Recently I read that flossers who use waxed minted floss like Oral B have higher rates of certain type of cancers due to the chemical that the floss is coated with. Does this scare you? What alternative would you use?

No, it doesn’t scare me. You can google anything and someone will say it causes cancer. You’ll hear people say they don’t use any chemicals on their hair/skin or in their house, but the truth is everything is a chemical. Water, air, etc. and what you’ll also hear is that they’re using things like coconut oil for their cleanser and moisturizer not knowing that the oil is extremely compogenic (pore clogging) or essential oils on their face. It’s great to be aware of what you ingest, apply, or use but you also have to research ingredients from a non biased source. Fear mongering is a thing.

If you are worried about cancer, check your family's medical history. Genetics has a lot to do with that. Also, eat well and exercise. Don't waste your time worrying about your floss. You aren't even ingesting it are you? Be realistic, a lot of times those "linked to cancer" claims have very unstable and inconsistent studies associated with them. They also use a astronomical amount of the chemical to make their point. I'm going to guess if you ingested a pound of floss a day then yes, the wax coating would negatively affect your health. Just floss your teeth with whatever floss you want and stop worrying about it.

It does not scare me at all, not convinced about the science behind this and even if it were a risk factor, the added risk would be very low. Alternative is a tooth pick.

Thank you for your question- you may have saved my life!! From what I read, the alternative is to use natural dental floss, such as tea tree oil floss. Tom's brand is a pretty safe bet, though I heard the floss was thick. Hope this helps!

I'm careful about anything like that. I don't use coated floss. Yes, I think it's something to be scared of. A lot of stuff is also made in China and hazardous to our health.

I actually did not realize this and kind of didn’t think about the possibility of chemicals on floss but that makes sense and yes it would scare me. I would do a search for a company that sells organic oral care products online or visit my local health food store and look for a more natural alternative to honor my health

It does not scare me. Everything and it's cat can give me cancer. Just choose whatever works for you.

If you need an alternative, how about a thin wire?

Our tooth picks

Studies showing a product I use contains toxic industrial chemicals linked to health issues like cancer is definitely alarming! It's the nonstick coating on the floss that's been shown to contain this chemical class, known as PFAS. I've been doing some research on healthier alternatives, and have a few in mind to try. The first I'm going with is Dr. Tung's Smart Floss, which uses a natural plant and beeswax coating. It's highly rated, but there are also less expensive alternatives with good reviews.

Never heard that before. How could you pick a brand and blame its products for cancer? I will sure look for an alternative.

Yes this does scare me a little bit. I would look for alternative floss with less of a chemical coating. But I don’t know what is available so I would need to do some research.