For what it’s worth, the situation isn’t really that we’ve established that it isn’t clear flossing helps, it’s that we haven’t established with the kind of evidence HHS requires that flossing helps. Those sorts of studies are hard to do reliably with things like flossing.
Do you think the evidence we do have, which doesn’t rise to the level required by the HHS, is in fact strong enough and that we should rely on it?
The quote doesn’t sound encouraging:
Overall there is weak, very unreliable evidence which suggests that flossing plus toothbrushing may be associated with a small reduction in plaque at 1 or 3 months.
The epidemiological studies, as I understand it, make the association between claims of flossing and improved tooth health unambiguously exist (though not huge). HHS didn’t analyse them and find them too week, exactly; they simply want controlled studies for this purpose (for good reason, of course). Nonetheless, everything we know makes it sound like flossing is at least a little effective.
Whether the effect justifies spending minutes every week, who knows.
For what it’s worth, the situation isn’t really that we’ve established that it isn’t clear flossing helps, it’s that we haven’t established with the kind of evidence HHS requires that flossing helps. Those sorts of studies are hard to do reliably with things like flossing.
Do you think the evidence we do have, which doesn’t rise to the level required by the HHS, is in fact strong enough and that we should rely on it?
The quote doesn’t sound encouraging:
Quite possibly.
The epidemiological studies, as I understand it, make the association between claims of flossing and improved tooth health unambiguously exist (though not huge). HHS didn’t analyse them and find them too week, exactly; they simply want controlled studies for this purpose (for good reason, of course). Nonetheless, everything we know makes it sound like flossing is at least a little effective.
Whether the effect justifies spending minutes every week, who knows.