A simple oral hygiene habit may be the key to a longer life. Flossing regularly was linked to lower all-cause mortality in individuals, including among those with gum disease, according to a large study recently published in the Journal of Dentistry.
However, the results are observational and should not be construed as evidence that flossing directly lowers mortality, the authors wrote.
“Clinically, this reinforces flossing as a simple, low cost preventive habit,” wrote the authors, led by Dr. Kai-yan Wang, of The Fourth Military Medical University in Xi’an, China (J Dent, May 26, 2026, 106793).
Though the advantages of regular flossing have been well documented, it's unclear whether this oral hygiene habit confers additional benefits for overall health improvement. Therefore, researchers examined the potential link between flossing frequency and all-cause mortality. Also, correlations between gum disease and flossing behavior with mortality were evaluated, according to the study.
To explore flossing’s effect on mortality risk, data for 10,609 patients from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2009-2014 were analyzed. Documented gum disease status and flossing behavior were analyzed. Hazard ratios were estimated via inverse probability of treatment weighting and Cox proportional hazards regression, the authors wrote.
A nearly 30% lower mortality risk was linked to flossing (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.704; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.583 to 0.849; p < 0.001). Further analysis revealed an inverse dose-response correlation between the frequency of flossing and mortality risk, with HR declining to 0.675 (95% CI, 0.674 to 0.676; p < 0.001) for daily flossing, they wrote.
Patients with periodontitis who didn’t floss had the highest mortality risk (HR=3.508, 95% CI, 2.475 to 4.971, p < 0.001). However, those with gum disease who flossed showed an attenuated hazard (HR=2.329; 95% CI, 1.676 to 3.236, p < 0.001), the authors wrote.
There were limitations with the study, including that patients self-reported their flossing behavior, and the duration of the habit before this study was not known, they wrote.
“The large-scale longitudinal study ascertained the inverse dose-response association between flossing frequency and all-cause mortality,” Wang and team wrote.
