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by civilian 3613 days ago
Bullshit. Some people have halitosis, some people just don't brush regularly. There is one of my coworkers who occasionally has really bad breath, but it's not clear that he just missed a flossing.

Source: I have a hygiene pact with a coworker. (If either of us ever smells or has a bad appearance, we're pact-bound to tell the other.) I floss twice a year: 48 hours before my dentist appointments, the times I've had bad breath have not been flossing related.
4 comments
scotty79 3612 days ago
Look up origin of halitosis. It's just a name for bad breath made up by Listerine, not actual illness.
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washadjeffmad 3612 days ago
Sure, there's more than one cause of breath odor, and one of those is perio, the prognosis of which is improved by regular flossing (and other oral therapies). Morning breath doesn't reek the same way perio breath does, and it's a world of smells and other issues that are hard to forget.

The truth of the research is that flossing doesn't significantly contribute to oral health when done alongside adequate manual brushing- diet, hygiene habits, and personal chemistry accounted for. That's not new info; clean is clean.

However, most people don't brush adequately or frequently enough and aren't using good electric brushes, so flossing does help them.

And it sounds like you've been really lucky so far, but don't rely on odor as an indicator of your health. By the time you can smell a lot of things, they've been problems for a while.

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gurkendoktor 3612 days ago
> I have a hygiene pact with a coworker.

Huh, that's a cool idea :) Is that common (under another moniker maybe)? I can't find anything on Google. Just proposing such a pact can probably be tricky, but I've been thinking about something similar recently.

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civilian 3612 days ago
We were fast friends and one of us was bold to make fun of the spilled food on the other's shirt, and it led to "oh man I'm glad you told me before I walked into that meeting" which led to "oh yeah let's always do this."
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clifanatic 3612 days ago
> I've been thinking about something similar recently.

"Hey, dude, do you want to have a personal hygiene pact? Ok, great, because I have something to tell you..."

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clifanatic 3612 days ago
> I floss twice a year

Dude, I can smell your breath all the way here in Texas.

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