Healthy gums don’t bleed, and are not painful to floss at all.
I’m in my 30s and only recently learned flossing technique and got my gums healthy. Flossing used to take so long and always involved a lot of bleeding no matter how delicate I was.
These days I’m absolute savage with floss and interdental brushes and never have any blood or pain.
Once you get your gums healthy you’ll be disgusted at yourself for ever not flossing. The amount of disgusting I can floss out on an almost daily basis is insane.
Plus you’re breath will not smell gross anymore.
It’s worth committing to the habit of flossing. Trust me.
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.
The only interdental brush I find I can use is Piksters. All the others bend so easily.
I wish they were cheaper.
I also have tightly packed teeth and can barely use interdental brushes on just some of them. What works well however are dental floss sticks, you can get them with pretty thin floss(es?) and they’re way easier to use than plain floss.
Waterpiks are a godsend
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.
Yes, my dentist thought I was flossing because I use an off brand water pick. No, Sir. I just use water jets to blast away invaders.
My girlfriend bought one of those. I thought she was fooled by some advertisement but that thing is the best. No bleeding, super clean feeling, no stuck floss between teeth and dentist thought things look great. The only thing they said was to try to switch sides with the water jet, meaning to put the jet from the inside towards out every once in a while. All in a great invention.
I’ve heard that they can push things under your gums, and should actually be avoided. Not sure how accurate that is, though.
When you first start flossing again am I the only one that thinks… it hurts so good?
“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.
Seriously please go to the dentist and take care of your teeth. My parents stopped taking me to the dentist when I was 16 and I didn’t return till I was 30. I had developed a massive anxiety over it and couldn’t even look at myself in the mirror because I was terrified to look into my mouth. I got off relatively lucky but for the love of God go to the dentist
This comment hit hard, I know that feeling of looking in the mirror and being afraid to open my mouth. I went yesterday for the first time in over 10 years. I felt so much shame and anxiety, I didn’t sleep well for 2 nights leading up to the visit, but boy do I feel better now. Considering it had been so long the news wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, and it was not as painful as i thought it would be (my last visit was not pleasant) Now that i’m over that hump, i’ll be going back much more frequently and will be more diligent with my oral hygene. I wish I had done it sooner. Seriously, for those in a similar situation, just go to the dentist and set things right before it’s too late.
Oh dear. How do I make my 13yo understand that, who doesn’t seem to care?
Show them this video and tell them this is what happens when you neglect your teeths. https://libreddit.domain.glass/r/popping/comments/py6qlw/teeth_cleaning_i_feel_this_was_the_most/
Nearly nobody will get a mouth that bad if they at least care to look at their teeths from time to time and have a basic hygiene, both dietary and oral.
But to at least get them interested, this video does the work really well.
(The video shows removal of a massive plaque of tartar. So I don’t recommend anyone uncomfortable, with looking at the inside of mouths and with seeing some bleeding, to watch this video)
The best 3D printer we know of is biology. Until we can grow a new tooth from some science broth, prevention is imperative. Even once we do, it’ll take a while to catch up to nature.
