Healthy gums don’t bleed, and are not painful to floss at all.
I’m in my 30s and only recently learned flossing technique and got my gums healthy. Flossing used to take so long and always involved a lot of bleeding no matter how delicate I was.
These days I’m absolute savage with floss and interdental brushes and never have any blood or pain.
Once you get your gums healthy you’ll be disgusted at yourself for ever not flossing. The amount of disgusting I can floss out on an almost daily basis is insane.
Plus you’re breath will not smell gross anymore.
It’s worth committing to the habit of flossing. Trust me.
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the people at the dentist react as if you just killed a baby and then did a victory dance. It’s very uncomfortable ;)
I hate that!
They’ve got you strapped down into that chair naked with that thing in your mouth that forces you to smile while they all stare at you and chant “Shame. Shame. Shame…”
I really don’t know why I keep going back.
Leaving a comment, so that in 3 and a half years time when you develop a humiliation fetish, you can look back and think of me.
Someone I know just got their teeth checked, first time in four years. The dentist was surprised at how clean and upkept their teeth were. They asked if he flossed his teeth and he said he has never done it in his life. They still shamed him.
It’s like dentist only know how to shame. I have yet to meet one that understands self-care is hard for people with ADHD/Autism. I’m doing by best and shame makes me give up.
Dental care is becoming a lot more compassionate with the newer generations of dentists. I’d recommend making a switch. Do a little shopping around and actually read the reviews on Google, etc. They’ll make it pretty clear who the good ones are.
Yeah well, my teeth were so tight you couldn’t squeeze any floss through. My dentists generally refused to believe it and one insisted on demonstrating. After squeezing very hard, he finally succeeded getting the floss through, at which time the floss immediately broke. Zero flossing actually occurred, the dentist was embarrassed and confused, and pretended it didn’t happen, and made no comment about what else I should do, since I CLEARLY couldn’t floss. Only result was I had a piece of floss stuck, and It took me weeks to finally get rid of that frigging floss thread from between my teeth.
Quite frankly, I’m more than a little tired of reading mundane advise for people with normal teeth, who probably know this already.
Yes people who have ordinary teeth, can use this common and obvious advise.
Same - I could never understand interdental brushes. How the hell was I supposed to get that between my teeth when even I waxed floss won’t fit? So I gave up and now use an electric toothbrush +waterpick when I can be arsed. My dentist is more than happy so I guess I’m doing ok.
Best motivation to floss? Do it once and smell the floss string after, our mouths are truly vile.
Started using a waterpick because of this post.
From many dental visits, pared down:
Brush light, floss hard. Some minor bleeding from flossing, weirdly, is actually ok. Just go easy on that spot until it’s not sore anymore, then ease into going hard again. These two things are mostly what will make getting poked with all that metal shit not bother you so much.
You only need to floss at night. You aren’t putting food in your mouth while you sleep.
Electric toothbrushes are legit improvements, not gimmicks. Get one if you can.
Waterpiks are a godsend
I try to avoid waterboarding myself when I can.
I have never flossed regularly in my life because I can’t stand sticking my hands in my mouth.
My dental hygienist says I do an amazing job at flossing.
I use a water pik.
My teeth are just really tightly togheter… I have absolutely no idea where an interdental brush would even go, it just bends and breaks if I try to push it between my teeth. Even getting the floss in there is already hard.
I also have tightly packed teeth and can barely use interdental brushes on just some of them. What works well however are dental floss sticks, you can get them with pretty thin floss(es?) and they’re way easier to use than plain floss.
I had to go to an unscheduled dentist visit once to remove some floss that was stuck between my molars. So much pain, and so much relief once they were able to remove it.
Might be a silly question but couldn’t you just use floss to remove a stuck piece of floss? That’s what I do when it shreds and gets stuck.
Believe me, I tried. I couldn’t get the floss between those teeth. The hygienist also had a lot of difficulty. It stopped being a problem several years later when I had a root canal on one of those problem teeth.
Use Pro-Glide waxed floss. Doesn’t get stuck like the cheap stuff
This was over 20 years ago so I don’t remember what kind I had then. But definitely go for the waxed floss now.
expanding floss feels so good.
I’ve never really flossed. Every time I go to the dentist they say I have otherwise perfect teeth and gums for my age. But I also don’t drink soft drink or alcohol, smoke, eat junk food or sweets and have basically never done so. Pretty much everything I eat is organic.
I use a good electric toothbrush though, so generally it feels like it should be enough. If I floss even as gently as I can my gums just bleed like crazy and there’s barely any space to move it around my teeth. If I do it at night I just wake up dried with blood all in my mouth.
EDIT: I have been thinking though about getting a water flosser or whatever they are called. At least to remove any debris the electric toothbrush missed, without (hopefully) the damage and bloody mess I get with floss string.
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Many body parts are still healthy with mid 30. Time will show you how the body breaks down.
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What are seatbelts? Seriously, though. I wear my seatbelt once every 6 months when I drive to the mechanic. Never any other time and I’ve NEVER been launched out of my windshield during a catastrophic 16 car pileup. Needing to wear a seatbelt is a conspiracy based on anecdotal evidence of one 32 yr old male (me) by big automobile to scare you into looking like a pussy.
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Lol downvote and move on.
P.S. if you call other people kids, the default assumption people make is that you’re actually a kid. Just giving some constructive feedback, buddy.
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Flossing is not done to prevent cavaties, but is done to remove plague. If you never floss, plague will build, your gums will become inflamed, your gums will pull away from your teeth and your jaw bone will deteriorate and at some point your teeth will become loose, painful and ugly. So if you want good teeth until old age you need to floss. Brushing only takes away 80% of the plague. Flossing removes the other 20%.
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Today I learned… Well, I’ll be flossing more often :)
