I’d grown up using floss that was made of a thin strand of wax, in order to clean between my teeth, and I just assumed that it was the best kind. But after I had a crown put in to cover a chipped tooth, it became very painful to floss with waxed floss because the crown was so tightly placed in my mouth. Tired of my gums becoming sore or bloody because of the floss I decided to buy a different brand. I saw the Oral-B Satin Floss in a drugstore one day which claimed to be comfortable and softer on gums so I gave it a try.
It’s not made of wax instead the Oral-B Satin Floss is made out of a fairly thin and soft plastic. After using it I noticed that it cleaned between by crown with a lot less pain and effort than using my old floss had, and I thought it was great. After my crown was removed a few months later, I kept using the floss and my mind started to change about it.
Even though the Oral-B Satin Floss had helped me a lot when I had my crown, I realized that it really wasn’t that gentle on gums. In fact, even though the edges of the floss seemed soft, it felt hard and inflexible on my gums. It also felt the same way in my hands, and it wasn’t that easy to maneuver it, especially between the spaces between the teeth in the back of my mouth. If I moved the floss across them too quickly or too firmly it would hurt and my gums would feel sore and irritated. Even when I was gentle, if there were big pieces of food stuck between my teeth, the plastic was so hard that it would bust through the food and hit my gums sometimes causing them to bleed.
I also found that while it got the job done and it did remove food particles from between my teeth, my mouth didn’t feel as clean as I would have liked it to. Another downside to the Oral-B satin floss was that it always became slippery as it became inevitably wet, since it was made of plastic, so I’d sometimes lose my grip on it and my hands would feel gross. So I decided to switch back to the waxed floss that I was using.
When I went to back to buy my old brand, the Reach Cleanpaste Floss in the Icy Mint Flavor caught my eye because it wasn’t made of wax or plastic. Instead it resembled yarn to me (it looks like a thin strand of green yarn twisted with a thin strand of blue yarn). I read that it was infused with a toothpaste-like formula and the package stated that it was like brushing between teeth. I thought it’d be better for my teeth so I decided to buy it.
I got it home and tried it later on in the evening and I loved the way it felt. First of all the Reach Cleanpaste Floss is gentle and it doesn’t feel like a hard surface is being on my gums as it did with the Oral-B Satin Floss, or even waxed flosses. I can be as gentle or as firm as I’d like, with the Reach Cleanpaste without my gums being hurt.
It’s also easy to maneuver between my teeth especially because saliva gets absorbed by the Reach Cleanpaste Floss. I notice that after I’ve used it the floss swells a bit, so it’s not slippery and I don’t lose my grip on it. The best thing about the floss though is the Cleanpaste formula, it’s noticeable on the floss when it’s in the package and it looks as if the green and blue strands are speckled with tiny white flakes of icing.
As I clean between my teeth the Cleanpaste leaves behind a minty clean feeling. When I’m done flossing my whole mouth it feels alive, my breath smells fresher and my gums feel so clean. It’s a great sensation that I haven’t had with any other floss, and it actually makes me look forward to flossing at night, sometimes even twice a day because my gums feel like they’ve been given a massage.
I give the Oral-B Satin Floss 2 out of 5 stars, and I’d recommend it to people who have very tightly spaced teeth or who can’t stand for their floss to fray (it doesn’t since it’s made of plastic). I give the Reach Cleanpaste 5 out of 5 stars, and will never use any other floss. I think it’s the best one around and it will make your mouth feel so good that you’ll want to floss more. The only thing that might deter some people is that it’s for average to wide tooth spaces, so if you have tightly packed teeth you might encounter a bit of difficulty with it. Sometimes I have to use a bit more effort to floss in between some of my teeth, but it’s really flexible and soft so it’s not that difficult, and the reward of a tingly mouth is worth the effort.
