flossing tools?

[mellowtigger]

The one area where I am unable to reduce my plastic exposure is healthcare. Dental stuff, especially. Because of braces when I was young (and I had headgear that I wore at night), my teeth are crowded together, packed tightly. I have trouble using regular floss with my hands. I rely on those plastic picks, so I can "crunch down" on the plastic arm with my jaw to force the floss between my teeth.

I just crowdfunded a reusable plastic floss device. It wouldn't reduce my plastic exposure, but at least it would reduce my overall plastic usage. It would reduce my impact on the environment, even if not on my own health.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/619706607/flosser-y-fast-swap-firm-grip-flossing-perfected

Does anyone have other items they recommend? I'd likely buy more things to try out, until I find something that I know works well for me.

Comments

[darkoshi]

I may try one of those when it becomes available.

I bought 2 of these last year but unfortunately cannot recommend them:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1698029279/reusable-dental-flosser-swedish-design

They worked ok for a while, although the floss is thicker than I like. The floss is built-in; you can't put just any kind in it. It's not as thick as some floss, but thicker than the POH and Glide which I otherwise use. More importantly, the mechanism which kept the floss tight failed on both so I kept having to retighten the floss multiple times each flossing session. I also ended up breaking one of them.

I went back to using this: https://www.flossgrip.com/
I've bought 4 of them since 2009. They require a good bit of floss for wrapping around the holders, but still less than flossing with your hands. The tips broke off on two of them, but that was after many years of use.

[darkoshi]

Some of my teeth are tight too which is why I have to use thin floss. Even with the flossgrip, I usually have to re-tighten the floss at least once per session. And I have to wrap the floss around the holders more times than it says in the instructions. It occurs to me now that the floss loosens up the most when pushing it through the tight spots, so maybe all typical flossers will have that problem; maybe flossing tools aren't ideal for tight teeth. But using hands isn't ideal either; one reason I stopped that is that the floss wrapped/pulled so tightly around my fingers that it hurt.

The Kickstarter one you linked to has a special design to keep the floss tight, which looks encouraging. I'd be interested to hear how well it works for you once you get one and have tried it out for a while.

I remember looking up floss picks and being intrigued by ones made from "corn starch" and claiming to be biodegradable. But more research indicates they are bioplastic, which require industrial composting with high temperatures to break down, and which rarely happens.
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I also see ones claiming to be made from bamboo charcoal. But from what I've read, that must only refer to the floss itself, and the floss isn't solely made from the charcoal; it is added onto other fibers. Those fibers could be synthetic or cotton. I suspect that most of the flossers which say their floss is biodegradable are using the PLA plastic + bamboo charcoal.

[frith]

Tums. It's an antacid that is basically flavored chalk and it buffers the low pH that is the root of tooth decay. That low pH eats away at the enamel on your teeth and makes the surface rough. You should notice that after one week of chewing one Tums tablet after brushing each night before going to bed, floss will slide very easily between your teeth.

[barak]

As someone who hates flossing for similar reasons... My dentist has suggested I get a water flosser.

[mllesatine]

I just knot the ends of the floss together to get a good grip (so the fingers are in the loops). I also find it a lot easier to use the unwaxed kind where the thread upwells (I don't know if I translated that right).

I'm afraid I don't have other recommendations.