Dental floss can be an important part of maintaining your dental bridge. Dental floss is a thin thread that you use to clean between your teeth. It’s also useful for removing food particles and plaque from the tiny spaces between your teeth.
The best way to use dental floss is by wrapping it around one of your fingers, then using it to clean the space between your teeth. You should also floss after brushing your teeth, as this helps remove excess toothpaste and food particles from the areas between them.
Read on to learn more about How To Use Dental Floss For Bridges, How To Floss Back Teeth With Floss Picks and Cant Floss Back Teeth
How To Use Dental Floss For Bridges
A dental bridge is a great way to repair your smile if you have missing teeth—or had teeth removed due to damage. But cleaning and maintaining dental bridges can present new challenges, especially when it comes to flossing. Bridges are joined, which means there’s no gap between the adjacent teeth and the replacement tooth (abutments and the pontic). So how do you floss?
While it might seem easier just to skip flossing your dental bridge, doing so will only create bigger problems for you in the long run. Plaque and debris will still build up below the gum line. Instead of skipping over your dental bridge when flossing, let Dr. Attar at Attar Dental help you master flossing around these teeth! He’s helped patients in Mundelein and Libertyville preserve their smile through intuitive flossing techniques, like the ones below.
How often should you floss a bridge?
Every day, multiple times each day! Treat a dental bridge like the rest of your teeth. You should floss it every time you complete your oral hygiene routine. Dental bridges need just as much maintenance as any other tooth. Although you can’t use a normal piece of floss, dental bridges require daily cleanings because they’re equally susceptible to plaque, bacteria and decay.
Many patients go too long without flossing their dental bridges because they’re convinced it’s too much of a hassle. The truth is, caring for your dental bridge doesn’t add extra time to an oral care routine. Flossing a dental bridge is quick and easy, much like cleaning the rest of your teeth.
Tip: use a floss threader for tight spaces
A string of floss by itself won’t fit in between the abutments and pontic. They’re all connected at the top, otherwise known as the occlusal surface, which means you need a tool that can fit underneath the bridge. This is where floss threaders come in handy. A floss threader is a small, flexible loop that allows you to weave floss under the occlusal surface.
Floss threaders are intuitive, easy-to-use tools. Simply tie a knot around the loop using normal floss then weave the pointed edge underneath the bridge. A floss threader can fit through the tight space in between the gum line and the bottom of your dental bridge. From there, floss the bridge like you would with a normal tooth before pulling out the floss.
Tip: rely on an interdental brush daily
An interdental brush can also fit underneath a dental bridge. It consists of an inch-long wire coated in soft bristles, which is attached to a small handle. Dentists frequently recommend interdental brushes for people with braces because regular floss is too difficult to weave under the brackets. However, people with dental bridges benefit from them, too.
Interdental brushes take mere seconds to use. The wire and bristles easily slip in between the abutments and pontic. Since the wire is flexible, you can bend it into whichever angle will most effectively clear away plaque and debris beneath the bridge. These brushes are so easy and leave your mouth feeling so clean, you’ll want to use them multiple times a day!
Tip: invest in a water flosser or irrigator
If you want something a bit fancier, talk to your dentist about a water flosser. This nifty gadget creates a highly pressurized stream of water that can blast away plaque and debris built up along the dental bridge. A water flosser is the easiest tool to use because you don’t have to worry about threading floss or an interdental brush into a tight space. The one downside is that water flossers are also the most expensive flossing tool. Nevertheless, they’re often a good investment for general oral health.
Tip: swish thoroughly with antiseptic rinse
After dislodging all that gunk, you don’t want it to keep sitting inside your mouth. Finish up your flossing routine with a quick swish of mouthwash. It will get rid of any remaining plaque and kill bacteria that leads to bad breath and cavities. A combination of flossing and antiseptic rinse will leave your dental bridge feeling healthy and squeaky clean.
Learn to care for dental bridges the right way
Dental bridges have the power to restore your smile to a beautiful, natural, flawless appearance; however, they can be tough to care for. If you’re struggling to floss like many patients in Mundelein and Libertyville, schedule an appointment with Dr. Attar at Attar Dental. As an expert in dental bridges and crowns, he’ll help you master the art of caring for your bridge, so you can floss with confidence and keep your teeth looking their best.
How To Floss Back Teeth With Floss Picks
Flossing is an important oral hygiene habit. It cleans and dislodges food stuck between your teeth, which reduces the amount of bacteria and plaque in your mouth. Plaque is a sticky film that builds up on teeth and contributes to cavities and gum disease.
Although many people brush their teeth daily, not everyone flosses their teeth as regularly as they brush. According to a national poll, about 4 in 10 Americans floss their teeth at least once a day, and 20 percent of Americans never floss at all.
Of course, it isn’t enough to simply floss. It’s important to floss correctly. Improper flossing can potentially damage your teeth and gums. So, if you’re unsure about the right way to clean in between your teeth, here’s a step-by-step guide on the best way to floss.
Flossing: What are the steps to follow?
Follow this step-by-step guide to floss your teeth correctly.
Flossing instructions
- Break off about 18 to 24 inches of dental floss. To hold the floss correctly, wind most of the floss around both of your middle fingers. Leave only about 1 to 2 inches of floss for your teeth.
- Next, hold the floss taut with your thumbs and index fingers.
- Place the dental floss in between two teeth. Gently glide the floss up and down, rubbing it against both sides of each tooth. Don’t glide the floss into your gums. This can scratch or bruise your gums.
- As the floss reaches your gums, curve the floss at the base of the tooth to form a C shape. This allows the floss to enter the space between your gums and your tooth.
- Repeat the steps as you move from tooth to tooth. With each tooth, use a new, clean section of floss.
What’s the best way to floss with braces?
Flossing with braces can be tricky, and it takes more time than flossing without braces. If you use regular floss, give yourself 10 to 15 minutes to floss your teeth.
With this method, choose waxed floss, which is less likely to tear and get stuck in your braces.
Flossing instructions for braces
- Break off about 18 to 24 inches of waxed dental floss.
- Stand in front of a mirror so you can make sure the floss is going where you need it to.
- Start by threading the floss between your teeth and the main wire. Twist the loose ends of the floss around your index fingers so you can move the floss around easily.
- Press the floss between the two teeth as gently as you can. Then, move the floss up and down along the sides of both teeth.
- When working on your top teeth, try to make an upside-down U with the floss. To do this, go up the side of one tooth until you get to the gumline. Then, glide the floss down the side of the other tooth.
- Gently remove the floss and carefully unthread it from behind the wire. Avoid popping the floss out of your tooth, as you could dislodge a wire.
- Now, move on to the next two teeth, and use the same technique until you’ve flossed between all your teeth.
Instead of using waxed floss, other options that work well for flossing if you have braces include using a Waterpik, a type of water flosser, or a floss threader, a small tool that helps you thread floss under your braces. Both can save you time with flossing.
When should you floss?
Knowing the right time to floss also contributes to good oral health. Some people have a routine of brushing their teeth first and then flossing. However, it’s generally recommended to floss and then brush your teeth.
Flossing helps lift and release food and plaque stuck in between your teeth, while brushing removes these particles from your mouth. If you brush first and floss afterward, food and plaque remains in your mouth until the next time you brush.
The American Dental Association recommends flossing at least once per day and brushing twice per day.
Types of dental floss
Dental floss comes in many varieties. Which type of floss is best for you depends on your preferences, the amount of space in between your teeth, and whether you have braces or bridges.
Some dental floss is easier to use in wider spaces, whereas other types of floss are easier to use in tighter spaces.
Different types of dental floss include:
- Dental tape. This type of dental floss is broader and flat like a ribbon, making it easier to handle if you have braces, gaps, or large spaces in between your teeth.
- Standard floss. This is a thin, nylon strand that can fit in between teeth. It comes flavored or unflavored as well as waxed or unwaxed. If your teeth are crowded or closer together, dental floss with a wax coating can make it easier to get in between them.
- Super flosses. This dental floss threader can work with braces, bridges, and gaps. It has three components: a stiffened end for flossing underneath appliances, spongy floss to clean around your appliances, and regular floss to eliminate plaque underneath your gumline.
Other tools to make flossing easier
In addition to dental tape, waxed floss, and floss threaders, other tools can make flossing easier and faster.
- One option is to use an electric flosser or a water flosser, which uses water and pressure to remove plaque and food from in between teeth. Both are great options if you have trouble using regular floss. A water flosser is also useful if you have braces. This device can clean in between brackets and wires.
- Another option is to use disposable floss picks. They’re easy to maneuver and can help you floss hard-to-reach teeth in the back of your mouth.
Takeaway
Good oral hygiene involves more than just brushing your teeth. It also involves flossing and knowing how to floss correctly.
Flossing helps remove bacteria, plaque, and food from between your teeth, and it reduces the likelihood of tooth decay and gum disease. Along with regular brushing and flossing, make sure you also schedule regular dental cleanings at least twice a year.
Cant Floss Back Teeth
10 Common Flossing Mistakes
It seems so simple to just slide some string between your teeth to clean those hard-to-reach areas. While the idea is simple, there are a few techniques that you need to master in order to maximize the return on the time you spend flossing.
Here are ten common mistakes that people make when they floss:
1 – Not Flossing the Sides of Both Teeth
If you just slide the floss down, and then pull it up, you are only getting 50% of the job done. When you move the floss up between two teeth, you need to make sure that you are cleaning the side of both teeth. One of the favorite places for plaque to hide is between teeth. If you’re only removing plaque from the side of one of the teeth, you could easily get a cavity on the tooth that you’re not flossing.
2 – Using the Same Section of Floss Between All of Your Teeth
When you floss you are removing bacteria from between your teeth and below the gum-line. If you use the same section of floss for all of the teeth in your mouth, you are spreading around a lot of bacteria. Of course you still are loosening the plaque, which has its benefits, but if you use a new section of floss each time you floss between two teeth, you will be loosening the plaque without putting plaque that you’ve already removed back in between your teeth.
3 – Snapping the Floss Down Hard Between Your Teeth
To get the floss to go between a tight contact between two adjacent teeth, try working the floss back and forth applying a firm but controlled downward pressure.
Snapping the floss down between the teeth can not only injure your gums in the short-term, but the trauma can cause your gums to recede. Do it enough, and you’ll cause gum disease.
4 – Not Flossing Behind the Very Back Teeth
Even though there isn’t a tooth next to it, it is still important to clean behind the four teeth that are all the way in the back of your mouth (two teeth on each side in the upper and lower jaws.) This can help remove bacteria that has made its way between your tooth and gums.
5 – Flossing Aimlessly Without a Plan
When you floss, you need to have a road-map of what order you are going to floss your teeth in, or you can quickly become confused and miss some teeth or even a quadrant of your mouth. It may be easiest to start in the upper right and go to the upper left, then come down to the lower teeth in the bottom left and move across to the bottom right.
However, as long as you have a plan, it really doesn’t matter which teeth you floss first. Personally, I start right in the middle of my upper teeth and work my way back on one side and then on the other. Then I do the same thing on the lower teeth. Just find a “floss order” that works for you and stick to it so that you don’t forget to floss any teeth.
6 – Not Flossing Around Dental Appliances
Many people don’t know that if they have fixed dental appliances in their mouth, they need to floss around them. For example, if you have a bridge, it is necessary to use a floss threader, or get something similar to Oral-B Superfloss.
I had braces on my lower teeth when I was a teenager. After I had them removed, the orthodontist cemented a wire that connects to each of my six lower front teeth. This stabilizes them, but also makes it impossible to use conventional floss due to the wire. Because of this, I have to use Superfloss or floss threaders to get under the wire so I can floss and maintain my gum health.
7 – Quitting When Your Gums Bleed
Blood may scare some people when they floss because they think that they are hurting their gums if they bleed. You are not hurting them as long as you’re not flossing too hard (see mistake #3.)
Most likely, the reason they bleed is because they haven’t been flossed in a while and the gum tissue has become red and inflamed. This is a condition known as gingivitis and it occurs because the body is sending more blood to the gum. This is to help the tissue fight all of the plaque that is accumulating. When you floss, you are removing that plaque, and since the tissue is inflamed and engorged with blood, you are causing some of the blood to leak out. After a few days, your gums should return to health and you can floss normally without any bleeding.
8 – Not Spending Enough Time With Your Floss
Most people have 28 teeth if they’ve had their wisdom teeth extracted. When you floss, you need to get both sides of the teeth (even the most posterior teeth – see mistake #4.) That means that there are 56 sides that you need to get. You should be spending a couple of seconds with each side, scraping up and down against the tooth a few times before moving onto the next surface. That means that it will probably take you around two minutes to floss your entire mouth if you have a full set of teeth.
9 – Not Applying Pressure to the Tooth Surface
When you floss, you want to be careful to avoid using too much downward pressure so you don’t damage your gums. However, when you are flossing against the side of a tooth, you want to make sure that you are pushing the floss against the tooth surface enough to be able to remove the plaque.
10 – Only Using Floss to Remove Food
Unfortunately, lots of people think that the only reason for flossing is to remove food that has gotten wedged between their teeth. I think many people end up doing this because they can see the food between their teeth — they can’t see the plaque. An easy solution to this problem is to use a plaque disclosing tablet/solution to visualize the plaque on your teeth.
When you floss, your primary goal should be to scrape against each tooth to remove as much plaque as you can. As long as you are doing this, you should be getting rid of the food between your teeth without even thinking about it.
Floss Correctly and Keep Your Teeth For Your Whole Life
By avoiding these ten common mistakes, you will be able floss more efficiently which will lead to greater oral health. Since many cavities start out between two teeth, you will be able to prevent many cavities by regularly flossing and avoiding these ten flossing mistakes.