In the midst of all the usual chaos of Twitter today, a person I follow was doing a poll on flossing. I answered it, and these were the results so far:
My word, people, what is wrong with you? Flossing is the simplest thing you can do for your health.
Well, maybe these results are not representative; I'm sure they aren't, right? Unfortunately, they aren't far off, according to this story from US News, which put the numbers at 30 percent for daily, 37 percent for sometimes, and 32 percent for never. And both of these surveys are self-report, of course, so it's likely the "every day" folks are over-reporting a bit.
It would be interesting to see these figures broken down by age. I imagine younger people are less likely to floss. I started flossing daily 15 or so years ago, maybe a bit after age 40.
My hygienist told me something about flossing on my last visit that I don't remember ever hearing before. She said the point of flossing is to disrupt the colonies of bacteria that form in the gap between your tooth and your gum. It doesn't matter too much what time of day you floss, she said, but what matters is the 24-hour interval, because that's how long it takes the colonies to start reforming.
And have you heard that the bacteria that cause gingivitis may be responsible for Alzheimer's disease? And that gum disease is tied directly to heart disease? This is serious stuff, people, not just a matter of bleeding gums and pain and losing your teeth, bad as that may be. And another reason that dental care should be part of health care, not a separate luxury item.
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
A Public Service Announcement
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
jeez you made me floss
Pat, I have to tell you that your post has changed my daily routine. Before reading your post I was a once or twice a week flosser. Since reading your post, I have flossed every morning. It’s messy and time-consuming, but I don’t plan on stopping. All I have to do is to think about those colonies, and I’m up for floss. Behold the power of the “traditional blog.”
Something I want to add — I’ve read somewhere, and I wish I could find a source now, that it’s necessary to get the floss between teeth three to five times for flossing to be effective. Or as Jacqueline Susann said, once is not enough.
Bill and Michael, you're warming my heart!
Yes, Michael, that's right - I thought about adding something on the specifics of how to floss, but didn't include it. You want to slide the floss up and down on each surface of each tooth several times (5 or 6 sounds good). You're not just trying to get out stuck food, you're trying to scrape out whatever is forming there.
Everyone should ask their hygienist or dentist for details on how to do it if it's not clear. I'll bet there's a YouTube video showing how to do it.
Post a Comment