Earlier this month, some news came out that rocked the entire dental community. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has removed it's recommendation for flossing from its U.S. Dietary Guidelines. A recommendation that has been made since the late 1970's!
Delving deeper into this decision, it doesn't appear as if the evidence is pointing towards an ineffectiveness of flossing, but rather, a lack of existing evidence to support that flossing is indeed effective. While researching studies that have been conducted over the last decade, the Associated Press has concluded the current research was found to be "unreliable", "very low quality" and even to have "a moderate to large potential for bias".
In a letter from the Federal Government to the AP, the Dept of Health and Human Services admitted the effectiveness of flossing has never been properly researched. According to Paul Camargo, DDS, MBA, in an interview with
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Professor Walmsley, a scientific adviser to the British Dental Association said "The difficulty is trying to get good evidence. People are different and large studies are costly. Until then, you can't really say yes or no."
In a statement from a HHS spokesperson, "Since neither the 2010 nor 2015 Advisory Committees reviewed evidence on brushing and flossing teeth, the authors of the current edition decided not to carry forward the information on brushing and flossing included in past editions of the guidelines. By doing so, they were not implying that this is not an important oral hygiene practice.
So it seems more time and more funding is needed to gain a coveted spot on the U.S. Dietary Guidelines. Until then, there are still many high ranking dental officials that have not given up on the benefits of flossing and will continue to recommend it. Below are several quotes taken from several of these officials on the
The websites I used for my research were Center for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization. The World Health Organization defines Oral Health as “a state of being free from chronic mouth and facial pain, oral and throat cancer, oral sores, birth defects such as cleft lip and palate, periodontal (gum) disease, tooth decay and tooth loss, and other diseases and disorders that affect the oral cavity” (2015). It is necessary to brush our teeth twice a day for two minutes and floss daily. Since tooth decay has been one of the most common chronic disease among children in the United States, I found it very important to educate them that this is a preventable disease and what ways it can be
Quite a few patients have ended up with with better oral hygiene, and have set themselves up for good long-term oral health. To accompany their newly straightened teeth, many patients are more diligent about brushing and flossing and find that these habits develop and become more routine throughout the course of treatment.
Administration of this clinical skill involved undertaking an assessment of my colleague’s mouth before delivering any care in order to help determine the most appropriate means of delivering oral care. Malkin (2009) asserts that this is a critical component of the procedure and was one I was keen not to overlook. The World Health Organisation (WHO 2010) describes a healthy mouth as being free of chronic mouth and facial pain and in the situation described; this is the condition I found my partner’s mouth to be in. I was therefore happy to proceed with cleaning his teeth as instructed. I selected to use a soft bristled toothbrush and toothpaste. The use of these adjuncts are described by many writers as being the most appropriate in terms of removing plaque and preventing trauma to the gums (Holman et al 2005,McCauliffe 2007).Despite this it has been identified that they are also most
Most of us know that brushing and flossing go hand-in-hand when it comes to good oral health. Brushing with a minty toothpaste makes our mouths feel fresh so it’s easy to remember to include it in our daily routine; but flossing is often an afterthought - if it’s a thought at all. If you visit your dental clinic in Frisco TX twice a year for your checkups, your dentist or hygienist likely asks if you’re remembering to floss and you know you usually answer “yes” even though you really can’t remember the last time you did it.
2. Today world health organization says no real difference of tooth decay of minority countries vs majorly with yes who fluoride vs those who don’t
Do you simply hate flossing but you don't know why? Water flossers have been shown to remove just as much plaque from between teeth and even plaque from the surface of your teeth, and you may actually find using one
The method from Health Education Journal was based on collecting and evaluating evidence, “…using a combined approach incorporating the Cochrane Public Health and Health Promotion Field Handbook and the Health Gains Notation in order to a develop a synthesis approach to reporting,” (Satur et al., 2010). However, Community Dental Health utilized electronic searching, iterative-hand searching, critical appraisal and data synthesis in which the primary research reviewed settings were at clinical, community, schools or other institutions in which children, elderly, people with handicaps and disabilities were the participants. Another difference in both articles is the conclusions. Community Dental Health concluded that the use of fluoride is efficient in reducing caries through oral health promotion, chairside oral health promotion is shown to be effective; however mass media programs have not. On the other hand, the article from Health Education Journal states that even though there is a respectable support in incorporating the oral health into the general health promotion, it is vital to observe the outcomes in oral health terms.
You might brush your teeth for two minutes twice daily, but what about flossing? Do you routinely sidestep this essential part of teeth cleaning, or simply believe it’s not that important?
Your goal may be to practice good oral hygiene while at home, but the physical act of using dental floss can cause your gums to be sore. If this has been causing you to skip out on flossing each day, it is time to look for an alternative method that can be effective at cleaning between your teeth. Here are some great alternatives to flossing.
If you can’t seem to floss as often as you should, here are a few trusted reasons not to skip this important step:
In the article, An Eight-Week Clinical Evaluation of an Oscillating-Rotating Power Toothbrush with a Brush Head Utilizing Angled Bristles Compared with a Sonic Toothbrush in the Reduction of Gingivitis and Plaque by Erinn Conde, Renzo Kehauna, Julie Grender, and Ram C. Goyal. The objective of this study was to compare the Phillips Sonicare against the Oral-B rotating toothbrush. With the results to then determine if an oscillating brush would be better than a vibrating one. This study was conducted over the course of 8 weeks. What made this study significant was the amount of subjects used was relatively higher to most studies, at almost 140 subjects. Subjects with mild-to-moderate plaque and gingivitis were evaluated for baseline whole
Then, they were encouraged to generate a behavioral plan for three specific occasions: frequency of flossing, timing in the day of flossing, and technique. After completing these behavioral plans, participants were instructed to create three coping plans, which included both problems that would serve as barriers to accomplishing the goals and how to cope with such barriers. Each behavioral and coping plan was then followed by a statement intended to gauge participants’ self-efficacy. At the end, all participants in the focus group were asked to utilize self-monitoring. Participants in the active control group were given an educational pamphlet containing the same information about dental flossing that was received by the focus group (what it is, why it is done, and how it is done). Then, they were encouraged to write down what they believed to be positive outcomes of and risks of not maintaining one’s oral health. In the passive control condition, participants only received the questionnaires at two assessment points without any
Research demonstartes that, indvuals who do not brush and floss daly, make their teeth more sucectble to accumlating plaque as well as swolleg gums. Once the gums become swollen, it makes it easier for it to bleed as you brush across the surface of your teeth, and the brisstless of the brush come into contact with the inflamed gums. While you may assume that this may take weeks or even months to happen, research shows that even the mosst healtiest of gums, can become diseased within 23 to 46 hourss of not brushing.
Credibility Statement: As a person who has been brushing his teeth for many years without knowing the effects that fluoride can cause, I decided to do extensive research on the topic to find out what we are really putting in our bodies.
Growing up going to the dentist we have all been told to always floss our teeth. You may remember going through those gruesome appointments where the dentist are flossing our teeth for us and it kind of hurts, feels weird, maybe even made our gums feel rubbery. And every few minutes when they are flossing our teeth; they make us take the tube out our mouth that’s sucking all the saliva in our mouth and spit in the little bowl. In that spit, if you haven’t been flossing you usually see a lot of blood come out. And it doesn’t stop. Then when you leave they give you a little bag of dental goodies for you to have. If you were like myself growing up, you probably forgot all the time. And it was an endless cycle at the dentist. Because of this I have spent a great amount of time this past month on flossing and why you should take time to properly floss your teeth every day. According to, US News they had an article published by Steve Sternberg in 2013 where they stated that on a national level those who floss daily amount to 30 percent of the population. Just over 37 percent report less than daily flossing; slightly over 32 percent say they never floss. This means that only 30 percent of people nationally floss at least once a day. And the other 70 percent of people floss here and there or not at all. This is very sad and disturbing because according to Lisa Zamosky on Web MD in 2014 flossing does about 40 percent of the work required to remove sticky bacteria, or plaque, from