You Don't Need to Floss & Your Entire Childhood Was a Lie

You ’ll shortly be able to stoplying to your dentistabout how often you floss , because ostensibly floss is another one of those wellness myth based more on " uhhhh , this sounds kinda right ? " than real fact . Likeantibacterial soapandcow ’s milk , flossing is one big elaborate ruse from The Man to squeeze you into drop your hard - earned money . In this case , $ 1.99 on a pack roughly once every three year . This isaccording to the Associated Press , not oldBleeding Gums Murphy .

The AP went full Woodward and Bernstein on Big Floss since they noticed flossing was n’t part of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans . They asked the section of Health and Human Services and Agriculture why , and got no reply . SHADY . Flossing had been a political science recommendation since 1979 , then enigmatically disappeared … which tipped off the Associated Press to the squalid underbelly of the floss industry .

So they went hollow , look at 25 studies on floss over the last decennium . What did they bump ? The " missing " girl haddisguised herself as the kindly old entertainment park owner . Oh , wait , different investigation . They found : “ The grounds for flossing is ‘ light , very unreliable , ’ of ‘ very dispirited ’ quality , and carries ‘ a restrained to large potential for bias . ’ ” Almost as salacious ! Those are fightin ’ words , considering the American Dental Associationclaims , " Cleaning between teeth is indispensable to your daily oral hygienics unremarkable . " Lies !

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Whether or not floss is efficacious may notseemlike a vainglorious deal , but this is a slippery slope – if you do n’t have to floss every twenty-four hours , what other wellness advice from your parent is a lie ? Do you really have to eat your vegetables every day ? Is tonic all that defective for you ? Will your face actually stick that fashion ? Is cough syrup a play and totally OK means to catch a sound high ? The AP may have saved you 30 seconds in the evenings , but you ’ll never look at your parent the same way again .