I told my dentist how much I liked my water flosser, and he immediately said "that's fine but it's not very effective, you still need to use regular floss too".

Came to post this. These things are frigging amazing and like $20. Absolutely everyone should have one. Really you can floss and brush and it still gets stuff. I wish they existed when I was younger! Buy one! Thank me later!

On the 'dentists don't really know what they're doing' front, my kid's orthodontist ($$$$) describes himself as a "fencing contractor". Conversely, I got the water flosser tip from an Indonesian dentist who I hired opportunistically on holiday for a clean; he turned up in flip-flops but decanted to bare feet during operating and gave the most sage advice I've ever had in 40+ years of dentists: BUY A WATER FLOSSER. Terimakasih, Doktor!

50+, terrible at brushing and oral hygene in general. Actually lived in the jungle for years, almost like a caveman. 25+ years without a single dentist visit. Was in Thailand last spring, went to a dentistry shop in the mall as a walk-in, paid about 45 dollars for a deep cleaning and panoramic x-ray. Other than some startlingly crunky plaque in the rinse and spit cycles, zero cavities, zero need for intervention. It all comes down to the microbiome. I blame the complete lack of 'antiseptic' mouthwash and other interventions that skew the microbial populations, combined with just plain good luck.

I refuse to use antibiotic soaps either. I reserve the tools of sterility for the space in front of my laminar flow hood and the like when preparing live cultures for cheeses and brews. I lived where fluoridated water was a practice during my early years when my teeth had formed - as that's actually when the flouride has the most impact...once the teeth are built, there's little effect from consuming flouride on the enamel.

Later in late grade-school I lived in a place where fluoridated water had not happened, and so the school was doing a routine annual flouride mouth rinse-and-spit routine in the class. Was a 'conscientious objector' causing some chagrin for the teachers, they would pass out the little cup of chemical brew and start the timer, while i just stared at the paper cup and got threatened with having to write "I will ...." sentences as punishment. Even that didn't really have any impact on my actions. Adding another hashmark by my name on the blackboard as a tally of pages of meaningless repetitive sentences which I would never actually do or turn in. That had zero leverage against my test scores or passing any subject. So what if I couldn't go out to recess to sweat on a bare dirt playground with zero swings or other appeal. Fine by me.

But, by 3rd grade I already had my own two-stage steromicroscope and was acutely aware of the need for balanced microbiomes in all of life, learning about soil and aquatic microbiomes from my grandfather. So, very much not the normal kid.

All that aside, my gums could use more care, so I'm trying to be more diligent and brush daily with salt, baking soda and the tiniest bit of fennel and mint oil. Its showing some improvement.

I am highly skeptical. In my younger years, I brushed regularly but did not floss at all. After dealing with a surprising number of cavities over a short period of time, I decided to just start flossing, morning and night.

Not only does flossing remove quite a bit of, er... stuff... that toothbrushing does not seem to get, I have not had a single new cavity in 25 years. The only issues I've had were old fillings falling out, including one that cracked my tooth which required a crown. Not a lot of work considering the time span.

Obviously one person is not "data" but seeing as I am that one person, I'm going to keep flossing.