Afraid of needles? In the future, you might get your flu shot with dental floss.

The days of needles and bandages for flu shots may be numbered. American scientists may have discovered a new way to administer vaccines: through a piece of dental floss placed between your teeth.

Researchers at North Carolina State University discovered that the tissue deep between the tooth and gum, the junctional epithelium, is ideally suited to stimulate the immune system. Applying a vaccine there triggered a robust immune response in mice.

Wondering if it's better to brush or floss your teeth first? Metro tells you here .

That ridge between the tooth and gums is special: it's porous and contains many immune cells. This makes it a perfect place to prepare the body for viruses that enter through the mouth, nose, or lungs, such as the flu or COVID-19.

For the experiment, the researchers used regular dental floss coated with a vaccine. Mice flossed with this developed more antibodies in the mucous membranes of their nose and lungs than mice administered the vaccine through the tongue. And it worked not only with flu vaccines, but also with mRNA and protein vaccines.

Of course, it's difficult to get people to use vaccine thread themselves. That's why the researchers also tried floss picks: the familiar plastic toothpicks with a thread. A test with human participants showed that 60 percent of the active ingredient was delivered precisely to the right spot. The researchers find this promising.

Besides the scientific success, there's another advantage: you don't need a needle. This makes this method particularly attractive for people with a fear of needles, and perhaps even for home use. It should also be just as affordable as other vaccinations.

Before that happens, some questions still need to be answered. For example, it's uncertain whether this method works for people with gum problems, which can be identified this way . Young children without teeth are definitely excluded. So there's still some work to be done, but the discovery is remarkable nonetheless. After all, who would have thought you'd ever get your flu shot between your teeth instead of in your upper arm?

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