How to Floss Your Teeth

If you want to have stress free visits to the dentist, one of the best ways to ensure that is to floss properly and on a regular basis. Food gets stuck in our teeth in places that our toothbrushes cannot always get to, and this leads to cavities and gum disease. While there are many toothbrushes, mouthwashes and toothpastes promise to completely clean teeth, nothing can take the place of flossing. For the best results, you should floss after every meal, but at a minimum you should be flossing at least once a day.

Many people hate to floss their teeth because it is painful and makes their gums bloody; however, if you how to floss your teeth this should not be an issue. If you know how to floss properly you can avoid most of the discomfort associated with flossing while ensuring that you are thoroughly cleaning your teeth.

How to Floss

Using your dental floss, take out between 18 and 24 inches of dental floss and wrap it around your index finger, leaving about 4 inches hanging for your other hand. Wrap the remaining dental floss around the index finger of your other hand.

Starting with the teeth in the back of your mouth, slide the floss between your teeth using a back and forth motion. Do not force the floss between your teeth, this can cause damage to your gums.

Once the floss is comfortably between your teeth, work the floss around your teeth and slighly under your gums. You should be gentle and there should be no pain when you are doing this. Work in a U shape around each of your teeth. As you go from tooth to tooth, move the used floss to your second hand and put fresh floss on your first hand.

What type of floss should you use?

For the most part all dental flosses will work, some will just work better than others depending on the spacing of your teeth. If you have teeth that are close together, or have issues with dental floss shredding when you use it, you should consider using a waxed dental floss. If you have teeth that are spaced farther a part, you may consider using thicker floss, or even dental tape.

Finally, there are a wide variety of flavors that you can choose from when you are purchasing dental floss, from cinnamon to mint to even bubblegum flavored floss.