Do you know how to floss your teeth? Oh sure, how hard can it be, right? You take a length of dental floss, jimmy it between your teeth, try not to get the gums to bleed too much, and in the end call it flossing. Wrong! There is more to flossing than meets the eye. Read on and learn how to floss your teeth correctly.
Flossing Correctly Starts at Your Dentist’s Office
There are more dental floss products than you can shake a stick at. Discuss with your dentist which kind of dental floss is the right product for you. Teeth with tight fitting spaces require tape rather than regular floss, while others who have a hard time reaching the back teeth will greatly benefit from dental flossers.
Size Matters: 18 Inches is the Magic Number
You may hear a number of suggestions about how much floss you should use, and for the sake of saving money, you may be tempted to use as little as possible. Do not skimp but listen to the experts! The American Dental Association (ADA) suggests that you should use 18 inches of dental floss. So go ahead and twist off 18 inches of floss.
Spin Me Right Round, Baby, Right Round …
Holding on to the floss with your fingers is virtually impossible. Once they become wetted down with saliva, the floss becomes rather slippery. Instead, wind a bit of the floss around your index or middle finger of one hand, and the remainder also around the index or middle finger of the other hand, leaving a small length of floss exposed in between your hands. Do not wrap the floss too tightly around your finger! If the tip turns blue, you need to loosen the strand.
The goal is to use the floss, then let the finger with the shorter length of floss wind up the used portion, allowing you to let some of the unused portion from the finger with the longer length of floss make up for the discarded length. This prevents any transference of removed plaque and bacteria from one space in between your teeth to another.
Gentle Scraping Does the Trick
You can tell the part timers from the pros by the amount of blood they draw when flossing. Part timers try to make up for their lack of consistency with an increased vigor. Full timers know that it is the motion of the ocean, not the aggressiveness of the procedure that makes the difference.
Thread the dental floss between your teeth, and gently move it back and forth, trying to dislodge any plaque and debris. Do not go below the gum line. Take your time. If you do see blood, you went too far and it pays to learn from the mistake.
Scrape along the sides of both teeth and then pull up the floss. Remove any plaque and roll the used floss over the finger of the one hand while unrolling some floss from the finger of the other hand. Continue in this manner until you have cleaned the spaces between all of your teeth and also behind the very last tooth.
Still Confused?
Do not let initial bleeding or difficulty in finding what works for you discourage you from flossing your teeth once a day on a daily basis. Visit the Dental Picture Show for an animated set of flossing instructions and before long you, too, can turn from a part timer into a pro.
Sources: http://www.ada.org/public/topics/cleaning_faq.asp#4; http://www.dental-picture-show.com/tooth-flossing/a1-dental-floss-technique.html
