The article says no studies show that flossing has any effect on tooth decay. But what about gingivitis? I know it's anecdotal, but since I started flossing regularly, I've noticed a drastic reduction in the amount of times I get inflamed gums.
But they do give you date-rape drugs under incredibly monitored conditions, and then you wake up at home and spend a few weeks poking the stitches with your tongue!
Floss your teeth, kids, and brush them regularly.
(http://summaries.cochrane.org/CD008829/flossing-to-reduce-gu...)
> Twelve trials were included in this review which reported data on two outcomes (dental plaque and gum disease). Trials were of poor quality and conclusions must be viewed as unreliable. The review showed that people who brush and floss regularly have less gum bleeding compared to toothbrushing alone. There was weak, very unreliable evidence of a possible small reduction in plaque. There was no information on other measurements such as tooth decay because the trials were not long enough and detecting early stage decay between teeth is difficult.
An analogy: Whenever you bath with soap, you remove a layer of oil off your skin - a layer that your body puts there to keep you moisturized and hydrated. If you bath and soap too often, your skin will suffer, not improve, even though you're "cleaning" your skin.