 4y ago
That looks a similar situation to that famous "we found no evidence that parachutes increase the chances of survival when jumping out of a plane" joke study. It looks like a very difficult study to conduct, and will certainly give you a very predictable result.
alexilliamson 4y ago
I remember looking into this and being surprised it was controversial when DHH (lol) got up on a soapbox about how flossing was a scam promoted by Big Dental.
wolverine876 4y ago
> the intro to the wiki article for flossing confirms it How does a Wikipedia article confirm anything? It might give you a lead on something, but while the mis- and disinformation in our world is alarming, people's blithe openness to it is even worse.
suzzer99 4y ago
You just blew my mind. The way dentists freak out about it, you'd think not flossing = guaranteed dentures by the time you're 50.
fullstop 4y ago
> Who knew?! I'm not going to stop flossing though. I didn't always and I believe it had a very positive impact on my gum health in particular. I always get high marks from the dental hygienist. My best guess is that a person willing to floss daily is a person who is willing to take care of themselves in general.

gpt5 4y ago

The main problem is that there are zero long term studies on flossing. Gum recession and Gengivitis take decades to develop, until you are old and don't have enough of gums left to hold your teeth.

softsound 4y ago
Decades? Nah just a few years is all you need, a lot of it is more apparent from eating disorders. Even with flossing + brushing daily it can be hard to overcome for some people once you have it. Sadly can confirm as I had no cavities in high school, did terrible in my 20's especially around 20-27 went through a lot of depression, lack of money/medical care/ in and out of work a lot and I'm trying to fix what I can just starting my 30's after losing 2 teeth It can be hard to overcome shame when already depressed so it's hard to visit a dentist moreso if you have no money to do anything. It's easy to screw up even more so if you have bad genes on top of it, a lot of my family has issues with teeth. At least stem cells can be found within your teeth and there is a process now to regrow some of your teeth with your own stem cells, doesn't replace implants though but helps. This process isn't popular yet but at least it's possible in a few areas in the states.
- cableshaft 4y ago
  Lost four teeth when my fillings kept popping out, then eventually was told "you'll need crowns, those will be $2500 apiece" while I was in between jobs. I ended up letting them rot until they needed pulled, and that was something I wish I could take back today. I eventually was able to afford to get two dental bridges put in, but I've had issues with them off and on ever since: one of the anchor teeth needed a root canal and eventually cracked in half, now I need to get that and the other tooth pulled and get implants at some point. And I've got pretty bad gum issues around one of the anchor teeth (a pocket of size 5, just under serious periodontal disease) on my other bridge, and have gotten it deep cleaned and given antibiotics under the gumline a few times that so far hasn't reversed the process at all. If I could go back in time I'd be more diligent about dental hygeine, and/or would have borrowed money from someone or sought cheaper ways to get those crowns in, because it's a lot easier to keep crowns flossed than bridges.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

treis 4y ago

There's little evidence that check ups/cleanings do anything either. Same goes for annual physicals.

hallway_monitor 4y ago
I would like to recommend the book Kiss your Dentist Goodbye, by Ellie Phillips, DDS. If you want to understand oral hygiene this book is great. It also has a care program involving three different mouthwashes!

LeonenTheDK 4y ago

Well there's a surprise, my hygienist and dentist always encourage flossing, and anecdotally my gums are way happier (no bleeding or puffing) when I'm flossing daily compared to when I'm not. I guess it could be that however my mouth is configured, and with the types of food I generally eat, I benefit from flossing but many others with different mouths and diet wouldn't.

BeetleB 4y ago
Same here. I've had ups and downs with flossing (going months at a time with and without it). Without fail, when I see the dentist/hygienist, for the times I've not been flossing they can easily see my gums are in bad shape. Anecdotal, but still.
- lfowles 4y ago
  I think the tell is mostly that gums bleed after flossing if they haven't been flossed in a while.
  - BeetleB 4y ago
    Yeah that's normal if you haven't flossed for a while. Goes away within a week or two.
  - jrmg 4y ago
    I do floss, but I always think that it’s unintuitive that something that literally causes bleeding when you start doing it ever came to be regarded as a good thing.
    - porknubbins 4y ago
      I think healthy gums do not bleed, bleeding means they were inflamed to some degree. Its not a case of flossing simply toughening up your gums.
      - 4y ago

Marazan 4y ago

The main problem with a lot of studies of oral hygiene is that peoples oral hygiene technique is often really bad/variable. Like, people who floss often floss with poor technique so it is hard to study the benefits of flossing vs not flossing. Peoplevs toothbrushing technique is all over the place so hard to study the benefits of electric tooth brush vs manual. Etc, etc.

hallway_monitor 4y ago
It seems to me like this is a more important issue than most people realize. Most things in life come down to the small details of execution, and behaviors like oral hygiene are even harder to teach and monitor.

marcosdumay 4y ago

That looks a similar situation to that famous "we found no evidence that parachutes increase the chances of survival when jumping out of a plane" joke study. It looks like a very difficult study to conduct, and will certainly give you a very predictable result.

alexilliamson 4y ago

I remember looking into this and being surprised it was controversial when DHH (lol) got up on a soapbox about how flossing was a scam promoted by Big Dental.

wolverine876 4y ago

> the intro to the wiki article for flossing confirms it How does a Wikipedia article confirm anything? It might give you a lead on something, but while the mis- and disinformation in our world is alarming, people's blithe openness to it is even worse.

suzzer99 4y ago

You just blew my mind. The way dentists freak out about it, you'd think not flossing = guaranteed dentures by the time you're 50.

fullstop 4y ago

> Who knew?! I'm not going to stop flossing though. I didn't always and I believe it had a very positive impact on my gum health in particular. I always get high marks from the dental hygienist. My best guess is that a person willing to floss daily is a person who is willing to take care of themselves in general.