Comic Strips

My dental hygienist actually explained it to me one time.

It has nothing to do with "toughening up your gums" like I used to think. Food gets trapped, bacteria grows, and your gums become inflamed to combat the bacteria. So now your gums are constantly full of blood protecting you from infection and when you do floss (or someone flosses for you), they're going to bleed a lot.

I started flossing habitually every night and wouldn't you know it I've only ever bled or felt pain from flossing when I miss some stupid popcorn shell thats wedged itself down low (which also goes to show, you don't event need to do a particularly good job flossing for it to work 99%)

A bonus tip for folks that don't like garotting their fingertips every night by wrapping them in 6 loops of floss just to get some tension: tie a short piece into a loop, double knotted, and you just pull the loop tight between two fingers. No finger pain, no extra appliance, and it uses less floss.

Extra bonus tip: get proper butlerweave floss. The plastic ribbon bullshit is absolute nonsense. Like trying to wash dishes with a zip lock bag...

Also dentists: "That'll be $1200. I hope you enjoy the rest of your Monday!"

When I was a kid mom and I went to a new dentist. I was a kid and didn’t floss like I should, but this guy kept hitting my gums with the picks and tore up the inside of my mouth. When he was finished, he blamed all the blood on my lack of flossing. Thankfully, when we were driving home mom said, “well we won’t be going back there.” Apparently she also was not impressed with that guy.

Edit: spelling. Dentist did not fart in my mouth. That I know of.

Floss holders are cheap and make it a lot easier to reach the teeth in the back:

Plus you use less floss, and save your fingers.

I used to think the same, then I did thorough dental hygiene and the dental visit was remarkably bloodless.

My weakest gums are weak precisely because I floss there more often.

Those locations happen to be where there's a natural gap between teeth, they're the first place food gets stuck and the first place I have to take a toothpick or floss to. Gentle as I am, that still takes a toll on the gum between them.

There's also been a feedback loop of food getting stuck there making those gaps wider over time, meaning larger food getting stuck and more flossing. Over the course of a few decades, tiny movements add up.

The dentists I've seen are clueless what to suggest; suggesting I floss less would make their heads explode.

When I started actually taking care of me teeth there was a night and day difference between dental appointments where I'd not flossed much or at all since the last appointment and just flossing maybe weekly. Upgrading to daily further improved the experience. Flossing really makes the entire dental process suck so much less and is totally worth it. Also setting a timer to make sure you actually brush for 2 minutes can also be helpful, since you might not realize you've been under-brushing

Water flossing for life

It also bleeds when you floss yourself after not doing it for a long time

My dentist does this to me in the past and I would basically be a bloody mess. I just tried flossing regularly for 6 months straight and my next visit was not bloody at all.

Ugh, I’m 40 now and finally having this problem I have big gaps in my teeth so nothing ever get stuck there thanks to my divorced parents fighting over who pays for braces and it just never getting done.

Now I bleed from this one spot under my gums all the time. It’s not even in a hard to reach place. My body just decided one day “the one, right there, blow it”.

Dentist doesn’t see an infection or anything, I’ve never had a cavity before and still don’t. But time gets us all I guess.

I am so sick of tasting metal all the time!