ArticleThe journal of evidence-based dental practice2017
In Defense of Flossing: Part II-Can We Agree It's Premature to Claim Flossing Is Ineffective to Help Prevent Periodontal Diseases?
Article in The journal of evidence-based dental practice, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Impact of video instructions and additional hands-on instructions on the dental flossing performance - an observational study.Clinical oral investigations · 2024Trial
- Individual, familial and country-level factors associated with oral hygiene practices in children: an international survey.BMC oral health · 2023Article
- Executive functioning as a moderator of flossing behaviour among young adults: a temporal self-regulation theory perspective.Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2023Article
- Flossing Is Associated with Improved Oral Health in Older Adults.Journal of dental research · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Periodontal diseases are complex, multifactorial disorders. Effective daily plaque control promotes gingival/periodontal health. Recent meta-analyses and other reviews have found inconclusive evidence to support that tooth flossing promotes gingival/periodontal health. Ideally, the claim should have been that, "at present, we do not have high-quality evidence from well-designed randomized clinical trials to determine whether flossing lowers the risk for periodontal diseases." Rather than "not proven to be effective," the lay public may now think that flossing is "almost entirely unhelpful and/or unnecessary." How does the dental community communicate the nuances of this topic? Herein, we examine the key structural issues underlying this area of research. We assert that effective flossing between specific teeth can promote gingival/periodontal health. Furthermore, we explore the nuances for whom this may be true and untrue, why our evidence is lacking, and what can be done to clarify the effectiveness of flossing on clinical outcomes.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.