Benefits vs Costs of Flossing

There are many instances of weighing monetary costs and benefits, but here is an everyday example of a decision everyone has to make: floss every day, or accept the consequences of losing teeth.  When comparing marginal cost with marginal benefit, you have to know how much flossing, or even dentist checkups, affects how many teeth you will lose.  In this chart, it shows how many teeth remain naturally versus how many remain when the person gets regular checkups.  So what people have to decide is whether the time it takes to get checkups and floss is worth the couple of teeth that they will be able to keep in the long run.  In this, like other decisions, one has to take into account opportunity cost; what are you giving up to take the time to floss?  In 64% of cases of lost teeth, they attribute it to decayed teeth—which is a result of not brushing teeth-- whereas only 28% were from bad gums, which is caused by not flossing.  This link has more research and statistics regarding the issue:

http://www.nature.com/bdj/journal/v189/n11/full/4800840a.html

Caplan, Bryan. "The Marginal Tooth." , Bryan Caplan. Liberty Fund, Inc., 2012. Web. 15 Dec. 2012.

Adult Dental Health Survey: Total Tooth Loss in the United Kingdom in 1998 and Implications for the Future." Nature.com. Nature Publishing Group, 9 Dec. 2000. Web. 15 Dec. 2012.