The 7 Most Common Flossing Mistakes

By: David Molina D.D.S

1. Never Flossing: It is surprising how many people never floss! Flossing is
every bit as important as brushing. Although it is true some people live a
lifetime without flossing and still manage to keep their teeth, the average
person will begin to lose teeth in mid to later life to gum disease unless
they floss.

2. Not flossing often enough: To be effective, flossing should be done daily.
Missing a day or two is no major disaster, but calculus (tartar) can begin to
form in as few as two to four days.

3. Not removing plaque with the floss: Some people have the misguided notion
that floss is primarily to remove food particles. If meat gets caught, they
use floss to get it out. Although floss works well to remove food, its
primary function is to remove plaque, the invisible film of bacteria that is
constantly forming on and in between teeth. Instead of merely popping the
floss between the teeth to loosen food, the floss should be used to scrape
the tooth surface clean of plaque.

4. Not flossing both teeth: Every time you pop the floss between two teeth,
you must floss both teeth individually.
In other words, first you must push against one tooth, then pull against the
other tooth. It is not effective to quickly pop the floss in and out of each
space.

5. Not flossing underneath the gum line: The floss should be gently placed
all the way under the gum (it shouldn't hurt) since the gum line is the most
important area to clean.

6. Not flossing with sufficient pressure: It takes a fair amount of scraping
to dislodge plaque. The floss should be pressed firmly against the tooth
surface and scraped up and down along the long axis of the tooth (not back
and forth as if one were shining shoes with a buff cloth). If you are
pressing hard enough you will hear a squeaking sound. That's good - you're
getting the tooth 'squeaky clean'.

7. Not flossing long enough: To do a thorough job, you should count about ten
up and down strokes on each tooth. These can be rapid short strokes and won't
take longer than a couple of seconds per tooth. But since most people have
about 28 teeth, it would take most people no less than two minutes to do a
good job. Two minutes is a long time - but the reward of investing those two
minutes each day is a healthy, clean set of teeth that will last a lifetime.