MetaChat - Do you floss?

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03 July 2007

Do you floss? →[More:]
I have a shameful secret. I don't floss. I want to be a person that flosses. I go for cleanings twice a year and my dentist says I have great teeth, and I'm a great brusher, but I need to floss! I always promise to, but never do.

I had my teeth cleaned this morning. I love my dentist. He's a one man operation, he does the cleaning himself. He gives handwritten receipts, and plays Irish folk music.

I'm buying some of those floss sticks today if it's the last thing I do.

post by: LoriFLA at: 11:05 | 30 comments

No.

posted by jonmc 03 July | 11:07

I have those floss sticks and I still hardly ever floss. I figure my gums will get plenty of exercise once all my teeth fall out.

posted by Atom Eyes 03 July | 11:08

I do. Every day. Feel weird if I don't. Started a few years ago after I was at the dentist for the first time in a long time, and the assistant woman said, "Ugh, you have gingivitis in your teeth!" while flossing with what felt like razor blades.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 03 July | 11:09

I only floss when I feel something stuck in my teeth.

posted by LunaticFringe 03 July | 11:10

while flossing with what felt like razor blades

ARGH.

posted by chrismear 03 July | 11:14

My teeth are very close together, flossing leaves floss stuck between my teeth. I do not floss. The hygienist always tries to suggest alternate tools. I prefer a toothpick, especially the one in my Swiss army knife.

posted by plinth 03 July | 11:16

Oh I used to floss like, 3 times a day. And then I cut back on my OCD :)

Now I do most nights, but not usually when I'm really tired. The big driving thing for me is that I *really* hate bad breath, and am paranoid about having it. Flossing helps. (health? bah! if it were purely a health consideration there's no way I'd do it nearly so often)

posted by gaspode 03 July | 11:16

not as often as I should, two or three times a week and mostly after something like steak!

posted by Wilder 03 July | 11:17

I wasn't raised to floss and now I am trying to teach myself to do it. It's hard going though, I have a 7! pocket which is apparently very, very bad so I *have* to start doing it. I do brush and rinse twice per day. The stick thingies sometimes make me gag, but they work for a lot of people so I'm still trying to do it that way.

posted by Sil 03 July | 11:18

I wasn't raised to floss, and unfortunately I've inherited super soft teeth with no enamel. I've had 5 root canals, barely have a tooth without a filling, and need to get my roots planed for the THIRD time. They've told me for decades that I must floss. And I tried. But it was never a natural habit for me so I couldn't keep it up. I'm the only member of my immediate family without dental implants and it horrifies me. Yet I just can't get myself to keep it up.

I hate that I know I'm going to have dentures someday. Hate it.

[Walks into the bathroom to floss]

posted by miss lynnster 03 July | 11:22

My teeth are really close together, so I have all kinds of trouble with floss getting stuck. My hygienist sympathized with me last time I went in and gave me some tips that've helped a bit:

- Try round, unwaxed floss: it's more prone to fraying than other floss, but it's usually the narrowest and easiest to get in between teeth.

- Floss the teeth, not the gums. Slide the floss down along the tooth down past the gumline and scrape against the tooth. Don't just stick the floss in and start sawing away: you're just cutting your gums up and doing nothing to reduce build-up.

- If you have close-set teeth, you probably have no trouble getting floss in, but getting it out results in frayed or broken floss.
Try looping one end of the floss once around your finger, then after you've worked the tooth, release the end of the floss and pull the floss out forward from your teeth, rather than trying to pull it up and out.

- It doesn't much matter when you floss, so keep floss where you most typically sit. I now keep some next to the couch and floss while watching crap TV.

posted by eamondaly 03 July | 11:25

After the torture of a major de-scale a year ago, I'm now diligent about flossing. But I have a small mouth (many would disagree) and found it hard to reach to the back teeth, which are fairly tightly spaced too. So now I use a 'flosser' on a long handle, which makes the job much easier. I also use those little interdental brushes too. And Arm & Hammer toothpaste, always Arm & Hammer.

posted by essexjan 03 July | 11:31

My floss of choice: Reach Gentle Gum Care with Fluoride. I can't always find it in NY, so I buy lots when I go home to FL!

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 03 July | 11:35

Confession - I generally don't floss, but I do wear a thong on Wednesdays.

posted by Hellbient 03 July | 11:43

"My teeth are really close together, so I have all kinds of trouble with floss getting stuck. ..."

Your hygienist must not know about Glide Dental Floss. The Gortex Company worked on this for a number of years, and the stuff is amazing. I have a number of gold crowns which are quite tight, and Glide is #1 by ten lengths, going away at the finish, for ease of use and durability while flossing.

Also, Butler Gum Massager Stimulator is a terrific tool for those who already have periodental pockets at the gum line. Working the rubber tip of a stimulator along the gum lines twice a day goes a long way to keeping plaque from building up, and pockets from enlarging/bleeding, beyond what simple flossing and brushing can do.

Also, Phillips Sonicare toothbrushes rawk.

Nothing sadder than dentures. I watched my parents struggle with them for years, and in the last couple of years of their lives, they'd given up on dentures, too, and only ate things that didn't require chewing. I begged them to let me take them to have new dentures fitted dozens of times, but they wouldn't hear of it. I'm sure that the dietary choices into which they drifted materially shortened their lives.

I lurves me some dental hygiene.

posted by paulsc 03 July | 12:05

i floss twice a day.

it almost makes up for the fact i don't go to the dentist (for no real reason).

posted by stynxno 03 July | 12:18

My teeth suck. I brush 2x a day, sometimes more often than that, floss every time I brush and use mouthwash... and I still have at least one cavity every single time I go to the dentist. So yeah, not skipping the flossing. I use these little things that come in a ziplock-style bag, they have little handles and a curved part on the end with a straight line of floss held tight, so you just push it between your teeth. Way easier/better than normal floss.

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 03 July | 12:20

I floss everyday, I was lax about both flossing and going to the dentist for a few years, and then I had to have a root canal and fillings in pretty much every molar.

Good times, good times.

posted by Capn 03 July | 12:50

Yes. I need to go to the dentist, too. Thanks for the reminder.

posted by safetyfork 03 July | 13:04

I didn't floss for years. Decades, really.

Then I spent thousands of dollars on braces and had both my jaws broken and reset to fix my bite, and I mysteriously turned into someone who flosses at least once a day, frequently twice.

In fact, the day I got my braces off, it felt so good to floss without having to deal with all those wires and brackets that I thought it might have even been better than sex. (matteo and I briefly considered starting a floss-porn website, but then realized that the market might be rather narrow.)

posted by scody 03 July | 13:16

Hardly ever.

posted by CitrusFreak12 03 July | 13:47

I floss once every night after I brush my teeth ever since I got my braces off about 7 years ago. I use those floss sticks. Some of my teeth are close together but I just deal with it.

posted by puke & cry 03 July | 13:58

I should also mention that I've tried different kinds of floss sticks and some of them shred almost immediately. I eventually settled on Plackers dental flossers.

posted by puke & cry 03 July | 14:01

Yes. Every day.

In one of my former lives I wrote dental health propaganda for a living. You Toronto bunnies might even have seen some of my exhortations on the subway a long time ago.

posted by tangerine 03 July | 14:25

Glide floss rocks. As does the Sonicare. If I could bring myself to find a new dentist and actually get a cleaning, I'd be smilin' pretty.

posted by jrossi4r 03 July | 14:51

Oh yeah, I have a sonicare elite. It cost like $150 but it's totally worth it.

posted by puke & cry 03 July | 17:53

Yes. Every morning. Notes Glide floss for future use.

posted by chewatadistance 03 July | 20:24

Gotta floss, at least I do. Because of my parents (Mom had bad teeth, Dad had perfect choppers), I have basically strong, healthy teeth but am prone to plaque. Now that I'm older, the plaque buildups that used to be harmless (if scraped regularly) are now threatening my gums.

No root canal for me, so floss it is (daily at bedtime, per my dentist's instrux).

posted by rob511 04 July | 00:33

I just started using mouthwash regularly. I floss infrequently, but I'll get there.

posted by Eideteker 04 July | 11:44

I floss like a motherfucker. I do a lot of floss. I jacked my mom with a semiautomatic for floss money.

I use Oral B mint satin waxed, it comes in a sparkly blue container. I have all my real teeth and get them cleaned twice a year.

Also I use a Philips Sonicare Elite. Because I am elite. An elite practitioner - of dental HYGIENE.

And I'm down with Warner-Lambert's pride, the O.G. of original orange mouthwashes, Listerine. Just like Joe Lister used to swish.

Thymol.

Hells yeah.

posted by ikkyu2 05 July | 19:38

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