Will You Please Floss, Please?

We can talk all we want about getting kids to floss. It’s an ongoing battle and it takes years to develop the habit. Any parent will tell you that it’s sheer agony trying to get kids to stand still for 3 minutes, let alone thread a piece of floss through their teeth, often impacting what are likely sensitive gum lines. Any dentist will tell you, of course, that kids who start flossing earlier will retain that habit into adulthood and have longer-lasting teeth. They’ll also tell you that it’s about as hard to get grownups to floss as it is to get kids to floss.
How much do you like flossing? How often do you do it? It’s not the easiest task. In the end it doesn’t take a huge amount of time either but those few minutes spent flossing can seem like hours for some. Just under half of American adults floss every day but almost everyone knows the benefits of regular flossing. Would you like to be in the 49% that flosses every day? What would it take to help you refine your flossing habits? Did you know that there’s an app for that?
Coach.me will connect you with a coach that can help modify the behavior of your choosing. Coach.me was created by “human potential nerd” (he calls himself that) Tony Stubbleline. The goal, he says, is for the app to become a “little positive reinforcement robot.” As the app began to grow, data began to reveal that the benefits went beyond the tech-centric approach. Users added profiles and shared their progress on similar goals. They began to reinforce each other. The human connection proceeded to outweigh the technical tools and his app became a vehicle to connect people with like-minded goals.
You’ll be connected with a coach who will ask you to complete a survey about your goals and preferred methods of contact. One user’s coach helped him associate flossing with another task that he was already performing without fail. You still need to exercise personal discipline but now you’ve got someone adding a little social pressure to get out that floss and prolong your teeth.
You can try a free week-long trial to see if this is something that will work for you. After the free week it becomes $14.99 per week which is hardly nothing but compared to the benefits when you refine your flossing, that’s a steal!