Just this week the biggest news has been that you don’t have to floss your teeth or that doing so doesn’t prevent cavities and gingivitis after all.

Again I see in this news a link to mental health treatment just like I linked the perils of developmental aid to mental health agencies.

As the teacher and mentor for the Peer-to-Peer recovery education course years ago I told the people taking the course that “You are the expert on your own recovery.”

This is because each of us is the expert on our own life.

I’ll talk here about flossing teeth in this blog entry and then continue in this vein in the coming blog entries.

First of all, I’ve rarely flossed my teeth. I’ve always thought that what you eat and whether you brush your teeth accounts far more for the health of your teeth.

Consuming sugar will erode your tooth enamel.

And sometimes it’s just plain luck: I once bit into a hard piece of cheese and chipped the inside top of two lower teeth. It cost me $422 to have the teeth bonded.

“You’re lucky you didn’t need caps,” the receptionist said after I emptied my wallet to pay the dentist. “That would’ve cost a thousand.”

No kidding. In 10 years, I’ve had only one cavity.

The only purpose I see in flossing my teeth is to have a beautiful smile.

Having broccoli stuck between your teeth is not attractive.

So I’ll floss my teeth when I go out to remove the gunk between my teeth.

That’s about it: vanity counts more than health for me when it comes to flossing my teeth.

I kid you not.

This tale hints at why I think it pays to take what some experts say with a grain of salt. I’ll talk about this more soon.