Flossing Help!!!

Message

#1 Post by **Zoom** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 2:05 pm

Iâ€™ve been having a lot of trouble flossing. My braces were just put on yesterday so I donâ€™t have much experience, but I cannot seem to do my molars very well. Itâ€™s just so frustrating!!! After the assistant gave me the lecture on how bad your teeth can get if you donâ€™t floss, I am scared to death. The biggest thing is that I canâ€™t get the actual floss under the gum. Should I worry about this or is it fine if I just do the up and down motion without going under the gum?

ps: Just got my cordless waterpik! canâ€™t wait to use it

#2 Post by **jaswi** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 2:41 pm

For about 2 weeks I couldn't floss between most of my molars, floss just wouldn't fit. Now my teeth have moved a little and I can slide the floss in pretty easilly.

#3 Post by **skittley80** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 2:44 pm

My ortho gave me a thing that looks like a needle and has a loop on the end... It's made by GUM... you tie one end of your floss to it..then thread it under the wire and you can floss that way... It's very time consuming..but works

#4 Post by **lionfish** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 3:46 pm

Keep at it, zoom, you will get the hang of it.

I use Oral B superfloss. You stick the pointy end behind the wire, pull it through so that it lies across the space between the teeth, then pull it down to floss. Remove it simply by pulling up the end that is not under the wire and slide it out (I usually hold my finger on the end that is below the wire just to steady it when I'm freeing it). Early on, I found that I couldn't get superfloss to go between some teeth, so I used ordinary Oral B floss which is not quite so thick.

As for flossing under the gum, all I do is run the floss against the inside surface of each tooth in an angular motion as close to the gumline as is comfortable (you don't want to cut the gum with the floss).

#5 Post by **Sheree** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 3:59 pm

Flossing is definitely NOT one of my favorites, but OH SO IMPORTANT. My husband criticizes me for spending so much time in the bathroom at night but I can't help it! I don't care if it's 1:00 in the morning..I'm still gonna floss, no matter how hard it may be!

#6 Post by **jetxness** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 5:31 pm

i just wanted to second what KK said. i got a lot of cement in between my teeth. my ortho's assistants checked before i left that floss could go through at the front (and ended up taking time to pick at it), but i still ended up having to go back to get a bit removed at the back yesterday.

#7 Post by **straighter-teeth** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 7:50 pm

I bought on-line what's called a FlossFish Dental tool. They're plastic things that look like a Fish hook ... well, maybe

Hard to describe. But you don't have to keep feeding the floss over your bracket. It's very neat. I found it through the dental kit website here. You can also type it into Google and probably find it that way. You get multiple of them in a pack for very cheap price.

#8 Post by **Zoom** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 12:16 am

So I did my first "real" floss and it took 40 f***ing minutes!!! I don't even know if I was doing it right either. When I am doing my farthest back molars I cannot get the floss to move up and down the gums.

Anything to cut down on flossing time!!! HELP!!!

Would there be any problems if I floss the top in the morning and the bottom at night?

#9 Post by **Zoom** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 10:54 am

*Sorry for the double post*

After experimenting a bit I found a way that works for me

Just one last question; I've heard that it's not good to go back in forth while getting in the gum line, instead it's best to go up and down. Is this true? If so I guess I'll have to find another way of doing things.

#10 Post by **Zoom** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 11:41 pm

*bump* Sorry, but I really need help. I live in a small city with a population of about 13,000 and we don't have a full time ortho; right now he's not in town.

Alot of my teeth are really tight and close together so when I try to put the floss down I have to wiggle it to get it in, and when it's in there is no room to move up or down, so the only way to do my gum line is to go back and forth.