I have no idea, I’ve spent less than a half hour looking into this. The Cochrane Review shows that there’s maaaybe an advantage to water flossing, but there just haven’t been that many studies on it. And the studies do assume that participants are flossing/water flossing at the same frequency. If the pleasant sensation you get from water flossing motivates you to keep doing it, I think that’s great!
Thanks! I agree there isn’t definitive evidence about water vs other flossing. For me it is so much easier to do water flossing that I also would favor that if it was equal or even slightly less effective than the alternative. I think my prior is that anything that mechanically moves plaque and food particles from in between your teeth—be it water, “regular” floss, or something else—is going to work. It probably depends as much on your technique as to the underlying mechanism and so I think this would be hard to effectively study.
I have no idea, I’ve spent less than a half hour looking into this. The Cochrane Review shows that there’s maaaybe an advantage to water flossing, but there just haven’t been that many studies on it. And the studies do assume that participants are flossing/water flossing at the same frequency. If the pleasant sensation you get from water flossing motivates you to keep doing it, I think that’s great!
Thanks! I agree there isn’t definitive evidence about water vs other flossing. For me it is so much easier to do water flossing that I also would favor that if it was equal or even slightly less effective than the alternative.
I think my prior is that anything that mechanically moves plaque and food particles from in between your teeth—be it water, “regular” floss, or something else—is going to work. It probably depends as much on your technique as to the underlying mechanism and so I think this would be hard to effectively study.