Metal Mouth Message Board

I've had my braces on since December and have been faithful about brushing and flossing. My dentist and ortho staff have marveled at how clean I keep my teeth. My problem has been flossing. The floss shreds in my mouth, from all the saliva, plus it gets stuck and leaves pieces of floss behind in my teeth. Any advice on technique, brand etc.? I have oral-b ortho floss which hasn't helped. not that it's the quality of the floss itself. I have powerchains over top of my wires and extra elastics over where I have four gaps in my teeth that they're trying to close after 4 extractions back in June. any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
~Joanne

You could try using Crest Glide floss, I really think that they make the best floss out there. Another product I have found very helpful is made by Butler Gum -- it's called "Go Betweens". It's a tiny brush that really cleans around the brackets, it's especially helpful when you are wearing powerchains. Walmart sells them, there are four brushes in a package.

Hi Joanne,
I agree with SW, the glide floss is the easiest and does not shred. My contacts are really tight but I manage to get the glide floss in there OK.
Dee

Actually, Glide floss does shred if you have wire ties. I use it because it seems to work the best for teeth that are very close together, but it shreds if you catch a wire. I also use the floss threader, I think by Gum, which is very thin, on the teeth I have trouble with. I still can't always floss all the teeth though, but keep trying. I think the waterpik/interplak is a good tool to have when flossing is impossible.

I like the Glide Floss too but there are two different kinds, the regular thin variety and the TAPE. I like the tape cuz it doesn't shred at all.

Meryaten- I usually use the threader to go under the archwire only. However, recently I have had no luck even finding the archwire between the 1st and 2nd molars (I can't see back there) and spent 10 minutes trying to thread the thingy between the teeth. I finally gave up. I have powerchains on too and I am going in blind, so to speak. I'm going to ask the ortho about this cause it is a problem. If I had no archwire, it wouldn't matter if I couldn't see the teeth, I could just sort of push the floss between them. It stinks because I am trying so hard to keep my teeth clean and don't want to get any cavities. My teeth cleaning ritual is extensive.

Chris - my floss is in a cylinder type container. It is sort of wide, but I just read the label and it says floss. I will look for the tape. I have wire ties all over the place. Will it stay intact? My floss will shred into ribbons. I'm getting better at keeping it away from the ties though

fins wrote:
Chris - my floss is in a cylinder type container. It is sort of wide, but I just read the label and it says floss. I will look for the tape. I have wire ties all over the place. Will it stay intact? My floss will shred into ribbons. I'm getting better at keeping it away from the ties though

Check the front of the package, it should say Crest GLIDE ORIGINAL TAPE. I works very well with wire ties as I had them on my bottom teeth. Thats of course if your ortho twisted the ties and pushed them up against the back of the arch wire so that the floss doesn't get as tangled. If the ties are sticking all over the place it can be difficult to floss without shredding.

I IS a challenge to floss with wire ties, no question about it. You have to go at it slowly and patiently.

Hi Fins. I use a BridgeAid dental floss threader, myself. They look like a large curved needle and are firm, but, flexible. I find that the curve allows me to poke around my teeth until I get it between the back ones I can't see. In fact, I have taken to flossing my teeth without looking into a mirror. I just keep track with my tongue as to where I am... I got these originally from my orthodontist, so maybe he has something like that you could try.

Hi Fins
I too have wire ties not ligs. The glide that I am using is the tape variety and I have had no problems with shredding. As I said before, my contacts are really tight, but the glide gets in there just fine. Hope this helps,
Dee

Attagirl2- I think that sounds good, my floss threader is really thin and I like it for all the teeth except the molars. I'll look for that one.

Thanks to all for the tape hint. That will be another new item in my basket of dental goodies.

Meryaten-I just hope my flouride rinse is enough to keep cavities away. Are you using that also? Hope it works.

When I had extra hooks on my archwire, I found that the Crest Glide Floss (which is still my favorite) did shred in my mouth. I found that using the flossers and Oral B satin tape, worked pretty well. It was hard, in any case, to make sure it didn't shred, but I found the Oral B Ortho Floss (the one with the fuzzy stuff on it with stiff end) would always get stuck in my brackets and underneath the little doors of my damons. Good luck. You'll notice that different floss can be used at different times.

Glilde tape and Tom's of Maine waxed flat floss. I use the blue Gum threaders too. Walmart has the best prices on them.

The best investment I've made since getting braced is buying a lighted, 10X magnifying mirror. You can see EVERYTHING (great for those of us who are becoming visually challenged in our "old age"). Makes flossing much easier

Ok, so all this time before I got my braces put on I am reading all the threads related to flossing. I was thinking, really how hard is it to floss with braces on? It has been just over a week now since I have my braces and I decided to go to CVS and see about getting some special floss for braces. After deciding on Oral-B Super floss I got home and proceded to do a thourough cleaning.
Let me just say I now have a complete understanding of what a pain it is to floss with braces. It was so time consuming not to mention a few teeth are still sore and there were a few four letter words yelled from the bathroom. I hope with a little practice it will be easier. I did find it to be effective though as I felt much cleaner afterwards.

Thanks for all your input. I will try Crest Glide floss, tho' I have had better luck recently with flossing without shredding (Oral B Ortho Super Floss). I've also been able to floss in between my molar bands, which tells me it isn't as tight in between there as it was. Yea!!!
~Joanne

I'm still conducting trials if you would like to try the flossfish (for free)? I just ask that you leave your input. If you have extreme crowding it may not work well for you but for most people it has saved time. I'm actually about to repost and reopen free trials to archwired members as soon as I get my stats back. to see how it works you can go to http://flossfish.com/instructions.html to request a flossfish I need you to fill out our request form at http://flossfish.com/notificationForm.html?note=notif