Flossing: You can quit!

I’ve never been a regular flosser. Just another tedious thing to do. Plus it spatters the bathroom mirror. Now it turns out that it’s been overrated. Yea!

Apparently, until recently, no one had bothered to study whether flossing had any value. Now, however, the American Academy of Periodontology acknowledged that flossing has not been shown to prevent cavities or severe periodontal disease. In reviewing 12 randomized controlled trials published in The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, researchers could not find any studies that proved the effectiveness of flossing.

It may be that if you flossed the way your dental hygienists do, it might be effective, as was the case when professionals flossed the teeth of children on school days for nearly two years. (Can you imagine?!) They saw a 40 percent reduction in the “risk” of cavities, whatever that means. At any rate, it looks like we can stop feeling guilty about not flossing.

So now, you’ve got all this floss sitting around. Here are just a few of the many ways to use it (where provided, click on the links for YouTube demonstrations):

• Sew up gunshot wounds. This has been done!
• Cut up food (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0btXb4O21I)
• Escape prison by combining a ton of it to make a rope or mix it with toothpaste to saw through wire. This has been done!
• Remove a ring (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSq_7e6DJMg). This one made me laugh out loud.

I'll still floss when I've got food stuck in my teeth. Otherwise, I'm done.

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.