Dentist Austin: Dental Picks or Floss?

If you’re looking to pick up a product to floss your teeth, you might notice that there are quite a few choices out on the market. Nowadays, there’s traditional floss – and sure – there’s flavored floss too. But there are plenty of products on the market called dental picks, inter-dental picks, or back-of-mouth floss picks. These latter aforementioned products – which come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and specializations – do muddle the world of flossing. However, the secrets to flossing properly are simple, because they are universal:

Floss & Pick Gently

Regardless of the tools you choose to use to get the job done, you’ll want to be careful and gentle with your teeth and gums. Don’t be forceful with your flossing or picking, and let your floss or pick do all the work. Flossing should be easy, and relatively pain free.

Use a Back & Forth “Sawing” Technique

Think of picks and floss as similar to a tooth brush. You use your toothbrush bristles to clean the entire accessible surface of a tooth. Likewise, with floss and picks, you’ll want to clean all parts in between your teeth. Use a sawing motion along the entire height of a tooth to ensure total cleanliness.

Clean All Parts of All Teeth

Again, you’ll need to clean all parts of your teeth to maintain your oral health. Be sure to use your floss and picks against both surfaces of the teeth you’re flossing between. Your goal is to relieve your teeth of food particles so that the foam of your toothpaste can clean and repair all parts of a tooth.

Floss & Pick Frequently

Floss your teeth at least twice a day. Make it a good habit! Lot’s of people enjoy flossing after every meal. It feels good to get all those little bits of food out from between your teeth!