3.5 readers, I’d like to share an important detail about myself with you:
I’m a flosser.
Oh how I love to floss.
I don’t use the regular string floss. I use those floss picks – the plastic ones with the floss strung between two ends.
Love ’em.
My teeth never feel clean without them and oh my God, the things I have pulled out of my teeth over the years that I never even knew where there:
THINGS I HAVE PULLED OUT OF MY TEETH WITH FLOSS THAT I OTHERWISE WOULD HAVE NEVER KNOWN WHERE THERE:
- Plaque
- Germs
- Food particles
- Pieces of steak.
- Pieces of corn (popcorn and regular).
- Pieces of chicken.
- Never broccoli. F that.
- Whole chicken nuggets.
- An entire pizza…still in the box.
- The dog I had before Bookshelf Q. Battledog. Turns out he never ran away. He had crawled into my mouth when I was sleeping and died. And here all this time when people asked me, “Sheesh, what crawled in your mouth and died?” I always thought they were being more rude that accurate.
- Jimmy Hoffa’s body. How the mob traveled through time to lodge him under my bicuspid I’ll never know.
- Pirate treasure, me buckos.
- The Lost City of Atlantis.
In all seriousness, for me, there is something that is both gross and satisfying when I dig that floss in between my teeth and pull out a hunk of something that would have remained there all day had I not flossed.
And mind you, these hunks of whatever remain after brushing, after using mouth wash…they’re just dug in there and only floss can get them out. If they remain, they linger, the bacteria eats away at your teeth and gums. Ugh. Ugh!!!
So, it bothers me to read this study that’s been floating around claiming that flossing has no benefits.
Here’s a New York Times article about it if you want the details.
My take on it is that they aren’t saying flossing is bad for you. They’re just saying it doesn’t do anything for you.
Balderdash, I say.
Look, I’m not a dentist but I made a pact with myself long ago to never allow lack of qualification and/or credentials stop me on opining on a subject I have never studied in-depth before.
So, no, I am not a dentist, but it seems to me that if brushing and mouth washing doesn’t remove certain particles, and flossing can (and boy howdy, have I yanked some doozies out from between my teeth over the years) – I have to assume that ridding your teeth of those particles has got to be beneficial to your oral health.
You know folks, years ago I never flossed. Like noted presidential candidate Donald Trump, I too have enormous hands and therefore, it has always been hard for me to get my fingers in my mouth with the floss.
And so, my dentist read me the riot act. Told me I was going down a bad path with my teeth.
So I brushed more. And used mouthwash more. And I got the floss picks and flossed regularly.
And boom. My mouth health improved.
So…I don’t know. You do what you want 3.5 readers but me?
I’m a flosser.
Holy Crap. I should start a blog completely devoted to pictures of crap I pull out of my teeth.
Not gonna lie. It would get more readers than this blog.
What say you,
Bookshelf Battle 