You Should Know

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.

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.

Best motivation to floss? Do it once and smell the floss string after, our mouths are truly vile.

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.

Started using a waterpick because of this post.

“Take care of your teeth” is my go-to “old person’s advice to young people.” Once you realize that dentists can’t really “fix” (as in permanently fix) most problems with your teeth (that you get one set for your whole life), that 5-10 minutes a day to take care of them doesn’t seem like so much.

Seriously, once you have a cavity, there’s a pretty good chance that tooth will eventually become a crown or implant. Once a tooth cracks, it will eventually get worse and have to go. Dentistry is mostly preventative, and for the most part they can really only apply a band-aid to serious problems.

I didn't realize how uncomfortable my gums were until I started flossing. Now, if I don't floss for a couple days, it feels straght-up gross.

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.

Waterpiks are a godsend

Or if you're a neurodivergent with sensory sensitivities :'D

My biggest impediment before to flossing was just the time it took. I always held off on flossing until the end of brushing, my "routine" was to brush, then floss, BUT oftentimes I'd just brush first, consider it good enough and then just skip the flossing because, hey I already brushed, I'm good, right? Mentally I was done with the whole thing as soon as I finished brushing.

So I switched the order around and I floss first now, which seems to work better. I'm not actually "done" with brushing until I brush, so once I floss I can't just skip the brushing part. It's a small change, but it's helped me keep up a better routine.

Kind of a peripheral to this there are specialized toothpastes that I feel like a lot of people don't know about. I had some gum issues that also made flossing uncomfortable. My dentist recommended Crest Gum Detoxify which, when used along with regular flossing, got my gums right real fast. Basically one 6 month cleaning period of using the toothpaste and flossing regularly and now my gums don't bother me. Now I use two toothpastes. Gum detox in the morning and flossing with regular toothpaste in the evening. No more gum problems.

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.

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.