You should be flossing with water

I’m dying to hear @Flossaluzitarin’s input on this controversy.

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FYI, that study was funded by waterpik. The second author “Deborah Lyle” is a waterpik employee. Waterpik has commissioned a bunch of studies with results favorable to waterpik. That doesn’t mean the conclusions are wrong, but it does mean they are low on the trust scale.

My experience, using a waterpik every day, is that floss still removes biofilm, I can feel it on the floss after doing each tooth.

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I hate flossing, usually forget to do it. I had a water thing but same story. One day I bought one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Colgate-Floss-tip-Black-Toothbrush-Soft/dp/B00WVLS2VK thinking it was a gimmick but what the hell.

My next dentist trip, my dentist tried to figure out what I was doing differently, because my gums were in massively better shape than before. This toothbrush was the only thing I could think of. It has worked for me, I think because it’s just brushing my teeth anyway and they’re so crooked and crowded that flossing is a pain but a bristle or two might bend get in where I can’t get angle with floss.

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I use one of those ‘flossing-action’ tapered bristle toothbrushes, too. Love 'em. I still floss about once or twice a week but even when I do, the amount of gunk is much less than when I had been using a conventional, non-tapered bristle toothbrush. So yeah, not a gimmick. Not in my experience, anyway.

@redesigned: When I asked my dentist ‘Waterpik or string flossing’, he said either is better than nothing so he encourages his clients to use whichever they’re most comfortable with and thus inclined to use regularly.

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Flossy does.

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I’m here to gnaw chicory and write penny dreadfuls all about tiny packaged bathroom hydrology deferred, and I’ve only got seed chicory and growing zone 6.
I love w00+.com copy, but I’m zoooooming at 12:00AM and can’t slow down for it. Try this.
Need teensy pumps for each liqueur, soda and infusion, right in the bathroom, with a secret door to the office apothecary? Got your start right here!
Does it seem like your body doesn’t reabsorb water from mycelium and ice until noon lately? Would a set of bedroomy Taiko drums played by an arduino that knocks the calculus off your teeth at 7:20AM help with that? Well how about just yerba mate in intimate gum massage squirter thangs? All right then!

/cheats you all on pix of each Wiseguys character rendered with garnishes on my face, but with much better gum care, sorry.

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You are a beautiful mountain of intricately variegated dental gemstone, impressing future civilizations and bath remodelers. Epigenetics was making body rituals and vore fetishes all complicated until now.
Grateful!

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At first, I totally read the title of this post as ‘You Should Be Flossy,’ and I immediately thought to myself “I couldn’t even if I tried…”

And coincidentally here you are in a rare appearance.

Nice.

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THIS!

I was a total, arrogant skeptic about water flossing “voodoo” until I randomly won one in a contest and my partner dared me to try it for a month. Two things happened: 1) my gum sensitivity disappeared and 2) my dentist actually asked me what had changed at my next checkup (which, to be honest, had me feeling pretty self-conscious afterwards… was I that memorable before?!) :slight_smile:

These things are magic, but you have to learn to actually use them as designed. It’s faster than flossing for me now, but at first, until I got the intensity settings, mouth position, and angles right, it was pretty uncomfortable and messy.

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I see the dentist twice as often as usual - every 3 months - because I get mad tartar buildup. But when I’m using the flosser regularly I don’t get it nearly as bad.

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My instrument of choice continues to be the GUM Proxabrush. (I kind of wish there was a practical use for them after they wear out, though.)
http://www.gumbrand.com/gumr-proxabrushr-go-betweensr-cleaners-tight.html

Previously, a similar instrument:

I always found those to be incredibly awkward.
Not anything like as awkward as floss on its own, mind you.

I much prefer interdental brushes:

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#OIL PULLING  

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I find those impossible to use for the back teeth because of their orientation. I use these…

No muss no fuss.

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The assumption/assertion is that a water pic is a replacement for flossing. I eventually realized that that is BS, and although I hate the hassle, I find that it’s best to use both the water AND the floss.

Having said that, I do not like that water flossing (and also Sonic Care toothbrushes) throws a mist to the back of my throat to the epiglottis, which almost always causes a slight aspiration-like reaction.

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If nothing else, it’ll take your mind off of the cavities.

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Those are great, though I’d replace the cord with something stretchy and market the product as having a later, secondary use: miniature slingshot. Watch the spinach bits fly!

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10W40 or artisanal coconut?

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Baby.  

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