As I’ve started to become more and more invested in my dental health (and I mean invested considering the water pick I’ve purchased to help reverse my gingivitis and the other money I’ve poured into nicer dental gear and better dental insurance), I’m beginning to realize things about my own habits that can be better, changed, or eliminated entirely. For example, I always tend to floss my teeth in the shower in the morning simply because the water is already running (instead of wasting water in the sink) and because it’s a good way to associate flossing while I ramp up my regiment and make this a daily habit, not an optional chore. As weird as flossing in the shower may sound, it’s gotten me to go from never flossing at all (I know, I know) to flossing habitually and seeing the benefits it’s bestowed upon my overall oral health. You see, the longer time goes on with me flossing day in and day out, the more I’m beginning to notice things like my breath smelling better, or my teeth bleeding less, or even my teeth just feeling all around cleaner. And as I notice these things, I become even more steeped in my new routine. One thing I’ve always been curious about, though, is whether people floss before they brush or brush before they floss. Now, I know not everyone pairs the two in the first place and prefers to break up their dental routine throughout the day, but a lot of my friends and family have mentioned flossing at night when they brush before bed. So, it got me thinking about which one most people do first and why.
For me, it can vary, but I try to floss before I brush in order to get as much detritus out of my teeth as I can before the brush comes along and cleans and polishes everything up. This seems like the best (and most efficient) option in my mind. But, brushing first and then flossing after has the added benefit of the fluoride and bristles breaking down food particles a bit more before flossing, so that it’s easier to remove all particles from gaps in your teeth afterwards with whatever floss you use. That’s what leads me to believe both work just fine and that there’s no true “better than the other” scenario happening here. I think dentists would agree that all that matters is getting a flossing in at least once daily in the first place. From there, it’s all semantics.
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Francesco Duffy
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