For years, you have heard your dentist tell you “you need to floss and brush twice a day.” Last summer, you may have found out that a study questions whether flossing (which includes water flossers) actually achieves anything. Studies show that there was no statistically significant improvement between flossing and brushing or brushing alone.

Stop Flossing? Absolutely Not!

So, should you stop flossing? Absolutely not - because here's the issue: The benefit of flossing is extremely hard to measure. We actually don't have good quality evidence as to whether flossing works or not. The study which claims that flossing "does not work" is up against the evidence of hundreds of dentists and thousands of patients who have found twice-daily flossing helps improve gum-related problems such as gingivitis. Although the U.S. government's dietary guidelines dropped flossing, it was not because there was evidence it's useless - it's because there's no good evidence either way. Studies may also have been affected by the blunt fact that a lot of us lie to our dentist. Hands up who has never, ever lied to their dentist about how often you floss? Thought so.

What Do You Have to Lose?

The other side of the matter is that even if the benefit of flossing daily is poor, the cost is very small and the risks extremely low - if you floss badly you might make your gums bleed a little, but that is literally the only risk. Some dentists do say that using an interdental brush is better if the gap between your teeth is large enough for one to fit without hurting. Also, it is only common sense that cleaning between your teeth (whether using floss, an interdental brush, tooth picks or a water flosser) reduces the build up of food and other stuff between them, which pretty much has to lower the amount of plaque and bacteria.

Keep it All in Perspective

In other words, even though there's no good evidence flossing "works," the problem lies in the way the science has been done - keep flossing and be sure to talk to your dentist and make sure you are using correct technique. If you have difficulty with floss, talk to your dentist about other options.