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Comment by csunbird | Hacker News Reader

(Not a dentist) Depends on the brush usage and type of the brush I would say, some brushes are not able to pick up small leftover food between teeth. I find it incredibly useful to floss before sleeping, since that is the time where you are guaranteed to not eat or drink anything for a long time, not giving any chance for bacteria to grow.

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I have a Waterpik and also do oil pulling with coconut oil almost every day. Especially with the coconut oil the dentist noticed a difference in gum health even without me telling him.

Last time I checked there was no evidence that oil pulling did anything that normal mouth wash couldn't do better.

For me it feels different , less aggressive. It’s also cheaper. But whatever works for you, do it.

the waterpik is the most useful tool I found this decade. I think I have become over-reliant on it. My teeth barely have any space between them, so I always end up tearing the regular string floss, and I would never be able to reach/cover so many parts of the mouth without a waterpik/ water flosser. Had not heard of oil pulling, thanks!

I use the Crest "Glide" floss; with regular floss, I'm constantly cutting it in half between some of my teeth which are very close together, but the Glide stuff seems to work much better.

Strangely, I've had one dentist tell me Glide floss is horrible and I should use some other floss that's "fluffy" (sorry, can't remember the brand/type, I think it was a J&J product), while more recent dentists give me Glide samples every time I visit. I tried that other dentist's recommended floss for a little while, but it was the absolute worst I tried in terms of tearing; it was basically unusable because it just kept getting ripped in half due to my tight contacts.

Do you find it more or less effective than regular flossing? I've been looking for alternatives to plastic picks/floss. Also they seem to be damaging my gums as I floss too hard

More effective since I barely did any regular flossing before. I have(or had) sensitive gums and I would constantly bleed and I never developed a proper technique and habit with regular floss. with this, it feels like everything between the teeth gets flushed. The string floss still gets used when I am out (no more bleeding) but even once I get home I use the Waterpik, and I can still see some bits I missed. This sounds like an ad but I have been super satisfied with a Mornwell wireless oral irrigator. ideal usecase for a wireless charging station, since I always worried about it being wet near wirea with the older ones I had. I am still waiting for something bad to happen to me since this has helped me too much.

That’s just me but I am fairly certain that the Waterpik benefits my teeth and gums more than flossing. I do both but if I had to drop one it would be flossing.

How long do you pull? Is 2m enough?

Ten minutes. At first I hated the oil but now I kind of like it.

It depends on your teeth too. We can appear to have near perfect teeth, but they can still be compromised in a way that flossing can help.

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