Do I Really Have to Floss Every Day? Please Say NO!
Why do I have to floss? There’s GOT to be something I can do instead? What is the correct way to floss? What type of floss is best?
So, we are realists here.
Hygienists have been telling people to floss every day for years and years and years. Still, how many people have listened to us in the end?
About 10%…
People are busy! We just are. We ALL really want to floss perfectly, but life gets in the way and we just don’t do it.
So, we here at SODA, lowered our standards looooooong ago and started telling people something different.
We started telling our patients to floss Monday, Wednesday, and Friday! “Please, just do something! You’ll get the weekends off even!” we begged…
And what we found was this:
They did it! And it was better than the NOTHING that we were getting out of them beforehand!
When patients were told to floss every day, they just felt like failures and stopped altogether! It wasn’t working!
Hearing us give them PERMISSION to slack off, just set them on fire! We watched their mouths heal !!!
Everyone looked better, and some patients’ mouths even looked as if they DID floss every day! They looked so good that we couldn’t “yell at them” for anything!
Then, believe it or not, some patients even learned to love flossing and have become everyday flossers in the end!
So don’t feel like a failure anymore! Try it! It’s just common sense…
ANY flossing is better than NO flossing! It’s not an “all or nothing” thing. It’s a “something is better than nothing” thing!
But please, if you’re already an everyday flosser, don’t change. You’ve already reached ideal, and you are in the 10%! That is something to brag about and be proud of. You’re above the rest!
So what does the flossing do, really?
Floss was invented because your teeth are not all the way clean after you brush them…
You have disgusting, white, live bacteria in your mouth. It eats your food and then pretty much pukes on your teeth afterward.
The bacterial puke is an acid, and that puke is what causes cavities, gum disease, and bone disease. This disgusting stuff hides between your teeth too, and your toothbrush simply does not reach in there to get it all out for you.
You HAVE to get something in between your teeth to scrape it out, or…..you leave it there. Bad breath, cavities, gum disease, and bone disease results from that bacteria hanging around.
Toothpicks and those brushes that go in between your teeth are better than nothing, but they don’t clean under the gumline as floss does. They also just kind of “flick” the plaque off here and there, leaving a lot behind. Floss wins every time because the floss SCRAPES it off and reaches under the gumline where it hides.
Bleeding Gums are NOT normal…
If your gums bleed when you are flossing or brushing, it means that you have gum disease, also known as gingivitis. Bottom line. There will be no excuses, no debating. It’s a fact.
Healthy gums don’t bleed, even when you hit them hard with the floss.
If your gums bleed…
You…have…Gingivitis.
The way to make Gingivitis go away is by…
FLOSSING MORE!
It will take about 7 days, flossing and brushing correctly, for your gums to heal and the gum disease to subside.
The whole goal is to have NO bleeding when you brush or floss, and you can get there!!! It’s not too hard!
But the kicker is, you can’t quit after that, or it will come right back… Floss on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at least, to keep the gum disease away.
We know you’re still thinking this, though, so we have to squash it again... You really can’t floss too hard. That is NOT why you’re bleeding.
If you are flossing properly (continue reading below to learn the proper way), you should be able to floss vigorously, hitting those gums, without noticing any bleeding.
When people have healthy gums, hygienists can even DIG deeply during their dental cleanings, and the gums STILL don’t bleed.
Guess what else? It doesn’t hurt during their cleanings either, and some patients actually tell us to “keep digging” because it feels GOOD! We are not joking here!!!
It’s like this: Touching an infected cut on your arm.
If you touch the cut while it’s infected, it sure does hurt more than if you touch your arm when it’s all healed up and healthy right? The same goes for your mouth. Infected gums hurt more during dental cleanings and even when flossing and brushing.
In order for your gums to truly bleed from flossing, in a healthy mouth, you would have to saw back and forth a whole heck of a lot, eventually cutting your gums. This is NOT the right way to floss. Please don’t do it.
Many people floss this way, and we can see it when we look at their gums. There are actual SLITS or cuts in their tissue!
You’re not even scraping the plaque off the teeth if you’re sawing back and forth either. You’re not even touching your teeth. You are just slicing your gums as a saw does to a tree!
So, bottom line, if your gums bleed when you brush or floss, floss more…brush more….do what you need to do to get them clean and healthy. This may include getting your teeth professionally cleaned if you are overdue.
It’s very important to stay consistent with your thorough dental cleanings at your honest dental office.
Tartar contributes to gum disease as well.
Tartar is DEAD bacteria, stuck on your teeth like a rock, attracting more live bacteria to wreak havoc. Tartar forms from whatever plaque you miss, and you’re going to miss some. Once the bacteria turns into tartar, it can only be removed with the metal instruments that our dental professionals know how to use.
We’re not perfect. We need our dental hygienists.
Okay, the moment you’ve been waiting for. Here comes your guide to proper flossing!
You have to picture this in your head:
That nasty, soft, white, gunky bacteria…the white stuff you can scrape off your teeth with your fingernail… is STUCK on your teeth. It’s stuck on every side of every tooth.
The brush gets the outsides, insides, and chewing surfaces, but you have to get the floss in between.
The proper technique is key to removing as much of that live, gunky bacteria as possible.
It’s not just about popping that floss in and out in between your teeth.
If you simply pop it in and out, really quickly, you’ll grab some food chunks maybe, but you won’t be scraping that gunk off the sides
Here’s what you do:
Gently saw the floss back and forth UNTIL you get it in between your teeth, BUT DON’T SAW BACK AND FORTH ONCE YOU’RE TOUCHING YOUR GUMS.
Instead, pull the floss over to one side. Try to make a “C” shape around that tooth, then scrape UP and DOWN 5 OR MORE times on that surface!
Pull the floss to the other tooth, on the other side. Make that “C” shape, and scrape it up and down 5 times as well.
Again, it’s a UP and DOWN motion, NO sawing back at forth once the floss touches the gums. You’re only allowed to saw back and forth to get the floss in between your teeth initially.
Do this scraping, up and down, for each “interproximal” space in your mouth. (in between)
I know it sounds like a lot, 10 scrapes in each space, but we promise it goes quickly. Just picture that you need to SCRAPE that nasty gunk off of there! Go for 20 times if you feel like you need to! You want it to feel smooooooth. Get that gunk off of there!
Also, the more you can make that “c” shape with the floss around each of those teeth as you are scraping, the better. You’ll scrape more surface area that way and remove more bacteria gunk.
Tips and Tricks:
Wrap the floss around your MIDDLE fingers, NOT your pointer fingers. By doing it this way, you can then pinch it with your thumb and pointer fingers, so that you can maneuver it around your mouth much more easily.
Yes, you can use disposable floss picks. Scrape up and down with those, just the same. Push against the tooth behind. Pull against the tooth in the front. SCRAPE!
The best time to floss is whenever is most convenient for you. We just have to get you to floss!
However, if you MUST know the IDEAL time…
Night time is the ideal time to do your best cleaning. All of that bacteria builds up all day long, and your saliva helps fight it off for you.
Your saliva stops flowing as much while you are sleeping at night. So, picture that bacteria building up on your teeth all day and then being allowed to stay. It gets to have a party in your mouth all night long, forming cavities, and causing gum disease. The saliva isn’t there to help.
But please, don’t get caught up on flossing at night. Just floss whenever you can find the time.
Floss picks in the car work great while you’re sitting in traffic, as long as you’re a good driver. Floss while driving AT YOUR OWN RISK, and never with traditional floss that requires two hands.
But you still haven’t said the words! Please tell me that I can GET OUT of FLOSSING somehow…please !? There’s GOT to be another way!
We knew you’d still ask.
Confession….We, hygienists, have been known to get fooled a time or two. There ARE a few ways that patients have consistently come close to fooling us into thinking that they are flossing.
Nope, it’s not a toothpick. A toothpick is better than nothing, but it doesn’t fit in between where the teeth touch each other, and it doesn’t go below your gumline like floss does. Toothpicks miss the plaque that’s hiding under the gums, where it MUST be removed.
Nope, It’s not those “interproximal brushes” that we often like to call “christmas tree brushes.” They help push food out from in between (which is good). They help get SOME of the sticky plaque gunk off a LITTLE bit, as the bristles kind of flop through, but they’re not created equal to the floss. You’re still leaving the plaque behind, especially under the gumline, the place where it needs to be removed the most.
The closest thing that we have found to be ALMOST as good as floss itself is a…..WATER FLOSSER.
Water flossers have been known to create miracles and FOOL dental hygienists into thinking that you’ve been flossing.
We recommend the travel version often, which you can find in our Product Advice section here on the site.
With the travel version, you don’t have to keep that big tank on your counter all of the time. You can put it away if you like to keep your counters clear. Just don’t forget about it in that drawer!! You have to USE it to fool us!
Some electric toothbrushes, especially the vibrating types like Sonicare brand, have also fooled hygienists if used correctly.
Their vibrations seem to reach in between your teeth farther and better than manual toothbrushes do, vibrating a bit of the plaque off in the “floss department” as well. Electric toothbrushes also encourage you to brush longer, so that’s always a plus!
Lastly, a healthy diet reduces plaque buildup soo much as well!
All healthy diet expert suggestions lead to….more vegetables and fruit….more fish and chicken….less sugar and red meat. We aren’t going to tell you much different here.
We have watched it happen so many times, with all of the different fad diets out there. People who eat unhealthy in general, or people who go onto the high protein diets, find their dentists telling them that their mouths look….much worse.
The tartar buildup increases and is literally everywhere. The gums are bleeding. We’ve seen it over and over again with patients who are eating lots of protein bars and shakes. We haven’t pinpointed why this may be the case. We’ve heard it may have something to do with your body’s pH and the poor absorption of calcium and other minerals because of it.
All and all, it’s just a very clear observation that we’ve been able to connect over the years. Eat your fruits and vegetables, and limit the red meat proteins.
“Okaaaaaayyy, so if I have to floss, what kind of floss should I get?”
Does this mean that we have convinced you?! Right on!
We’ll break it down for you:
1. Yes, the disposable floss picks are great. Most people do best with these, actually, because they are much easier to use anywhere, anytime, and on the go. ANYTHING that will get you to floss is a WIN in our book!
If you want to purchase the best kind of floss picks, choose the ones that look “wishbone-shaped,” where the handle comes off the base of the “U” rather than the “p-shaped ones” with the handle coming off the side of the “U.” The wishbone style will help you reach the back teeth much more easily.
Plackers brand and Dentek brand are the tried and true favorites for these. They’re stronger and don’t break as easily. Don’t give up if you find a brand that breaks easily. Just try another brand until you find one that works for your teeth.
You can find the Plackers and Dentek brand flossers in our Product Advice section here on the SODA site. Just look under the floss section.
*Tip for responsible-minded people again: keep the disposable floss picks in your car and floss at the stop signs or while you’re stuck in traffic. You’ll floss for 20 min., and you’ll love every minute of it! You’ll never know the difference!
2. What is the best regular string floss? Anything!!! EXCEPT. . . I’m sorry. . .Glide floss. Many people love Glide because it is strong, and it slides between the teeth so easily, BUT it’s just too slippery in our experience. It is just too good to be true. It “glides” over the plaque, leaving it on your teeth!
It’s better than nothing we still say, but we’ve seen it over and over. Our patients have presented for their dental cleanings, SO excited to show the hygienist their beautifully flossed mouth, only to be told that it looks like they haven’t been flossing at all. We feel horrible!!! They are so proud of themselves, and we just squash all of their confidence!
We have not consistently seen this happen with any other type of floss besides Glide floss, but we still tell our patients that Glide floss is better than NO floss. They can always use it if they want to. They just need to scrape 20 times instead of 5, and put some extra muscle into it.
The SODA favorite universal floss is Listerine Ultraclean expandable floss. It’s strong, it works, and if it breaks, it just breaks. It doesn’t shred. Again, that’s in our Product Advice section too.
Just find what works for you, though, and be sure that you are using the correct flossing technique described above. Shredding and breaking the floss is inevitable. It’s going to happen. We just have to know that.
Our Product Advice section narrows down those that are worth purchasing. The choices can get confusing and overwhelming out there. Here is a snapshot:
Suggestions for brands and types:
for teeth with larger spaces in between: Dentotape is wonderful
for average flossers: Listerine Ultraclean “stretchy floss” is great (and doesn’t shred)
for braces and bridges: super floss pre-cut pieces are great
or just the good old waxed or unwaxed floss is tried and true. Generic Brands are just fine.
The best brands for floss picks are DenTek and Plackers. Be sure they are shaped like a wishbone or labeled for “back teeth.”
Extra knowledge if your bleeding continues:
If bleeding still occurs after proper flossing, ask yourself this question:
“Did I go see my honest dentist and get a thorough dental cleaning with the dental hygienist?”
You need to.
It’s extremely important to remove the DEAD bacteria, which sticks to your teeth like a rock. The live bacteria are called plaque. The dead bacteria is called tartar or calculus.
Once it’s dead, it can only be scraped off professionally with those special dental instruments. If you don’t get that done, it piles and piles and piles onto your teeth, collecting more live bacteria and causing gum disease and cavities.
If you don’t get a hold of the bleeding and gum disease, it will eventually travel down into your bone underneath and start to eat your bone away! This bone is what holds your teeth in your head, and you need to keep it !!!
If you start to lose the bone, you now have PERIODONTAL disease. It may be best for you to see a Periodontal specialist to get it under control. Guess what the first thing is that the Periodontist will tell you, though?
They will teach you the proper way to brush and floss!!!! They’ll have you get a thorough dental cleaning and suggest you maintain it more frequently, like every 3 months or so.
They may even recommend that you floss with YARN at this point! It’s the honest truth!
The answer to the prevention of all dental problems is to keep the bacteria out of there! It’s all about you! Start now to avoid it !!
If you don’t, the Periodontist may have to do surgery. The Endodontist may have to do a root canal. The Oral Surgeon may have to pull a tooth.
You are with yourself 365 days a year. The miracles happen with you.
Though it would be best if we did, we’ll never claim to know it all, all of the time. Nobody knows it all! We do claim honesty, though, and we sincerely want to help as many people as we can! Our patients have maintained beautifully, following our conservative recommendations :)
Thanks so much for reading and letting us spill our SODA! Remember to take the time to find your HONEST DENTIST, and be sure to browse around our links and follow us on social media for answers to more of your exciting dental questions, like:
