Healthy gums don’t bleed, and are not painful to floss at all.
I’m in my 30s and only recently learned flossing technique and got my gums healthy. Flossing used to take so long and always involved a lot of bleeding no matter how delicate I was.
These days I’m absolute savage with floss and interdental brushes and never have any blood or pain.
Once you get your gums healthy you’ll be disgusted at yourself for ever not flossing. The amount of disgusting I can floss out on an almost daily basis is insane.
Plus you’re breath will not smell gross anymore.
It’s worth committing to the habit of flossing. Trust me.
Brush light, floss hard. Some minor bleeding from flossing, weirdly, is actually ok. Just go easy on that spot until it's not sore anymore, then ease into going hard again. These two things are mostly what will make getting poked with all that metal shit not bother you so much.
You only need to floss at night. You aren't putting food in your mouth while you sleep.
Electric toothbrushes are legit improvements, not gimmicks. Get one if you can.
“Take care of your teeth” is my go-to “old person’s advice to young people.” Once you realize that dentists can’t really “fix” (as in permanently fix) most problems with your teeth (that you get one set for your whole life), that 5-10 minutes a day to take care of them doesn’t seem like so much.
Seriously, once you have a cavity, there’s a pretty good chance that tooth will eventually become a crown or implant. Once a tooth cracks, it will eventually get worse and have to go. Dentistry is mostly preventative, and for the most part they can really only apply a band-aid to serious problems.
My teeth are just really tightly togheter... I have absolutely no idea where an interdental brush would even go, it just bends and breaks if I try to push it between my teeth. Even getting the floss in there is already hard.
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