evening thoughts
Nov. 7th, 2003 04:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chhotiiI ponder the mysteries of flossing.
Is it more effective to floss first and then brush, or to brush first and then floss?
What if I've flossed... and then decide that I am hungry enough for dinner after all? If I had anticipated eating again, I would have waited until after to floss. Was flossing before eating a complete waste of time?
How do I know this isn't a waste of time anyway? It did seem that the dentist spent less time than usual scraping my teeth with that metal hook this last time. But he seemed to think that it was because I was so prompt in getting a cleaning, exactly 6 months after the previous cleaning. I guess a couple of years elapse between, usually.
How many minutes spent flossing are a worthwhile trade-off for one minute spent having my teeth scraped with a metal hook? Am I getting the up-side of that trade?
Surely twisting thin, tough string around my fingers every day for years is bad for the fingers.
Obviously in one of those rebellious moods... where the inner child whines "why am I doing this?" Safer to rebel against flossing than against filing tax returns.
Is it more effective to floss first and then brush, or to brush first and then floss?
What if I've flossed... and then decide that I am hungry enough for dinner after all? If I had anticipated eating again, I would have waited until after to floss. Was flossing before eating a complete waste of time?
How do I know this isn't a waste of time anyway? It did seem that the dentist spent less time than usual scraping my teeth with that metal hook this last time. But he seemed to think that it was because I was so prompt in getting a cleaning, exactly 6 months after the previous cleaning. I guess a couple of years elapse between, usually.
How many minutes spent flossing are a worthwhile trade-off for one minute spent having my teeth scraped with a metal hook? Am I getting the up-side of that trade?
Surely twisting thin, tough string around my fingers every day for years is bad for the fingers.
Obviously in one of those rebellious moods... where the inner child whines "why am I doing this?" Safer to rebel against flossing than against filing tax returns.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-13 03:12 pm (UTC)When I've been neglectful about flossing, my dental hygienist gives me grief about it. Apparently it prevents tartar buildup on the inside of the teeth somehow, which would be why the metal-hook phase then takes less time. There are little flossing widgets that obviate the need to wind it around your fingers.
I have to buy special floss for dealing with my bridge. It has a stiffened end for threading under the bridge and a brush-like section for cleaning under there (otherwise food gets trapped in there and gets really gross.)
no subject
Date: 2003-11-13 03:40 pm (UTC)I barely escaped a root canal this past year - a dentist of lesser talent would not have tried to save the tooth. The dental work itself had to be postponed several months for my gums to recover from years of not flossing and get healthy again. (They get slightly puffy and separate from the roots of your teeth. Your dentist checks your gum health with a teensy measuring stick that he slides down between your tooth and gum. It shouldn't go in very far at all, and it shouldn't cause any bleeding.)
I floss now.