The ranks of anti-dentites grew last summer when dentist Walter Palmer killed Cecil the Lion and, if a new report from the AP’s investigative team is true, there’s gonna be a lot more of ’em.
For decades, dentists have been advising us to torture ourselves by flossing daily to prevent gum disease, plaque buildup, cavities and other dental issues … apparently for no good reason.
After noticing the government’s recommendation to floss had been removed from the latest edition of The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the AP asked the feds why that was the case.
It took a Freedom of Information Act filing to get an answer, but the feds finally responded that the effectiveness of flossing had never been researched, as required, so it was removed.
Since the government never adequately looked into the topic, the AP did its own examination of 25 studies from the past decade that looked into the effects of brushing versus flossing.
The AP’s analysis found that “the evidence for flossing is ‘weak, very unreliable,’ of ‘very low’ quality and carries ‘a moderate to large potential for bias.’”
Whether you choose to keep lying to your dentist about how much you floss is entirely up to you, but if you decide to opt out of the practice entirely, we have a suggestion that may help.
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