Argument54 [天道酬勤小组] 快来互拍 !!

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TOPIC: ARGUMENT54 - The following appeared in a newsletter on dental health.

"A recent research study reported the experience of dentists whose patients had, over a period of five years, regularly used Flux Dental Floss as part of their dental hygiene routine. The report indicates that these dentists had 50 percent fewer cases of gum disease than did dentists whose patients did not use Flux regularly. In addition, most of the Flux users who were surveyed by their dentists agreed that Flux's mint flavor would encourage people to floss more often. Thus, even though Flux may cost more than other brands of floss, it is clearly a worthwhile investment for those who want to be assured of healthy teeth and gums."
WORDS: 380          TIME: 00:27:00          DATE: 2007-7-24 下午 12:42:44

In this argument, the arguer asserts that it is worthwhile for people to purchase Flux Dental Floss in order to keep the healthy status of their teeth and gums. In order to bolster his assertion, the arguer cites the survey according to the experience of dentists to conclude that Flux would greatly contribute to the decrease indicants of gum disease. The argument seem tempting for the first blush, however, it relies on a series of unproven evidence and thus is not convincing as it stands.

First of all, the arguer fails to establish the causal relationship between the regular use of Flux and the less cases of gum disease where only correlation can be indicated. There may be other possibilities that contribute to the decrease indicant of gum disease when considering the fact that Flux is only involved as a part of the patients’ dental hygiene routine. Perhaps the regular use of tooth brush and special kinds of toothpaste as well as the frequent meeting with dentists for exanimation also help to prevent the gum disease. Failing to rule out the foregoing possible cases, the arguer can not access to the safe conclusion that the decrease in incidents of gum disease is result from the regular use of Flux.

Another flaw that weakens the logic of this argument is that the arguer does not provide sufficient evidence to inform us that the flavor of Flux can really encourage people to use floss more often. The mere fact that the majority of people in the survey are in favor of the mint flavor does not suffice to substantiate that all patients who care about their teeth and gums would also like such flavor. Maybe some of them are happened to dislike that odor which may lead to the counterproductive result against the arguer's recommendation. Even if people all prefer such odor, it is possible that other brand of floss also contain such flavor which may weaken the advantage of Flux. Hence the arguer fails to convince us that the mint flavor of Flux can exclusively attract patient to use it more frequently.

Moreover, the arguer still can not persuade us to buy the relative expensive floss of Flux is a worthwhile investment for those who want to protect their teeth and gums. As is mentioned in the survey, the result suggests that the Flux floss have efficacy on gum disease without any information relate to teeth disease. Thus the arguer can not convince us the Flux would have the same effect to protect tooth. In addition, the arguer also ignores the information of other brands of floss to compare with Flux. There is a good case that other kind of floss is lower in price and better in quality and thus overweighs the merits of Flux. So hardly can we draw the conclusion that the Flux floss is superior among the choices of floss for patients to assured of healthy teeth and gum.

In final analysis, this argument lacks credibility and can not be persuasive enough for patients to purchase Flux floss. To support the recommendation more effectively, the arguer should investigate the exact relationship between the regular use of Flux and the less cases in gum disease, provide more information regarding the accurate factors for people's preference for Flux and its distinctive merits, also compare Flux with other kinds of floss in order to prove it as the valuable investment for patients.