How to Upgrade Your Flossing Technique

No matter how you slice it, dragging a piece of string between your teeth and across tender mouth tissue isn’t an appealing notion. However, if you tweak a few tendencies, you’ll find flossing can be as pleasant and refreshing as a candlelit massage. Here are some tips to up your game from careless cleaner to floss boss: 

1. Floss with gentle movements in the pockets and the gum pillow in between each tooth.
2. Give extra attention as you wrap the floss around the backside of your back teeth and remove sneaky gunk (most of us neglect this step).
3. Go delicate with your gums. Your goal is to remove stuck debris, not test how hard you can slam your gums until they bleed.
4. Go rogue and floss in front of the TV or in bed (or at the mall, or on a date, or…).
5. Hit your thumb with a drop of your favourite essential oil and pull along the floss string for a flavour boost and to block quorum sensing (plaque’s communication method).
6. Make flossing a game - challenge yourself to remove as much visible scum as possible (rather than just mechanically pulling the string through the ol’ chompers).
7. Use a habit tracker to measure how often you're actually flossing. 
8. As motivation, imagine how smug you’ll feel when your dentist asks about your flossing habits.