What is a dental floss?

What is a dental floss?
Dental floss is a thread of nylon or plastic that is used to remove remaining food or plaque on teeth. To floss one's teeth, one must gently insert the thread between the teeth and then scrape the thread to the sides of the teeth. Dental floss are commonly available in plastic containers that contain 10 to 50 meters long. To get a thread of dental floss, on must get the desired amount of 1/2 ft and cut the long thread of floss by pulling it against the side of the container/dispenser or pulling it against the protected blade on the side of the floss container.

How to floss your teeth?
To start flossing your teeth, you must hold both ends of the floss tight. Guide the dental floss between your teeth to remove the remaining food particles and plaque. You can also guide the floss under the gumline to remove particles of food stuck and bacterial plaque. When using a C-shape, you can also curve the dental floss around your teeth, place it under the gumline and move it away from the gumline. The floss will scrape the surface of your tooth removing the food particles and plaque. You must avoid transmitting plaque from one tooth to another by using the clean section of floss. You must be careful when flossing to avoid bleeding of gums. If you experience bleeding you might have gingivitis that causes inflammation of the gingival tissue.

How often should you floss your teeth?
You must floss your teeth at least once a day or after you brush your teeth. Dentists advice to curve the floss as an effective method of flossing one's teeth and then wipe the tooth from under the gumline gently to the tip three times.

Advanced technique in flossing
Vibration is a common technique in flossing your teeth. This is useful to avoid gums from bleeding. Conventional flossing ussually requires a significant pressure to be applied on floss to get it through between teeth. However, this conventional flossing technique leads to accidentally hitting the gumline and eventually causing to bleed. When using vibration technique, the vibration transfers through the floss originating from the ends. Since the vibration causes subtle movement, the floss will be pressed down easily. The movement also helps temporarily separate the gums and teeth for floss to get through. With the help of vibration, it would be easier to push the floss into the gap between teeth. There will be a significantly less pressure applied to it, thus, avoiding the floss to accidently pop through the teeth and hit the gums which eventually leads to bleeding.