Jason asks:
Dear Todd,
Do you floss before or after you brush your teeth?
Jason, this is a very good question. Dental hygiene, as most of you know, is an extremely important issue in my life. Even when I was a child and I had only one tooth, I would brush the shit out of that tooth. Teeth have always been a major part of my life, from my younger days looking like Sloth, to my days as a brace face, to my days wearing head gear, and even to my current days with my immaculate pearly whites. With all my various teeth issues I've had no choice but to place dental hygiene high up on my list of important issues. Lord knows I've had enough dental problems, and I don't want the likes of excessive tartar or plaque buildup to be added to the list.
In all honesty, I didn't begin to floss my teeth until recently. I always thought I should, but I was always afraid of moving my teeth with the floss (Don't ask, I'm really paranoid when it comes to the movement of my teeth). However, I knew I wasn't completely living up to the high standards of dental hygiene I had set for myself without flossing. And so, about a year ago, I began flossing my teeth every night.
Currently, I floss my teeth after I brush. I do this because I want to get all the big stuff out of the way before I go after the smaller stuff hidden inbetween the cracks. I wash my teeth, then I rinse, then I floss my teeth, then I rinse again to make sure nothing gets left behind. I feel that if you were to floss before brushing you might just brush some of that tiny stuff right back in there. On the flip side, brushing after flossing does ensure that everything is out there in the open so it can be brushed away. It's a tough choice, but I feel as though I have made the right one. Perhaps one day I'll reverse the order of my brushing and flossing, and when that day comes you'll be the first to know how it goes.
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1 comment:
The Bod
I think you do have the flossing down in the wrong order. I don't floss as often as I should, and you once again changed my life for the better convincing me to floss every day, but I think you got to floss before brushing.
Flossing gets everything loose and a quick mouth rinse spits that out. Anything that remains will surely be moved away by the brush. Also, if you don't floss often you bleed when you do, therefore it's important to deal with the bleeding early on in the oral hygine routine. Lastly, flossing is more important to your overall oral hygine so doing it first means you're more likely to do it.
I guess if you floss and brush it shouldn't matter really, but flossing first just seems like the right play every time.
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