How to Floss Back Teeth

Keeping your mouth healthy is extremely important for the prevention of dental caries. This cannot be done without proper flossing. It’s sometimes and often times a true struggle to reach your far back teeth. How many of you have tried to reach your far-back molars and thought it a challenge?

Below are the tips and tricks to floss the challenging area of your mouth.

Relax your cheeks:

This is the most underrated yet effective tip anyone could give you. The tip is, instead of opening your mouth thoroughly, try opening it just a little. Even though it appears counterintuitive to barely open your mouth when trying to get into your mouth, this truly works. Let us tell you how.

Slightly opening your mouth allows your cheeks to be super flexible, allowing you to reach the far back areas. Try this trick, and you’ll see the difference.

Use of proper technique:

The crux of proper oral hygiene is to use the correct technique for every tooth cleaning device. Two such methods are to be used in cases of floss. The spool technique is for adults, whereas the loop technique is for children. These techniques will enable you and your children to clean the last molars effectively.

The spool technique involves the following steps;

1. Take 15 to 20 inches of floss and wind it around the middle fingers of both hands so that 1 to 2 inches are left in between the thumb and index finger.

2. With the use of “zig-zag motion,” clean all surfaces of your teeth.

3. Using fresh sections of the loop, clean all interdental spaces in the same way.

The Loop technique involves the following steps;

1. Take 25 cm of dental floss.

2. Tie the two ends of the floss to form a loop.

3. Hold the floss so that the thumb and index finger are opposed to each other.

4. Using a fresh section of the loop, clean all interdental spaces in the same way.

Use of water flosser:

Advancements in technology have taken oral care to a whole new level. One such piece of technology is a water flosser. In the past couple of years, it has gained popularity and is used by people worldwide. Water flossers can remove plaque, tartar, and bacteria much more effectively than traditional flossing. Oclean offers two of the best water flossers from its innovative series;

· Oclean W10 Water Flosser

· Oclean W1 Portable Dental Water Flosser

The feature of multiple flossing modes and long battery life makes them one of a kind.

Use of long piece of floss:

If you still face the problem of reaching back teeth, try increasing the amount of floss between the fingers. A loose piece of floss will be more mobile and could be easily manipulated for cleaning complex surfaces. The length of floss can be increased up to 3 inches or more until the floss reaches the farthest surface of the last molar.

Use of floss pick:

The floss pick has a body and two projections with a piece of floss stretched between them. The design of the floss pick allows them to be used for cleaning back teeth. In addition, if you’re in a rush and don’t intend to spoil your lipstick, floss picks can be your go-to.

However, there are some associated disadvantages with floss picks. One of the most common among all is that they are less effective for subgingival cleaning.

Bottom line:

There are multiple options when searching for ways to floss back teeth effectively. All these options have been aforementioned in the article.

The take-home message is to floss regularly because it’s better to floss than not do it and use smart toothbrush as it is much more efficient. On the other hand, use smart toothbrush instead of normal one as it is much more efficient.

*Cover image from Freepik, we will delete it if constitutes infringement *