Is It Necessary to Use a Water Flosser Every Day?

 Water flossers have been around for a long time, but they are only recently becoming popular with people and dentists. Even though noted for becoming a tiny mess at the beginning, moving to cordless water flosser might have incredible long-term advantages on your dental health. When you constantly battle with flossing or don’t undertake it as often as you ought to, choosing a new water flosser is a superb option.

The benefits of water flosser

Research shows that water flossing is just as effective, if not more effective, at cleaning between teeth than traditional flossing.

Consider these water flosser benefits if you're unsure about using one.

Minimum abrasion

With traditional flossing, you need to drag the floss down each side of your teeth and then up. For people with crowded teeth or who aren't using the correct technique, flossing can cut or inflame the gums, causing swelling, redness, and even bleeding.

Water flosser requires no force at all, and the water rinses the spaces between your teeth and around your gums, so abrasions and cuts are less of an issue.

Great for braces

Flossing can be difficult for someone with braces, but still needs to get food particles and plaque out of the spaces between teeth, even those that get stuck in wires and brackets. A water flosser for braces makes it easier and more effective to get into those hard-to-reach places.

Ideal for patients with reduced mobility

People with arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, or other problems that can affect hand or wrist movement may not be able to use traditional flossing. For people with these challenges, holding a water flosser is often much simpler.

Deep cleaning

Traditional string floss can reach areas below the gum line, but it also won't work if periodontal pockets or voids develop due to gum disease or gingivitis. Water flossing cleans the pockets around the gums more deeply and eliminates more bacteria, which minimizes the risk of infection and improves overall gum health.

Healthier gums

In addition to removing plaque and bacteria in periodontal pockets around the gums and below the gum line, a water flosser works by massaging the gum tissue as it works. This increases and improves circulation, which promotes cellular health and cell growth while reducing inflammation in tissues.

Easy to use

When you are cleaning your teeth with a water flosser, you simply trace around each tooth near the gum line, pausing between each tooth to clean those tight spaces. Flossing is so much easier for anyone who may be less dexterous, has arthritis, or can't put their fingers in the back of the mouth due to a sensitive gag reflex!

Gentler on your mouth

Do your gums hurt every time you floss? Maybe using a thin string feels like it's cutting your gum tissue, or you bleed every time you floss? Working with a thin string can sometimes be so painful that you don't want to try to use it often. Fortunately, this is not the case with a water flosser for teeth and gums.

Because water flossing uses a gentle stream of water to clean your teeth and gums, it tends to be more comfortable than traditional flossing. Especially in close contact, it feels like you are "biting" the floss between your teeth. Flossing usually doesn't cause any irritation. Some itching is normal if your gums are sensitive. Fortunately, these problems tend to go away as you get used to water flossing. More irritated gum tissue, such as areas with chronic gum disease, may feel a little tender or itchy when you begin cleaning, but discomfort is less likely.

How Often Should I Use a Water Flosser?

Flossing is often a forgotten task, even if you remember to brush twice a day. While surprisingly more than half of the American men don't brush their teeth twice a day, and women aren't ahead of them either, only 56.8 percent of American women brush their teeth twice a day.

So how often should you use a water flosser? We now know that whether you choose to floss or water floss, experts recommend daily flossing, but since everyone's oral condition is different, you may need to tweak it a bit. The benefits of water flossing multiple times a day to remove stubborn food debris will outweigh the risks of one over-flossing session. Or, if you have to floss harder one day to remove food, you may want to relax or wait a day or two before flossing next time to prevent injuring or damaging your gums.

Should I Floss First or Brush First?

Regular water flossing, whether you floss before or after brushing, will benefit your oral health. For best results, though, you'll want to floss first, and here are the reasons:

Flossing removes large food particles or plaque, which means your toothbrush will be more effective. It can now reach areas that would otherwise be blocked by debris.

Not only is it more effective, but you can better see the results of water flossing. When you floss your teeth, you'll see how much debris your water flosser has removed and you'll naturally want to use it more. This extra motivation is a huge boost to maintaining your oral hygiene in the long run, not just in the short term.

That being said, if you prefer to brush your teeth first, don't let us put you off. Flossing is an important task no matter what, so it's more important that you continue to floss regularly than worry about the order.

Final Thoughts

You should now have a better understanding of how to get the most out of your water flosser.

The most important thing to remember is that it's not the order, nor the time of day, that matters, but the act of flossing your teeth regularly, ideally once a day. Get used to it when it suits you, while brushing twice a day with a routine you can stick to, and you'll improve and maintain your oral health for years to come.

Cited from https://binicare.com/blogs/binicare-blog/is-it-necessary-to-use-a-water-flosser-every-day