YSK: Flossing your teeth is only uncomfortable when your gums are unhealthy

“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.

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.

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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

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.

Nice try dentist

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

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.

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.

Do yourself a favour and buy some biodegradable floss picks. String is a fucking nightmare.

I have two permanent retainers in and I find flossing to be so difficult with it.

I'm also terrible with dental hygiene in general. I'm lucky if I remember to brush my teeth at least once a day.

Keeping a steady flossing habit has always been a struggle for me. This inspired me to give it another go. Thanks!

Dentists here (UK) stopped recommending flossing years ago. IIRC they actively discourage you from flossing. Instead the recommend interdental brushes

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.

I'm in my 40s and dealt with a lot of pain and gum recession because I didn't develop good habits as a kid. Parents, teach your children to floss. Gentle, compassionate dentists are not as easy to find as you might think. Your kids will suffer later in life if you don't emphasize good dental care.

Hello there, and welcome to our community! I hope you like it in here.

Could you please include some body text as to why should people know this, and how would that help them? It’s our second rule. Thank you :)

My dental hygienist told me that the best tools for cleaning your gums are wooden toothpicks.

the second best are the interdental cleaners.

The worst are the plastic toothpicks and the dental floss.

I've been using a combination of the wooden toothpicks and interdental cleaners for a few years and they are game changing.

Also use a good electric toothbrush and an tongue scraper.

An electric toothbrush gets into the places in between your teeth that a normal brush can't get to and an tongue scraper is a game changer for the smell of your breathe overall.

Take good care of your teeth and gums. Brush 2 times a day, clean your gums at least 1 time a day and scrape your tongue.

Bad dental hygiene and no gum cleaning whatsoever will lead to receding gums and may lead in extreme cases to periodontitis .

Receding gums are a real thing and when they happen they DO NOT grow back. Your roots of your teeth will be exposed which are a pain in the ass itself.

Bad dental hygiene and no gum cleaning will also lead to deeper "gum pockets" which can lead to periodontitis. Look up what that means for your teeth and gums and you will start taking care of your mouth flora like a possessed being.

I am not a dentist of any kind, a few years ago I just really took an interest in dental health and tried to educate myself about the subject for a few weeks.

Correct me where I am wrong or if you want to elaborate on something, be my guest ;)!

When my gums don’t bleed i turn the water pick up a notch

It's weird that I actually kinda enjoy flossing now ever since I started doing it consistently every night. There's something satisfying about getting all that gunk out.

This is the first year I flossed every single day and now I can't go to sleep without flossing and I'm 29. I don't know what clicked but I don't have any discomfort flossing and I'm sure my mouth appreciates it.

You could also use one of those water pick things that use a pressurised water jet to clean between your teeth. After I started using one regularly my dentist even remarked on how much better my gums were looking.

Are those waterflossers any good?

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When you first start flossing again am I the only one that thinks… it hurts so good?

Indeed. I started regularly flossing a few months ago, and it didn't take long before it stopped hurting.

That junk you get out when you floss actually smells just like bad breath. Might seem obvious but always good to keep in mind when you're feeling too lazy to floss.

I’m in my 30’s and have just started flossing regularly (thank God for no dental issues), and I’ve noticed so much junk that builds up in a day. I’m obsessed with it now and look forward to seeing all the junk removed from my teeth.

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

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.

Man I used to waterpik every single night, but they stopped manufacturing the tip that I liked and I can't find it anywhere (even on eBay).

It's a weak excuse I know, but I really think I'd get back into it if I could find the tips I liked.

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.

Thanks for this reminder.

That yes but I also discovered the quality of floss makes a big difference. I always used to choose cheapest until I discovered wax coated floss that really made a world if difference. No more breaking, shredding, stuck floss.

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.

Thank you for reminding me to floss! And all the reasons my teeth will fall out on their own….. I don’t floss

expanding floss feels so good.

Started using a waterpick because of this post.

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Yeah, I have noticed this too. I try to keep my teeth in good health and when I started flossing more regularly, I'd noticed I barely have any breeding. I'd bought an water flossing to try it so it become more of daily rather than twice a week type of affair.

I had a waterpik but it broke, so it's repurposed as a milk dispenser for the cat when we're away.

You only need to floss the teeth you want to keep.

Unless your German apparently? Aldi doesn't sell floss.

Exactly! And you can get yourself a Water Pik (or equivalent) for Extra Gummy Goodness!

Flossing > brushing. You need both but if I could only have one, it would be flossing.

Oh man. Here we go. Reddit has a huge pro-flossing bias and it's leaking over with all the refuges apparently. This gets me downvoted to absolute oblivion on reddit and likely will here as well, but I just want to remind everyone this is all anectodotal information. There's not strong evidence that you really need to floss, so don't let these flossers guilt you if it's not your thing. I'm maybe a bit of an anti-dentite I guess, but buzz feed did a nice article on this and many sources also picked up the ap newsfeed on the lack of scientific data for this commonly pushed practice :

https://www.buzzfeed.com/ishmaeldaro/this-is-our-watergate

Today I learned... Well, I'll be flossing more often :)

ok fine i have unhealthy gums. who gives a shit. trillions have lived and died with unhealthy gums. men rose to great power, built empires, changed the world with unhealthy gums