My dental hygienist actually explained it to me one time.
It has nothing to do with “toughening up your gums” like I used to think. Food gets trapped, bacteria grows, and your gums become inflamed to combat the bacteria. So now your gums are constantly full of blood protecting you from infection and when you do floss (or someone flosses for you), they’re going to bleed a lot.
I started flossing habitually every night and wouldn’t you know it I’ve only ever bled or felt pain from flossing when I miss some stupid popcorn shell thats wedged itself down low (which also goes to show, you don’t event need to do a particularly good job flossing for it to work 99%)
A bonus tip for folks that don’t like garotting their fingertips every night by wrapping them in 6 loops of floss just to get some tension: tie a short piece into a loop, double knotted, and you just pull the loop tight between two fingers. No finger pain, no extra appliance, and it uses less floss.
Extra bonus tip: get proper butlerweave floss. The plastic ribbon bullshit is absolute nonsense. Like trying to wash dishes with a zip lock bag…
There are some pretty good studies showing flooding might actually not do all that much and that fluoride is like only really important thing. It’s kind of wild. Some show that swishing mouth was is just as good or water picks too. Long of why you always get different opinions from different dentists.
Science VS did an episode on the same subject too.
I didn’t slack off after the research but it was interesting none the less. Its in my routine so whatever.
Truth. 3 years ago my “New Years Resolution” was to floss every day.
I knew I was going to have to make it obscenely easy to do in order for me to stick with it.
I do a suuuuuper quick run through every morning with a disposable pick BEFORE I brush, and my annual dental visits since have been night and day. I really don’t even have to try very hard and my gums don’t bleed anymore either!
Its about taking better care of your mouth - not perfect care.
They also don’t really explain growing up that the floss is supposed to go slightly under your gums, between the tooth and gums where brushes don’t get, NOT just getting food from between teeth, but literally under the gum edge.
Another tip is to use interdental brushes, never thought I was able to use them properly until I watched a video about it.
Was a pain for the first two weeks and got bleeding gums every time, since then no problems at all, I use them in the morning and evening and floss once a day.
My dental hygienist actually explained it to me one time.
It has nothing to do with “toughening up your gums” like I used to think. Food gets trapped, bacteria grows, and your gums become inflamed to combat the bacteria. So now your gums are constantly full of blood protecting you from infection and when you do floss (or someone flosses for you), they’re going to bleed a lot.
I started flossing habitually every night and wouldn’t you know it I’ve only ever bled or felt pain from flossing when I miss some stupid popcorn shell thats wedged itself down low (which also goes to show, you don’t event need to do a particularly good job flossing for it to work 99%)
A bonus tip for folks that don’t like garotting their fingertips every night by wrapping them in 6 loops of floss just to get some tension: tie a short piece into a loop, double knotted, and you just pull the loop tight between two fingers. No finger pain, no extra appliance, and it uses less floss.
Extra bonus tip: get proper butlerweave floss. The plastic ribbon bullshit is absolute nonsense. Like trying to wash dishes with a zip lock bag…
There are some pretty good studies showing flooding might actually not do all that much and that fluoride is like only really important thing. It’s kind of wild. Some show that swishing mouth was is just as good or water picks too. Long of why you always get different opinions from different dentists.
Science VS did an episode on the same subject too.
I didn’t slack off after the research but it was interesting none the less. Its in my routine so whatever.
Quote for visibility. Even a 1-minute runthrough is 99% there.
Truth. 3 years ago my “New Years Resolution” was to floss every day.
I knew I was going to have to make it obscenely easy to do in order for me to stick with it.
I do a suuuuuper quick run through every morning with a disposable pick BEFORE I brush, and my annual dental visits since have been night and day. I really don’t even have to try very hard and my gums don’t bleed anymore either!
Its about taking better care of your mouth - not perfect care.
They also don’t really explain growing up that the floss is supposed to go slightly under your gums, between the tooth and gums where brushes don’t get, NOT just getting food from between teeth, but literally under the gum edge.
Another tip is to use interdental brushes, never thought I was able to use them properly until I watched a video about it. Was a pain for the first two weeks and got bleeding gums every time, since then no problems at all, I use them in the morning and evening and floss once a day.