Which Is the Best Dental Floss?
We’ve been saying that flossing is an essential part of your regular dental care and it is one of those essential bad breath remedies. If you stand in front of the oral hygiene section of your supermarket or health and beauty aids store, you’ll see that it’s easy to be overwhelmed with the choices you have. So which one is the best dental floss for you? The one you will use – that’s which.
I’ve taken a look at flosses and a few studies comparing flosses (Journal of Clinical Periodontology in Blackwell-Synergy http://www.blackwell-synergy.com) and there is not a great deal of difference between individual kinds of dental floss. It is better to go with a floss that doesn’t shred or fray while you are using it. Therefore, if your teeth are very tightly spaced, you will want to go with a fine thread floss or one that is more slippery. A wide tape works well between widely spaced teeth, but it will fray while trying to slide between teeth that are tight together. A slippery floss doesn’t pick up plaque as easily as a less slick thread, but it will do better than one that breaks whenever you try to use it.
If you have difficulty flossing your teeth, you might look into the different type of floss appliances. Because at the moment I’m wearing braces on my teeth, I use dental floss threaders, which look like huge plastic sewing needles, with regular dental floss. In pre-braces days, I liked using a woven floss, but now it catches on my brackets. You can also find floss in short sections that have one end that is stiffened to help thread it through braces or bridge-work. Floss holders come with the floss already attached to a holder, so all you need to do is hold the handle and insert the floss between your teeth. This will work well for people who have trouble with manual dexterity.
There are floss coatings. Some are flavored, to leave you with a taste of freshness in your mouth when you are done. The flavor has nothing to do with the effectiveness of the floss. Wax coated floss will glide between your teeth more smoothly than the non-waxed varieties. Some flosses come with a fluoride coating. For stopping halitosis, I prefer the Therabreath suggestion of coating my floss with one of their bad breath prevention products. Flossing twice will make this even more effective – remove plaque the first time, oxygenate the second time. Or do it just once to save time.
As I said at the start, the best floss for you is the one that you will use regularly. If you don’t use it, it won’t work. Good luck!
