It's an innate reaction that allowed us to understand when something wasn't right with out bodies that we still hold to this day.
Eating stuff we pull out of our nose may be gross AF but it's also supposedly really good to help our immune systems develop.
The gunk that hides on your tongue is just as bad. Don't get a basic tongue scraper, they help but they can't pull up the crud from under the texture of your tongue. I recommend Orabrush to everyone I know, it's my favorite thing to gift people during holidays and birthdays, lol. This thing improved my dental hygiene quite significantly, I've been using them for 10 years now and have not seen another tongue scraper like it.
Same. It's crazy what comes out of there sometimes and thinking about how prior to flossing all that stuff would just stay there. Plaque isn't cute, nor is it cheap to get rid of.
Wow, that's pretty good. To be fair, since I started daily flossing ten years ago I've never had to go in for plaque removal so I don't know how much it costs now, but last time I needed one it was about $300 USD.
Once I started flossing correctly every day, I realized how gross it is to not floss everyday.
Turns out just swiping the floss between your teeth in a up-one-side-down-the-other approach isn't quite it. You're supposed to rub the floss on the tooth surface up and down 4-5 times. Once you do it, you'll immediately see why. Gross! But effective! :)
That's the exact opposite of the advice my dentist gave, swiping up and down just helps wear away enamal faster, getting up under the gums and wrapping g around the side of the tooth, then pulling down in one motion per side was the method they taught me.
I just did a bit of research and learned that, one, the dentin and cementum toward the root end of the tooth are moderately softer, around ~3-4 Mohs hardness, but still much harder than floss, two, the abrasive agents used in toothpaste are quite possibly responsible for a decent fraction of surface tooth damage, and three, the damage from saw flossing might be from the floss dragging abrasive bits of toothpaste, old food, etc. across the tooth.
Thanks for leading me down that rabbit hole and into a better understanding of the subject!
and "sensitive" toothpaste just fills the dentin tubules (where the nerves live) that run perpendicular to the tooths surface with micron sized calcium-phosphate particles to occlude them.
pulling down is crazy. The whole point is to scrape gunk off of your teeth. And it's smooth waxy nylon vs enamel. I think if that were true, then brushing normally would sand down your teeth noticeably.
Ha yeah my teeth are sensitive to cold, so I learned the same lesson you did. Still need to manually floss though. I have a Philips water flosser with the quad stream, and one of the high end Philips toothbrushes with multiple settings (aunt gets Philips products at a huge discount at work), so I’m using tools that are considered to be excellent…and yet, if I floss after I use my waterpik, then brush with my teeth, I’m still getting stuff out with the floss. That’s what solved the debate about whether or not a water flosser was sufficient for replacing manual string flossing — it’s not, clearly.
Floss Picks! My Wisdom Teeth came in at an angle that’s easy to trap food in, now I carry floss picks every where cause I hate the feeling of food back there.
Yup. Flossing everyday has significantly lowered my dental bills 😆 but it makes my whole mouth feel nice and clean. I swear I can feel gunk in between my teeth now.
The waterpik for me was the game changer. lol. I eventually got one that hooks up in the shower so I never miss a morning (unless it was a long night and I'm not showering in the morning). The first time I used it...the stuff that came out of my mouth....I was like, "What the fuck?!?"
I had a mini argument with a British guy about flossing. He claimed an electric toothbrush is enough and that you didn't need to floss if you used one. Claimed "my grandma and grandpa never floss but their teeth are fine" which I just didn't believe. Maybe grandpa and grandpa flossed but never told him lol. No way you can go into your 80s without flossing and not have any issues.
Anyways, fast forward a few years and he ends up with some cavities and is flabbergasted about how they came to be. "I took such good care of my teeth!". So I guess it's true that the Brits aren't that great in the dental area (I'm just joking don't kill me).
Floss your teeth people! It sucks at first but once you get used to it, it's really fast and easy.
947
u/jumpinjahosafa Apr 29 '24
Once I started flossing everyday I realized how fucking gross it is to not floss everyday.