Oasis Dental owner Dr Rick Luu takes us through the steps of flossing your teeth correctly. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Flossing your teeth is an important part of your daily dental hygiene practice. Dr Rick Luu from Oasis Dental says flossing is key to looking after your teeth.
“The basis for all oral health is keeping things things clean. Many people will say they floss their teeth but there are some common mistakes.
“Many people use the floss like a piece of string with an up and down motion between the teeth. all this does is cut a line through the bacteria,” Dr Rick says.
“A piece of string won’t do the job but a blade will.”
How do you turn a piece of string into a blade? Here are Dr Rick’s step by step instructions on how to correctly floss your teeth:
- Cut a decent length of floss, about 30 cm or more.
- Wrap the floss around middle fingers on both hands several times, to create a firm tension with about 1cm of floss taut between your index fingers. This should feel like a stretched piece of wire.
- Using this taut piece of floss, insert it between your teeth and, making sure the floss is tight and flat against your tooth on one side, scrape it up like a blade to remove bacteria.
- Repeat this same motion in the same gap several times, targeting each tooth on the side, front, and back before moving onto the next gap. For every gap, scrape up.
- Make sure to also thoroughly brush your teeth, as flossing needs to be combined with brushing to ensure all of your teeth are fully cleaned.
Flossing will not only keep your teeth clean, but will help you identify any dental issues and also stop the build up of plaque and bacteria before an issue can arise.
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