Flossing with braces can be a bit of a chore, but it is absolutely necessary to maintaining your oral health. Luckily, a number of tools can be used to help make flossing with braces much easier. Floss threaders and waterpiks are chief among them. With the help of these handy little tools, you’ll keep yourself and your orthodontist smiling the entire time you’re in braces. Let’s look at how to floss with braces.

The Importance of Flossing

Flossing is vital to maintaining the health of your teeth as well as your gums. It’s great for removing food that might be stuck between teeth in those hard-to-reach places, but the most important part of flossing has to do with gum health. If you’re flossing properly, then your floss should follow the curve of your gum as you guide it in between each set of teeth. This helps the floss gently remove food and bacteria underneath the gum without harming the sensitive tissue. As a result, flossing helps to prevent your gums from becoming infected.

How to Floss with Braces?

Obviously, brackets and wires really get in the way of traditional floss. Experts estimate that it might take a person between 10-15 minutes to floss their teeth if they’re struggling to thread a bit of floss in between all of those wires. Fortunately, there are a couple of tools that you can use to give yourself a hand and significantly reduce the time commitment required to protect your teeth and gums.

Floss Threaders:

Floss threaders are ideal for people with braces or permanent retainers, as they give you a more stable way of guiding the floss over and under your wires. Basically, it’s a super-thin, over-sized plastic needle. You can usually get these disposable tools at your orthodontist’s office or your local drug store. When you go to floss, all you have to do is take about 24 inches of floss and thread it through the collapsible eye of the floss threader. Then use the threader to pull your floss around the wires, allowing you to floss normally.

Waterpiks:

A Waterpik uses pressurized water to clean between your teeth and around your gums. To use a Waterpik, all you have to do is fill the reservoir with fresh water. Put the water delivery apparatus in your mouth, and close your lips almost all the way while still holding the water delivery apparatus. Bend over your sink, and turn the Waterpik on. You’ll receive short-rapid bursts of water that you will need to gently guide along your gumline as you let the used water flow out of the corner of your mouth.

Dental Tape:

If you haven’t always had great oral hygiene habits, then you may have difficulty using traditional floss or a floss threader due to how swollen your gums are. If that is the case, then using an alternative like a Waterpik or dental tape is a good way to go. Dental tape is simply ultra-thin floss that is gentler on swollen gums. As long as you stick to a normal oral hygiene routine, that sensitivity and swelling will gradually subside, and it will be easier for you to floss normally.

Asking for Help from the Top Cerritos Dentist

If you are struggling to floss and aren’t sure how to improve your experience, then feel free to ask your dentist for advice. At Jesmine Boghawala DDS their dedicated dentists, orthodontists, and staff want to make sure you get the most out of your experience. That includes making sure that you have a healthy, beautiful smile when you finally complete the journey for straighter teeth.