Super-secret tooth poll.

[moominmolly]

Okay, I'm curious. I swear, I'm posting this for a friend. Honest. Just don't ask dilletante about my little toothbrush habit. The answers are blocked so nobody can see what your preferences are.

[Poll #541412]

Comments

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

i also have a "sulca brush" that i sometimes use instead of flossing. or in addition, if i am feeling particularly like being busy with my teeth.

[tla]

I have so been meaning to write this poll. For years. Seriously.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Me too. I'm actually kind of amazed that the "floss first" and "brush first" numbers are remaining just about even. I figured I was either squarely in the minority or the majority; I didn't realize it was total chaos out there.

I asked my dental hygienist about this a week or two ago, and she said I could do it either way, whichever I preferred. Why does that seem so weird?

[szasz.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much. Now the word "rinse" looks to me like it's misspelled.

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

Yes! Like if you say the word "porch" over and over again until it starts to sound really funny.

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

I advocate my extreme rinsing philosophy only because I often use Listerine to prevent gum disease, which runs in my family.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

You are so extreme!

Two things

[spike.livejournal.com]

First, it occurs to me, a brush-the-floss guy that floss-then-brush probably gets more area cleaner than the way I do it now. Hrm!

And second, Yikes has peered into my mouth several times now and asked me what those silver things are in my mouth. "Fillings," I answer. "Why do you have 'fillings' in your mouth?" she asks. And I decide to give the most honest answer I can, sprinkled with a little parently put-the-fear-of-god-into-em, "Well, when I was a kid, I didn't brush my teeth well enough, and I didn't floss well enough, and my teeth sort of broke, and got little holes in them called 'cavities'. And because of the cavities then I had to go to the teeth-doctor, the 'dentist', and he had to clean out the cavities in my teeth with a special tool, and then he filled them up with silver, and I was all better. I didn't like it."

Subsequently, when she peers into my mouth, she points them out and says "when you were a kid you didn't brush your teeth very well?" I reply "No, I didn't. And I didn't floss very well." She hastily responds with "I brush my teeth very well and I floss very well!" And for a two-and-a-half-year old, she does!

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

I do not floss, ever. My teeth are large and my mouth is overcrowded; there is no gap, not even a little one, between *any* of my teeth. I can force floss between them but IT HURTS and makes my gums bleed, everytime. Emphasis on IT HURTS.

[gentlescholar.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've never understood how blood and pain are supposed to be helpful, except for the one or two tiny gaps I have that catch food, and then there is an obvious point to flossing, and a noticable lack of blood and pain.

[harimad.livejournal.com]

I hear you. I have lots of fillings so flossing was a nontrivial exercise. I'm sure your dentist has pointed out that not flossing leads to food between teeth, leads to bacteria between teeth, leads to infections between teeth, leads to tender gums or gum disease and recession.

Glide ribbon is much better than the old-fashioned stuff. Even waxed floss makes a big difference. If you can't use string at all, try a dental toothpick or flosspick. They're something like plastic toothpicks, sold in the floss section. They don't get forced between your teeth, they're inserted at teeth's base.

[hakamadare.livejournal.com]

heh, you and me too. being forcibly flossed (by someone who is not connected in any way to the nerve endings in my gums) is my single most disliked aspect of going to the dentist, even worse than the damnable fluoride gel/rinse that makes me feel like puking for an hour afterwards.

-steve

[twoeleven.livejournal.com]

your poll doesn't even have the right paradigm for my oral hygiene fetish. :)

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

How mysterious. I will let myself believe that you use nanotechnology to clean your teeth.

dbang's patented flossing method

[dbang.livejournal.com]

Here's my flossing secret: I'm really really bad about including flossing as part of my usual dental hygeine routine. I was one of those "floss religiously for 2 weeks after every dentist visit" people. Then I discovered the Reach flosser, which is awesome. However, this really only meant I was now flossing once a week instead of once a month. Until I discovered that flossing and brushing don't have to go together at all. So now I keep my Reach flosser at my desk (in my home office, where I do most of my work) sitting in front of my monitor. It has replaced all my other fidget toys; now when I want to fidget, I floss using my cool flosser. Now I floss every day, several times a day even, but only one or two teeth at a time. I have no idea how often I do a *full* floss, but apparently whatever I'm doing is effective, as my hygeinist raved about my flossing at my last visit. :-)

Re: dbang's patented flossing method

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

HAAA! That is very much like what I do. Except I don't like the Reach flosser, since I will basically only use ribbon floss or tape -- I find it hurts me less, and it's easier to get between my teeth. So, I use Glide floss picks (http://www.crest.com/glide/flossPicks.jsp) and hope that nobody sneaks up on me when I'm doing that, or I take a little walk and go floss in the bathroom on another floor. I don't know why I do it on another floor. I don't think there's any dental science behind that.

I wish there was a flosser like the Reach flosser that used tape rather than floss!

Re: dbang's patented flossing method

[harimad.livejournal.com]

I wish I could do that, but I need a mirror to see what I'm doing.

Re: dbang's patented flossing method

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

How clever!

Part of the reason I have never picked up the flossing habit is that I can't figure out how to get my big paws far enough into my mouth to make flossing convenient. Now that we've discovered disposable floss picks, maybe I'll take a bag to work and do exactly this!

[gentlescholar.livejournal.com]

flossing is evil. on the other hand, my dentists always tell me not to brush my teeth so much or so hard; I'm destroying my gums with my vigor.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Wow! Interesting. I get some joy out of using soft toothbrushes, since they feel less scary, but then, I've never ben chastized for overbrushing. :)

My dentists always exclaim at how huge my teeth are and how small my mouth is. Most of them also get around to asking me if I "experience an excess of saliva", which sounds like a clinical way to describe a very bad date.

[razil.livejournal.com]

Although I spent many years being scared of them, afraid I'd put my eye out, I absolutely love my Oral B electric toothbrush which has magic technology that doesn't let you apply too much pressure. This is especially useful as a bit of expected recession sets in with age. It's even better than soft toothbrushes.

[freshwater-pr0n.livejournal.com]

Also - I always clean my tongue with a scraper. It's essential!

[amber-phoenix.livejournal.com]

I was just gonna mention that she skipped "scrape" as a step. I floss, brush, scrape, rinse - more or less.

[moonshadow.livejournal.com]

It wasn't on there, but:

I rinse with mouthwash. Then I floss. Then I brush. Then I rinse with water.

(The sticking point is that I don't rinse between flossing and brushing, as far as not fitting into a pre-determined category.)

I also brush my tongue.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

You know, it *was* on there, originally -- every permutation of (potentially repeated) rinsing and (unrepeated) flossing and brushing was. But it just looked like SOOO many options, that I decided to take out the "rinse-first" options. I was wrong!

I always brush my tongue, too, and sometimes even the roof of my mouth if I'm feeling gross. My dental hygienist just recommended brushing the insides of my cheeks, sometimes. That's a damn lot of brushing, lady.

[dnereverri.livejournal.com]

I floss, but I'm regretting it. I didn't go to a dentist between around 1986 and 1999, and never flossed at all. My teeth were, in fact, too tightly packed together to fit in floss.

Then I got a cavity, and when I went in to get it filled, let the dentist fast-talk me into flossing. Now, my teeth feel vaguely loose all the time, and get stuff caught between them much more often... And I suspect my cavity frequency is on its way up.

I'd stop, but I figure it's too late; my teeth are unlikely to tighten up again without braces, so it's a loss. Sigh...

(Rantrantrantrantrant... :)