General information only, not medical, legal, tax, or investment advice. Consult a qualified professional.
Brush, and clean between the teeth once a day
In one line
A Japanese follow-up found slightly fewer deaths among people who used floss or an interdental brush. Older adults with few teeth left were on the higher-death side. That does not prove the floss caused the difference.
What it costs
Floss or an interdental brush is a small yearly cost. Two or three minutes a day.
What you get
The Japanese follow-up cited in the book found about 10% lower mortality among people who cleaned between their teeth. Another review found higher mortality when few teeth remained. Both can be mixed up with the rest of a person’s health and income.
How strong the evidence is
Source
Oral-health follow-ups cited by book item 2-10.
Watch-outs
The book marks this as disputed. Nobody has measured whether replacing a missing tooth lowers deaths. Seeing a dentist is about being able to eat, which is the book’s judgment call.
Adapted from HowToLiveBetter item 2-10.
Next habitRelated
Best valueDon’t starve or purge to control weight
People with anorexia nervosa died at about 5.9 times the rate of their peers. Long stretches of severe dieting made an eating disorder much more likely. Moving more is the safer side of weight control.
Quit smoking. Sooner keeps more years
A U.S. study reported that people who kept smoking lived more than 10 years less, on average, than people who never smoked. Quitting before 40 avoided most of the extra risk of death from continuing.
No smoking in the home or the car
About 600,000 deaths in 2004 were attributed to secondhand smoke, and roughly 3 in 10 of those deaths were children. Home is where people breathe it the longest.