Comment by crossroadsguy | Hacker News Reader

Comment by crossroadsguy | Hacker News Reader

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> more popular to remove wisdom teeth

Even the pushy dentists have rarely recommended removal of wisdom teeth unless they are trouble. I mean if it's pushing inside the muscle area towards bones or screwing up things for other teeth you have to. If it's forming a cavity area (like in my case) you definitely should get rid of it.

Wisdom tooth removal is not rite of passage. It's need based and often the needs are real and very much "needed".

> Even FLOSSING was removed from the U.S. Department of Health's recommendations several years ago because there is a lack of evidence that it's effective

This is bizarre because I can feel the change in my mouth everyday with and without flossing. I am not sure there is a need for some kind of empirical evidence here. Especially if there are not gigantic mountain pass like gaps between your teeth.

Yeah the crown job recos are often con jobs. Whenever I have been advised a drastic dental job I visit a Govt or a charitable medical college dental hospital here (India) and get a consultation. I do not get "polite" or "sophisticated" service there :D but I get honest and expert to the point advice.

I'm not suggesting that no one should floss. The opportunity cost is low. You have nothing to lose by doing it, other than a couple bucks spent on floss. It's similar to multivitamins, the evidence on the benefits of those is also low quality, but the most you have to lose is a couple of bucks.

In theory if you think in an evidence-based way your positions on flossing and multivitamins should be about the same, which is interesting.

What's really important though is that the profession of dentistry has not felt the need to fully study and establish the benefits of one of their most foundational recommendations.

Every dentist tells you to floss yet they have not bothered to establish reliable evidentiary proof that it works. If they don't care about evidence when it comes to flossing, what other procedures are they pushing without solid evidence of benefits?

The hot take way of saying this (and I do kind of believe this) is that dentistry as a medical science is in its infancy, and as a result, dentistry as a profession/business is partially snake oil.

All that said I have had one crown including a root canal done in my life, the need was clear and it was done well and professionally and I'm happy with it. So I'm not saying that everyone should ignore dentists but this imho is an important place in your life to consider getting second opinions and steer towards professionals who are less profit-driven when you can.

> The opportunity cost is low. You have nothing to lose by doing it, other than a couple bucks spent on floss.

I have ADHD. I hate flossing, and I'd put off flossing to the point where I wrecked my sleep cycle and tended to end up just not brushing my teeth before bed.

Ever since I stopped flossing, I've basically always brushed my teeth and have kept my sleep cycle more successfully.

Yes, I know this is potentially very bad dentally, but frankly I'm sick of having a catastrophically unreliable sleep cycle due to my mental illness and I'm willing to accept half-assing it if it means it doesn't destroy my life.

That said, I have no particular opinion on the evidentiary base of flossing - my dentist has always recommended I floss, and I believe his recommendation. I would floss if I could.

My situation somewhat overlaps with yours. I ordered a "water flosser" from everyone's favourite ecommerce site, and use it daily in the shower.

It seems to be doing something, and can't possibly be worse than my previous flossing regime which was: "twice a year the day before a dentist visit".

I wasn't willing to shell out for the name-brand water flosser, other options do the same job at the same water pressure for 1/4 the cost.

It took about a month to move up through the power settings. Start on the lowest and click it up when that starts to feel a bit tame.

I've now been using this thing for 6 months, it's just about time to find out whether I get my bi-annual nagging about the importance of flossing. My personal opinion: Cochrane's probably right, flossing is most likely bunk, but I'm pleased to have found a way to do it that I can stand

Sorry, how does flossing impact?

Plenty of other professions have these kind of best-practise recommendations that are not based on quantative data, so it’s likely something more universally human rather than a function of the profession’s age.

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