--- title: Dental Floss: Do I Need to Use It? description: If you followed dentists’ orders, you spent about 730 minutes last year—or more than half a day!—shoving waxed string between your teeth canonical: https://time.com/4435007/dental-floss-time-research/ author: Kate Samuelson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-02T15:18:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T09:58:44.534Z article:section: Health og:title: Here's How You Wasted 732 Minutes Last Year og:description: A review of the evidence suggests flossing is a waste of time. og:url: https://time.com/4435007/dental-floss-time-research/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7a94519fc9d157c6/6988a0c1656a3f2a2bbcc9a7/dental-floss-waste.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Tangled Dental Floss og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's How You Wasted 732 Minutes Last Year twitter:description: A review of the evidence suggests flossing is a waste of time. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7a94519fc9d157c6/6988a0c1656a3f2a2bbcc9a7/dental-floss-waste.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's How You Wasted 730 Minutes Last Year by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Aug 2, 2016 3:18 PM UTC  Tangled Dental Floss Tangled Dental FlossNicholas Eveleigh—Getty Images by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Aug 2, 2016 3:18 PM UTC If you followed dentists’ orders, you spent about 730 minutes last year—or more than half a day!—shoving waxed string between your teeth. But a growing body of evidence suggests all the flossing is a waste of time. A [TIME article last year](http://time.com/4089057/dental-floss-flossing/) drew attention to a [2008 review](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19138178) of the existing research on flossing, which found the standard advice to floss in order to prevent cavities and gum disease was “not supported by scientific evidence.” [Another review](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22161438) from 2011 concluded that flossing may modestly reduce your risk for inflammation of the gums (gingivitis), but doesn’t fight plaque, which causes cavities. And now, in [a letter to the Associated Press](http://time.com/4434863/dental-flossing-benefits-evidence/), the government acknowledged that the effectiveness of flossing has not been properly researched. So, do you really need to keep flossing? [As TIME wrote last year](http://time.com/4089057/dental-floss-flossing/): --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4435007/dental-floss-time-research/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4435007/dental-floss-time-research/"},"headline":"Here's How You Wasted 730 Minutes Last Year","datePublished":"2016-08-02T15:18:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T09:58:44.534Z","description":"A growing body of evidence suggests it's a waste of time.","url":"https://time.com/4435007/dental-floss-time-research/","keywords":["Dentist","teeth"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7a94519fc9d157c6/6988a0c1656a3f2a2bbcc9a7/dental-floss-waste.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kate Samuelson","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7a94519fc9d157c6/6988a0c1656a3f2a2bbcc9a7/dental-floss-waste.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Tangled Dental Floss","caption":"Tangled Dental Floss","creditText":"Nicholas Eveleigh—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4435007/dental-floss-time-research/","name":"Here's How You Wasted 730 Minutes Last Year"}}]}] ```