How many times a day should someone floss?

[roxie2519]

I personally do it four times or more.. everybody keeps telling me that this could damage my teeth.. is it true?

[klobird]

I would be hating life if I flossed 4 times a day!! I floss once at night (and I hate it!), along with several other braces/teeth cleaning steps. During the day it's waterpik,brushing,mouthwash about 4 times a day. At my last dental check-up, the dentist kept saying she was very pleased with the state of my teeth. So I'm sticking with my routine!

[wildpig]

Dont know if it would damage your teeth since the teeth are hard. But i would imagine too frequent floss could irritate the gum between the teeth. That said, I think most people floss once a day at night and do the best they can with other methods during daytime.

I floss once daily at night after dinner. In the day, it's the spiral pointed brush between teeth and brackets followed by careful brushing. This goes for anytime after I eat anything.

We could start a poll to see how many times people floss in a day

[Sita]

I don't know if it would damage your teeth but I do wonder if you could irritate your gums. Guess that would depend on how gentle you are.

I floss once a day, at night. I use a small interdental brush for inbetween teeth after other meals.

[TMJJill]

I floss once a day at night. I also use a WaterPik. My dentist and orthodontist both seem happy with my oral care.

I carry the christmas tree brushes and floss on a stick with me for after meals if I need them. A swish with water during meals really goes a long way too.

I will say that when I first got my braces on it took me more than 15 minutes to floss and I only have my upper braces so far. It was so tempting to skip this step sometimes. It really does get faster though.

[wildpig]

It's been a month for me and my routine after dinner consisting of christmas tree brush followed by floss and then careful brushing still take about 20 min. Don't think i can really get it any faster.

Wonder if that's the norm for the time everyone else spends too.

[kellyb]

i floss twice a day monday to friday and 3 times on the weekend (or whenever i am at home).

[Domino]

4 times a day definitely seems really excessive! My dentist recommended only once a day at night. I don't believe you need anymore than that.

[sirwired]

With your tooth surfaces, the reason you brush them often is to prevent plaque acids from dissolving your enamel; given the total volume of plaque, this is necessary.

With the space under your gumline between the teeth (which is primarily what you are cleaning when you floss) you are keeping the (smaller volume of) plaque from irritating the gum tissue long-term. This process doesn't happen quickly, so flossing once a day is sufficient.

If you are very gentle, I don't figure it'd hurt to floss more often, but it is quite the time-sink when you have braces because of the silly archwire.

Also, unlike brushing, which must be done more often while you are in braces because of the problems your mouth has clearing crud from your teeth with the brackets in the way, the spaces in between your teeth don't get any more gross than they were before braces, so you don't need to floss more often than necessary for normal quality oral hygiene.

[wildpig]

I guess the consensus is once daily for flossing then. Definitely doing it more than once daily would kill your free time for neglible gain.

[luchababe]

Once day, before bed. My hygienist laughed when I asked how often should I floss and said more that once just takes up way too much time! Once is fine. Even skipping a night once in a while won't kill your teeth. If you've flossed before you got braces, then just keep with the once a day and you won't have anything to worry about.

[jcm]

I was told to do it once a day. I did it for the first time today and had a problem with the floss shredding. Does anyone else have that problem?

[sirwired]

I was told to do it once a day. I did it for the first time today and had a problem with the floss shredding. Does anyone else have that problem?

If you aren't using it already, switch to Glide Threader Floss. Glide is made of Teflon, so it is both stronger than standard nylon floss and slips between teeth better. The threader floss has a stiffened end as part of each single-use strand to help you get underneath the archwire. You'll still have to be careful when flossing molar bands and brackets with wire (instead of rubber) ties, but it's much sturdier than nylon.

It's about 20-cents a strand in a 30-ct box, and should be available at most big box stores, drug stores, and Amazon.

[roxie2519]

With this being said, I will floss only twice a day from now on

[roxie2519]

I also tried the Glide flosser, pretty cool..a bit too rough on my gums, you gotta be careful not to do it too strong, I cut my gum a little bit... Oh and never heard about this waterpick thing... I will google the reviews and maybe try it out.