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Title: Flossing might not actually have any proven medical benefits
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URL Source: http://www.sciencealert.com/flossin ... o-proven-benefits-report-finds
Published: Aug 3, 2016
Author: ERIN BRODWIN, BUSINESS INSIDER
Post Date: 2016-08-03 05:59:49 by Tatarewicz
Keywords: None
Views: 420
Comments: 14
ScienceAlert: It seems like simple, obvious advice: Eat your vegetables, get some exercise, and - of course - floss. Or not. Turns out that despite being recommended by numerous scientists and universities, the effectiveness of flossing has never been researched, according to a new report from the Associated Press. The US government has recommended flossing for nearly four decades. But according to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, a set of recommendations the agency sends out every five years, all of the recommendations have to be grounded in scientific evidence. And flossing is, well, not. In its report, published Tuesday, the Associated Press says that it used the Freedom of Information Act to request evidence for the benefits of flossing from the departments of Health and Human Services. AP never received that evidence. Instead, it got a letter from the government acknowledging that the effectiveness of flossing had never been studied. So the AP took a look at more than 25 studies comparing conventional brushing alone against brushing plus flossing. They found little to no evidence in favour of flossing. That comes in sharp contrast to recommendations from basically every major dental hygiene organisation, including the American Dental Association and the American Academy of Periodontology. Flossing is still considered so crucial to health that it’s included in one of the questions in the Living to 100 Life Expectancy Calculator, a tool that uses metrics like diet and exercise to determine your approximate life expectancy. Many experts say that not flossing lets plaque, the thin film of bacteria that clings to teeth and builds up during the day, to become tartar, a hard deposit that can irritate gums. That tartar buildup can, in turn, cause the gums to recede. Worse, it could create a gap between the gum and the tooth, which could get infected and lead to gum disease. Numerous reports have linked gum disease to a host of other diseases, including kidney disease, diabetes, and heart disease. Still, no research has concluded that one causes the other - only that there is some kind of relationship between the two. A 2013 study in the journal CardioRenal Medicine, for example, found that people suffering from chronic kidney disease and gum disease were more likely to die of heart disease, a leading cause of death among those with kidney problems. The study was unable to pinpoint the precise role gum disease might play in deaths from heart disease, but the researchers nonetheless recommended taking steps to cut back on gum disease in these patients. People with diabetes have also been found to be at a higher risk of developing gum disease, and people with gum disease have similarly been found to be more likely to develop diabetes. A 2012 study in the journal Diabetologia suggests that there is evidence supporting the existence of a two-way relationship between the two, but couldn’t ultimately conclude that that was the case. So for now, the topic remains heated. To floss, or not to floss? It remains a question. This article was originally published by Business Insider. Poster Comment: Flossing minimizes bacteria population by depriving critters of any food that might be lodged between teeth. Best way to eliminate bacteria is to brush with bar soap and of course rinse thoroughly.
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#1. To: Tatarewicz (#0)
Science Alert gets to wear the dunce cap here. You can tell flossing's great because if you don't do it for awhile and then do, it smells like Schytte -- which it basically is. It took me years to start doing it, and more years to start doing Listerine -- but it feels like the real thing now. Do you brush with bar soap, Tata? Never heard of that. I've heard salt, I've heard baking soda, but never tried 'em. Pastor Paul Revere maintained that sanguinaria toothpaste completely prevents plaque. www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4zuVAWSseM
Ever since a dentist suggested it online years ago. Bacteriacide in soap hard on liver but bacteria are killed in the 20-second soap suds handwashing routine. When you minimize bacteria in mouth there's less chance of them getting into lungs. Waiting for 3-D printing to come along for rebuilding broken teeth. Dentists reluctant to push research into 3D after having spent $250,000 on in- house crown shaping machine.
Technology is wreaking havoc with some people as it liberals others! Let us know how you make out with it. ($250k sounds awfully steep???) My my, "commercial tooth soap" http://woodlanddental.ca/press/2011/03/29/soap-to-brush-your-teeth-my-response/ Doesn't it taste awful?
My Canadian dentist got the crown fabricator from Germany; it's the kind of high-tech stuff Germans make their money on. See below and video at: A New Tooth, Made to Order in Under an Hour By Gina Kolata, NYT October 8, 2012 I was chewing a piece of steak on a Saturday night last month when an old filling shattered. Suddenly, along with steak I had chunks of gray amalgam and shards of tooth in my mouth. I felt the hole with my tongue — it seemed as large as a crater. The Digital Doctor The Digital Doctor In this special issue of Science Times, we look at some of the many ways that technology is changing the world of medicine. Go to Special Section » My dentist later confirmed that I now had a big hole in a molar, too big for a filling. But, the dentist said, if I could spare an hour he could make a crown and put it in, right then and there. An hour? Aren’t crowns — those tooth-shaped caps that fit over teeth — supposed to require at least two visits? First, the dentist numbs the area and drills the tooth, filing it down to make room for the crown. Then, he or she makes an impression of the tooth to send to a lab. The hole in the tooth is covered with a temporary filling while you wait for your crown. It arrives at the dentist’s office two or three weeks later. You return for another appointment. The dentist numbs the area, removes the temporary filling and glues the crown in place. Now, new technology has produced a better way. My dentist happened to be one of the approximately 10 percent who use CAD/CAM — computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing — to create a crown while a patient waits. The result is a ceramic crown that can be glued in place. You are done less than an hour after you first sit down in the dentist’s chair. Maybe you think that dentists are stuck in the technological dark ages, waving pliers and babbling about fluoride. In truth, the profession has quietly embraced sophisticated technology, and I was lucky enough to stumble upon a prime example. The process starts the same way it used to: The area is numbed, and the dentist drills the tooth to shape it for the crown. But instead of making an impression of the tooth, the dentist uses a tiny camera to create a three-dimensional image of the drilled tooth. A computer program uses that to construct an image of what the tooth will look like with the crown in place. I could see it on the computer screen — a tooth that looked just like mine would when I left the dentist’s office. Then all the details — the size and shape, the little ridges and indentations — are transmitted to a machine in an adjacent room that mills the crown from a chunk of porcelain. The result is an exact replica of what I saw on the computer screen. When the crown is ready, about 15 minutes later, the dentist glues it in. I was thrilled, if it is possible to be thrilled with a visit to a dentist. Sirona, a company with 95 percent of the market for CAD/CAM crowns, began distributing its system, Cerec, in the 1990s, said Roddy MacLeod, a vice president of Sirona, adding that the technology had gone through several generations of upgrades. The system costs the dentist about $100,000. (The company provides a registry of dentists who offer it at findcerec.com.) Some dentists who use it, like Dr. Matthew Messina of Cleveland, a spokesman for the American Dental Association, do not charge more for CAD/CAM crowns. “The market won’t bear charging more,” Dr. Messina said. Still, Dr. Stephen Campbell, a prosthodontist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said that before dentists invest in the equipment they should have a business plan to recoup their costs. For many, that can mean charging more for a CAD/CAM crown. (Prosthodontists are dentists with specialty training in aesthetic and reconstructive procedures, implants and digital technologies.) There are limitations to the use of the technique, though. The crown I had made, Dr. Campbell said, “is a good way to do a simple little restoration.” The tooth, for example, cannot have broken off below the gumline or the scanning device will not be able to make a precise 3-D image. And since the crown is carved from a solid ceramic block, it cannot have the complex visual nuances of a real tooth. Outside labs can create crowns for teeth that are highly visible, like front teeth, and that look exactly like the real thing. They use a variety of techniques and materials, including alloys, to make crowns that are strong enough to withstand the forces on back teeth and are realistic enough in their coloring to be used on front teeth. But even when an outside lab makes the crown, computerized systems come into play, Dr. Campbell said, although patients may not realize it. The cast made from a mold of a tooth is scanned and digitized, and the central lab sends back an image of what the crown will look like. The dentist can approve it or ask for modifications. Then, using machines that can cost one million dollars, the lab makes a crown that can fit a tooth broken below the gum line or that fits and matches a front tooth. In the past, Dr. Campbell said, the dentist and patient had little control over the result. “It is what it is,” he said. The new technology is even more important for tooth implants, where precision is critical. Dentists start by implanting a sort of artificial root in the bone to hold the artificial tooth in place. But it is not the same as a real root, which lets the tooth move and flex. Then, the dentist puts a screw in a sort of artificial tooth stub and attaches it to the artificial root. A crown goes on top of the stub. It is best if the stub is custom-designed for the patient, Dr. Campbell said. The fit must be precise. If not, parts of the implant can break and the implant can fail. These days, Dr. Campbell said, almost half of all-ceramic crowns and many implant stubs are made with this behind-the-scenes CAD/CAM technology, and he encouraged patients who need crowns or implants to ask their dentists if they use it. If not, he said, they might want to find a dentist who does. “It’s an incredible world right now,” he said. “What they are doing is so cool.” A version of this article appears in print on 10/09/2012, on page D7 of the NewYork edition with the headline: A New Tooth, Made to Order in Under an Hour. well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/08/a-new-tooth-made-to-order-in-under-an-hour/
#8. To: Tatarewicz (#7)
Medical people always think huge and high-dollar. Since 3D printing has grown so rapidly, should some have thought of that obvious possibility before signing for the quarter-mil machine? Since they're in it for the money and charge multiple times what foreign dentists do for the same work, I'm finding it hard to sympathize. In amerika this is all a factor of Jue lawyers being such happy ambulance-chasers and Jue judges gaily accommodating them in their litigation sprees, with insurance companies only too happy to fan the flames. It would be lovely if medical people would stand up and say ENUFF ALREADY, NO MORE JEW VAMPIRISM! IT'S RUINING EVERYTHING! But it ain't gonna happen this year. (Funny, age also means quality in these cases :-)
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#5. To: NeoconsNailed (#1)
Do you brush with bar soap
#6. To: Tatarewicz (#5)
#7. To: NeoconsNailed (#6)
($250k sounds awfully steep???)
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