Reminds me of this comic!
Why is there so many of these backwards ass medical memes on here today? This one came from another post
This is one of few memes i really dislike. It is true, if you floss or use interdental brushes your gums wont bleed.
It’s such an easy thing you can test for yourself I’m kind of surprised so many people don’t understand that it works. Do you also ignore the advice you get from doctors?
80% of US doctors don’t know basic anatomy (a statistic i derived from the medical CPEs i taught), so yes I generally do ignore advice they give
some dentist are scammy asf, a notable one in our area just tries to peddle DEEP CLEANING solely and others, tyring to peddle expensive procedures. i also bought back teeth flosser for molars, which the sideways one are not good at, very useful.
They don’t do that if you floss daily, barring gum disease. Once you start it’s going to feel gross to not do it daily.
But then your teeth end up looking like this instead of nicely packed in with plaque
I love a Flapjack reference!
Interdental brushes are the way! No more gum issues since I started, and one habit I’m proud I developed. I had an xray where they showed how much the bacteria had eaten away at my roots - scared straight.
doesnt fit in between my teeth at all
Mine are pretty damn tight too but with the thinnest brush eventually it worked, and felt less and less disturbing. It’s the gap by the gums you need to reach, not between the teeth themselves. For that I floss. I try to alternate the two, but it’s really more about the gum area.
My teeth are so packed together my current dentist literally told me to just not even bother trying to floss my self. I’m more likely to hurt myself or waste my time.
Just use a water pick.
Well, yeah. That’s the nookie for all the plaque to evade the brush.
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My wisdom teeth were growing sideways without me realizing for 29 years of my life so they had to be removed. They appointed me to this dentist that told me since they were so big and doing so much presure against the other teeth they had to be sliced up in pieces so she could extract them piece by piece.
This girl did put so much force and did so much pressurre against my jaw it dislocated and I felt like she was tearing it apart from my skull. I put my fist below it but felt like she was about to sink it in my chest. Did some mumbling due to the pain and discomfort (and because I was a bit scared too) and she had the audacity to, basically, call me a pussy.
Without knowing if youve had other teeth pulled its hard to decide if shes right or not
i had a oral surgeon remove 2 of my bottom ones. i prefer those over a dentist. better safe then sorry.
Too many folks ITT with bad oral hygiene. Brush your teeth twice a day and floss at least once a day. I grew up in a very poor area and seeing sick folks who also had rotten and missing teeth made me realize how much dental health is connected with someone’s overall health.
Fuck it I’m not flossing daily. It’s annoying enough to occasionally clean my braces.
I actually get nauseous while touching the inside of my mouth with a toothbrush (or when standing for too long, so that problem might be exclusive to me).
I’d rather just kill myself than have to brush more than two times a day and floss regularly.
there are interdental floss, which are designed for braces. water flosser helps,dislodge food, but you need an actual floss to prevent tartar.
The majority of people can’t fit those between their teeth, and a not small number can’t even get floss between the majority or all of their teeth.
Water picks are the way.
If you have braces you really should have a water flosser. I’m kind of surprised your ortho didn’t recommend one, as mine made it a requirement
Well, they just recommended two different toothbrushes and a specialized toothpick. It takes ~40 mins to clean it all with a toothpick. So I just do it before my appointment. But at least I brush them semi regularly.
And yes, I do have tartar in some places, I just can’t clean and would probably also have it if I regularly took care of my teeth.
also electric toothbrush is useful too, sonic and rotating.
im so upset mine broke recently, my god it feels good, and quick and easy!
You can look forward to losing all your teeth later in life then.
Yay. I’ll probably die at 50 anyway.
I’ve often imagined a little comic strip where a dentist goes to the doctor. the doctor draws blood for tests, or gives an injection, or just pokes/cuts the dentist for no reason. the doctor then says “you’re bleeding because you don’t shower enough”
There is one like that out there, although the doctor says it’s because he hasn’t been flossing.
You make me remember that girl making a painting of a greek man taking residence in front of her shower, charging her to use it, because she dreamt it.
(Jams sharp objects into gums)
You have some sensitivity caused by not flossing!
“your teeths enamel is so important for dental health! That’s why I’m going to have this bored 23 year old woman scratch the fuck out of your teeth so they develop cavities later!”
Also last time I was at a dentist appointment check out when I told the lady I didn’t have insurance I’ll never forget the look of disgust she gave me. Is that because they get more money from insurance companies than they get from people who pay out of pocket? They charge higher prices to insured people, right?
they assume you wont agree to more procedures down the line or pay more? it its a double edge sword.
i saw a dentist recently out of pocket for emergency tooth pain, it costed 270 for a limited exam on those teeth(not whole mouth). then they try to convince me to do a full cleaning and exam for more twice that much. there are dentist that arnt charging that amount out of pocket. just got google around look at yelp reviews(helpful in looking at seedy dentists, or low cost). dental school/universities are a thing but i noticed they take a very long time to even onboard you, so its not all that useful in the end(especially needed something like cavity filling or more extreme extraction/root canals.) i currently have that same tooth that is much more sensitive than before but they arnt interested in investigating further since it failed the cold test(they apply something cold on the surface of the teeth to determine which one illicit a painful sensitivity response)
also certain insurance might not be accepted by different dentists too.
You gave her the poor person ick
If I was poor how do you think I was able to pay out of pocket? I just didn’t have dental insurance because I didn’t have a job (which is the only way US citizens can get healthcare) because I had enough money that I didn’t need a job.
I’m not saying it makes sense just explaining the reaction.
Well then I should’ve given HER the “poor person ick face” right back because that poor lady had to sit there working a pathetic job all day 🤣
Let he who flosses each and every day poke the first gum!
if you’re not using an electric toothbrush with a rotating head that’s on the level of a $30 sonicare or oral B toothbrush you’re killing your teeth through negligence
Like, no, for real, if you’re reading this and don’t have one stop whatever the fuck you are doing and purchase one immediately
What dentists are y’all going to?
Ones that don’t whittle on about flossing. In fact, one told me he preferred it if people didn’t because they were just pushing bacteria into their gums.
you are probably flossing it wrong, you arnt suppose to jam it into the gums that will cause erosions and bleeding, and potential infection. also just move it from side to side once, not SAW it like you are sawing wood. depending on which flosser you are using. you do and “up and down motion”
It took me over 10 dentist before I found one that actually flossed my teeth correctly during cleanings. Had one go so hard I ended up having them rip my gums open.
It’s absurdly common for lazy or shitty dentists to be way overly forceful. A lot of dentists are just generally really fucking shit at their job.
It also varies wildly based on where you are. Some places you would be hard-pressed to find a bad dentist while in others it’s basically all you have.
One of my worse dentists actually pushed so hard on one of my teeth with a pick he cracked it and fucked my gums up. Felt like I got punched in the god damn jaw.
Don’t go back to that dentist… There’s a ton of research that proves flossing works as intended. Bacteria are really small, they don’t need assistance to go into your gums. The point of flossing is that it removes the food and biofilm that gets stuck between teeth that bacteria feed upon and multiply.
It definitely at least stops plaque from forming, which otherwise irritates the gums so they eventually recede. Some people somehow just don’t get plaque for some reason so in that case it’s maybe pointless, but most people do.
It is funny though how dentists still feel closer to some kind of village shaman. Each performing their weird rituals, absolutely convinced that they’re correct and all others are clearly wrong. Probably because they’re not actual doctors and also happen to have a horrible monetary conflict of interest to let people have terrible teeth.
Some people somehow just don’t get plaque for some reason so in that case it’s maybe pointless, but most people do.
Brushing twice a day, properly (with good toothpaste and a good electric toothbrush) basically eliminates the need for flossing.
EDIT: ITT, people who don’t realize flossing is terribly ineffective and hasn’t been recommended by the US government for a decade now, because studies showed that the floss wire doesn’t provide enough friction to actually effectively clean anything. If you find that despite thorough brushing you still build up plaque, occasionally use a toothpick instead.
Nope, not even with an electric one. It doesn’t get into the areas between the teeth at all if you’re using it at intended pressures.
A proper toothbrush has bristles for that specific purpose… Proper toothpaste gets into those areas too to help remove any plaque. If you maintain it properly, there’s no reason to floss in addition.
In fact, flossing is a terrible way to remove plaque. The wire itself doesn’t provide enough friction to remove just about anything. It’s why the US government hasn’t recommended daily flossing since 2016. It’s nice you can get a wire in between your teeth, unfortunately you’re not really cleaning anything with it there.
If you find you’re still building up plaque even after brushing thoroughly, use a toothpick instead, that is a more effective way to clean it.
No.
Whoa. Citations on this? I rememberJeff Donn did an expose on this released by the AP in 2016 and it turns out that there really wasn’t good quality data on flossing at all. Has this changed since then?
Determining what is and isn’t quality data is kinda open to semantic interpretation. The reason there isn’t a huge study like what you see with cancer or heart disease is because something like flossing is dependent on accurate and honest self reporting from participants. And it’s not exactly something you can really tell if your participants are being diligent or not at a large scale.
Admittedly that’s the best I’ve seen as far as data. TbF, not exactly a “ton of research”. As alluded to in the meme, my dentist always seems to think they can tell at least roughly how well I’m flossing.
There are quite a few more small sample studies out there, like I said it’s just something that is hard to accurately case study at a large scale because it relies primarily on participants accurately reporting a specific habit.
It’s anecdotal, but most dentists claim they can tell if someone flosses regularly. It makes sense, as people who floss more regularly will have less plaque and biofilm building up between teeth.
I don’t really see why people are so skeptical about it. If the main benefit of brushing is to mechanically remove plaque and biofilm from the surface of teeth, it would make sense that mechanically removing the plaque and biofilm between the teeth would also be effective.
Just because there is an absence of a study that encompasses thousands of people for a claim, doesn’t mean there is no supporting evidence. I mean who would even pay for that large of a study for research for flossing anyways, and how would it be conducted?
lol bad dentist. Flossing is the only thing that has stopped my teeth from falling apart. Went from a cavity or root canal every couple years to near perfect checkups time after time. I brushed before, too.
it prevents tartar buildup on the gum lines, otherwise its very difficult to move without dentists appointments. there are toothpaste or tools, but those are not reccommended.
Naw don’t say that I just started flossing daily ;-;
They are gaslighting you to justify them sucking at their job
A simple Google search would explain why it happens.
