YSK: Flossing your teeth is only uncomfortable when your gums are unhealthy
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.
You are viewing a single comment
It's uncomfortable for my fingers. The floss eventually becomes tight and stops the blood.
There are tools for this! Little brackets with floss already in place (in several shapes, the floss straight, sideways, or in angle, long or short handle) or bigger ones where you can manually wind the floss around.
Deal: Dental Floss Picks, Clean Dental Flossers Kit (2 Handles&180 Extra Strength Refills) https://amzn.eu/d/gCGoSKg
I swear by this thing, although mine is made by Jordan who appear to have discontinued it. This seems like a good replacement.
This is more environmentally friendly than the disposable ones that come with a toothpick, as you only need to dispose of the tiny horseshoe shape thing when the floss snaps.
I also have one just like that. It's very similar to holding a toothbrush, so it's easy to use- especially if one has motor problems or other ailment/sensitivity in hands/fingers.
Try an EZ Floss. Their website is straight from 2005 but I've found these to work the best (after you get past the learning curve)
https://www.ezfloss.net/dental-products-all-patients/
It's a lot more plastic waste, but have you tried those fancy plastic sticks with dental floss on, I believe they are called "dental floss picks" in English? Makes it quite easy to floss, and they can be bought bulk pretty cheap, at least where I live.
My father had one you could thread floss onto yourself. Reusable.
I imagine that a floss pick is better than nothing, but string floss is the best way to go about it. Proper flossing technique requires you to be able to have a small amount of slack so that the floss can wrap around the contour of your tooth and slide past the "triangle" between your teeth. The floss picks are too taut to be able to do that adequately.
I'll also say that I completely agree with OP: picking up a good flossing regiment helped my mouth health immensely. It also helped improve my gum health and made my teeth feel "tighter" in my mouth, not like they were always a little bit loose.
My main issue with flossing is that when I try, the floss always get stuck and it becomes super hard to get it out and it makes me feel really uncomfortable. I find using water flossing a lot easier for me, even if it isn't as effective
I've had it get stuck in my teath before. A second string of floss seemed unable to find the right spot to go between the teeth to attempt to clear it. A trip to the garage to get some needle nose pliers did the trick.
The cheap ones I use do go a bit slack, but maybe that's just because the plastic is cheap and soft.