Flossing Without Flossing?

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Flossing Without Flossing?

You almost certainly brush your teeth. You might use mouthwash. A lot of people floss for three weeks at a time, often in January.

There are a lot of options for oral hygiene; variations of the above, and many alternatives too. This is a big topic, so rather than try to squeeze it all in one, this will be a several-part series.

The first part was: Toothpastes & Mouthwashes: Which Help And Which Harm?

How important is flossing?

Interdental cleaning is indeed pretty important, even though it may not have the heart health benefits that have been widely advertised:

Periodontal Disease and Atherosclerotic Vascular Disease: Does the Evidence Support an Independent Association?

However! The health of our gums is very important in and of itself, especially as we get older:

Flossing Is Associated with Improved Oral Health in Older Adults

But! It helps to avoid periodontal (e.g. gum) disease, not dental caries:

Flossing for the management of periodontal diseases and dental caries in adults

And! Most certainly it can help avoid a stack of other diseases:

Interdental Cleaning Is Associated with Decreased Oral Disease Prevalence

…so in short, if you’d like to have happy healthy teeth and gums, flossing is an important adjunct, and/but not a one-stop panacea.

Is it better to floss before or after brushing?

As you prefer. A team of scientists led by Dr. Claudia Silva studied this, and found that there was “no statistical difference between brush-floss and floss-brush”:

Does flossing before or after brushing influence the reduction in the plaque index? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Flossing is tedious. How do we floss without flossing?

This is (mostly) about water-flossing! Which does for old-style floss what sonic toothbrushes to for old-style manual toothbrushes.

If you’re unfamiliar, it means using a device that basically power-washes your teeth, but with a very narrow high-pressure jet of water.

Do they work? Yes:

Effects of interdental cleaning devices in preventing dental caries and periodontal diseases: a scoping review

As for how it stacks up against traditional flossing, Liang et al. found:

❝In our previous single-outcome analysis, we concluded that interdental brushes and water jet devices rank highest for reducing gingival inflammation while toothpick and flossing rank last.

In this multioutcome Bayesian network meta-analysis with equal weight on gingival inflammation and bleeding-on-probing, the surface under the cumulative ranking curve was 0.87 for water jet devices and 0.85 for interdental brushes.

Water jet devices and interdental brushes remained the two best devices across different sets of weightings for the gingival inflammation and bleeding-on-probing.

~ Journal of Evidence-Based Dental Practice

You may be wondering how safe it is if you have had dental work done, and, it appears to be quite safe, for example:

BDJ | Water-jet flossing: effect on composites

Want to try water-flossing?

Here are some examples on Amazon:

Bonus: if you haven’t tried interdental brushes, here’s an example for that

Enjoy!

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  • Anti-Inflammatory Cookbook for Beginners – by Melissa Jefferson

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    For some of us, avoiding inflammatory food is a particularly important consideration. For all of us, it should be anyway.

    Sometimes, we know what’s good against inflammation, and we know what’s bad for inflammation… but we might struggle to come up with full meals of just-the-good, especially if we want to not repeat meals every day!

    The subtitle is slightly misleading! It says “Countless Easy and Delicious Recipes”, but this depends on your counting ability. Melissa Jefferson gives us 150 anti-inflammatory recipes, which can be combined for a 12-week meal plan. We think that’s enough to at least call it “many”, though.

    First comes an introduction to inflammation, inflammatory diseases, and a general overview of what to eat / what to avoid. After that, the main part of the book is divided into sections:

    • Breakfasts (20)
    • Soups (15)
    • Beans & Grains (20)
    • Meat (20)
    • Fish (20)
    • Vegetables (20)
    • Sides (15)
    • Snacks (10)
    • Desserts (10)

    If you’ve a knowledge of anti-inflammation diet already, you may be wondering how “Meat” and “Desserts” works.

    • The meat section is a matter of going light on the meat and generally favoring white meats, and certainly unprocessed.
    • Of course, if you are vegetarian or vegan, substitutions may be in order anyway.

    As for the dessert section? A key factor is that fruits and chocolate are anti-inflammatory foods! Just a matter of not having desserts full of sugar, flour, etc.

    The recipes themselves are simple and to-the-point, with ingredients, method, and nutritional values. Just the way we like it.

    All in all, a fine addition to absolutely anyone’s kitchen library… And doubly so if you have a particular reason to focus on avoiding/reducing inflammation!

    Get your copy of “Anti-Inflammatory Cookbook for Beginners” from Amazon today!

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  • 52 Weeks to Better Mental Health – by Dr. Tina Tessina

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    We’ve written before about the health benefits of journaling, but how to get started, and how to make it a habit, and what even to write about?

    Dr. Tessina presents a year’s worth of journaling prompts with explanations and exercises, and no, they’re not your standard CBT flowchart things, either. Rather, they not only prompt genuine introspection, but also are crafted to be consistently upliftingyes, even if you are usually the most disinclined to such positivity, and approach such exercises with cynicism.

    There’s an element of guidance beyond that, too, and as such, this book is as much a therapist-in-a-book as you might find. Of course, no book can ever replace a competent and compatible therapist, but then, competent and compatible therapists are often harder to find and can’t usually be ordered for a few dollars with next-day shipping.

    Bottom line: if undertaken with seriousness, this book will be an excellent investment in your mental health and general wellbeing.

    Click here to check out 52 Weeks to Better Mental Health, and get on the best path for you!

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  • Green Curry Salmon Burgers

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    These lean and healthy burgers are as quick and easy to make as they are good for entertaining. The serving-bed has its nutritional secrets too! All in all, an especially heart-healthy and brain-healthy dish.

    You will need

    • 4 skinless salmon fillets, cubed (Vegetarian/Vegan? Consider this Plant-Based Salmon Recipe or, since they are getting blended, simply substitute 1½ cups cooked chickpeas instead with 1 tbsp tahini)
    • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
    • 2 tbsp thai green curry paste
    • juice of two limes, plus wedges to serve
    • 1 cup quinoa
    • ½ cup edamame beans, thawed if they were frozen
    • large bunch fresh cilantro (or parsley if you have the “soap “cilantro tastes like soap” gene), chopped
    • extra virgin olive oil, for frying
    • 1 tbsp chia seeds
    • 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
    • 2 tsp black pepper, coarse ground

    Method

    (we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)

    1) Put the salmon, garlic, curry paste, nutritional yeast, and half the lime juice into a food processor, and blend until smooth.

    2) Remove, divide into four parts, and shape into burger patty shapes. Put them in the fridge where they can firm up while we do the next bit.

    3) Cook the quinoa with the tablespoon of chia seeds added (which means boiling water and then letting it simmer for 10–15 minutes; when the quinoa is tender and unfurled a little, it’s done).

    4) Drain the quinoa with a sieve, and stir in the edamame beans, the rest of the lime juice, the cilantro, and the black pepper. Set aside.

    5) Using the olive oil, fry the salmon burgers for about 5 minutes on each side.

    6) Serve; we recommend putting the burgers atop the rest, and adding a dash of lime at the table.

    (it can also be served this way!)

    Enjoy!

    Want to learn more?

    For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:

    Take care!

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  • These Top Few Things Make The Biggest Difference To Health

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    The Best Few Interventions For The Best Health

    Writer’s note: I was going to do something completely different for today (so that can go out another week now), but when reflecting on my own “what should I focus on in the new year?” (in terms of my own personal health goals and such) it occured to me that I should look back on the year’s articles, to take our own advice myself, and see what most important things I should make sure to focus on.

    In so doing for myself, it occured to me that you, our subscribers who like condensed information and simple interventions for big positive effects, might also find value in a similar once-over. And so, today’s main feature was born!

    Sometimes at 10almonds we talk about “those five things that affect everything”. They are:

    1. Good diet
    2. Good exercise
    3. Good sleep
    4. Not drinking
    5. Not smoking

    If we were to add a sixth in terms of things that make a huge difference, it would be “manage stress effectively” and a seventh, beyond the scope of our newsletter, would be “don’t be socioeconomically disadvantaged” (e.g. poor, and/or part of some disprivileged minority group).

    But as for those five we listed, it still leaves the question: what are the few most effective things we can do to improve them? Where can we invest our time/energy/effort for greatest effect?

    Good diet

    Best current science consistently recommends the Mediterranean Diet:

    The Mediterranean Diet: What Is It Good For?

    But it can be tweaked for specific desired health considerations:

    Four Ways To Upgrade The Mediterranean Diet

    Other most-effective dietary tweaks that impact a lot of other areas of health include looking after your gut health and looking after your blood sugars:

    Making Friends With Your Gut (You Can Thank Us Later)

    and

    “Let Them Eat Cake”, She Said (10 Ways To Balance Blood Sugars)

    Good exercise

    Most exercise is good, but two of the most beneficial things that are (for most people) easy to implement are walking, and High-Intensity Interval Training:

    How To Do HIIT (Without Wrecking Your Body)

    Good sleep

    This means quality and quantity! We cannot skimp on either and expect good health:

    Why You Probably Need More Sleep

    and as for quality,

    The Head-To-Head Of Google and Apple’s Top Apps For Getting Your Head Down

    Not drinking

    According to the World Health Organization, the only safe amount of alcohol is zero.

    See also:

    Can We Drink To Good Health? (e.g. Red Wine & Heart Health)

    and

    How To Reduce Or Quit Alcohol

    Not smoking

    We haven’t done a main feature on this! It’s probably not really necessary, as it’s not very contentious to say “smoking is bad for everything”.

    WHO | Tobacco kills up to half its users who don’t quit

    However, as a side-note, while cannabis is generally recognised as not as harmful as tobacco-based products, it has some fairly major drawbacks too. For some people, the benefits (e.g. pain relief) may outweigh the risks, though:

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    Final thoughts

    Not sure where to start? We suggest this order of priorities, unless you have a major health condition that makes something else a higher priority:

    1. If you smoke, stop
    2. If you drink, reduce, or ideally stop
    3. Improve your diet

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    Meta-analysis of 15 studies reports new findings on how many daily walking steps needed for longevity benefit

    When it comes to sleep, if you’re taking care of the above things then this will probably take care of itself, if you don’t have a sleep-inconvenient lifestyle (e.g. shift work, just had a baby, etc) or a sleep disorder.

    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

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  • The Origin of Everyday Moods – by Dr. Robert Thayer

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    1. High energy, high tension
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    Click here to check out The Origin of Everyday Moods, and manage yours!

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  • The Worst Cookware Lurking In Your Kitchen (Toxicologist Explains)

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    Dr. Yvonne Burkart gives us a rundown of the worst offenders, and what to use instead:

    Hot mess

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    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

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