Hi! As written on the tin, I have an issue. Flossing is, like... the most abominable feeling, I cannot stand having my fingers in my mouth and trying to crowd so much in there. I discovered water flossers and thought my problems were over, since that's neat and tidy and does not require me to crank my jaw open for an hour because I'm obsessive about cleaning every surface of my teeth in a really inefficient way. But when I went to see a dentist for unrelated stuff, she said that my back gums were still swollen and I should be flossing normally anyway. This is a problem, because while I'm motivated to take care of my teeth (I'm awful at accessing dental healthcare), flossing is a special kind of hell. So, like... is there any secret which I'm just not missing because my parents never taught me this stuff? I've tried using flossing sticks before, but the reusable ones (where you wind floss around them and reuse them with new floss later) lose tension after a tooth or two and it's really stressful to keep tight because I feel like I'm not Doing It Properly, and the single-use ones seem prohibitively expensive to keep up with on my pretty small budget.
do u have one of those long sorta toothbrush-lookin ones that has a detachable head you can switch the flosser on? https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=l&ai...ahUKEwir4uCPnZ_VAhVU12MKHT1lDc8Qww8ILg&adurl= i use this one and you can switch out the flosser head w/ extras you can buy, i have the same issue with the smaller sticks not retaining tension but these ones are really strong and tend to keep strong until like 3 regular uses, and you can switch them out easily. they usually come with like a mint-pasty flavor too, but you can get plain if i remember correctly.
I have - sort of the same issue? In that I cannot stand getting my fingers in there to do it, and that I've got a really tiny mouth and a crowded jaw which both combine to make it obnoxiously hard for even the professionals to get in there and Do It Properly without it being a huge ordeal. I got handed a reusable flosser by the dentist and I just rewind or replace the floss if it's losing tension; usually I replace it. Is that an option for you, to go "okay, this piece of floss has finished its job, time to replace it"? (I usually go for that option because - well, my teeth are hellish to floss, so by the time the tension starts going, the floss usually looks pretty awful and may be a bit shredded.)
I can't floss because I have permanent wires glued to the back of my teeth. The only thing I've found that works for me is soft tips aka gum stimulators. They're like a little rubber cones on a stick. My dentist recommend I run it gently along the gum line. It can remove stuff that gets pushed up in there that the flossing can't get to which can lead to swollen gums.
I hadn't heard of gum stimulators or reusable flossers with removable heads! Thank you, those are great suggestions.
