Dental Floss and Interdental Brushes — A Winning Team!

Solve Multiple Problems with Multiple Flossing Methods

Walk down the dental hygiene aisle of any pharmacy or grocery store and you will find dental floss. Another type of common tool featured nearby is the interdental brush. Made of tiny brushes affixed to a little handle, interdental brushes (or IDBs) are used to clean in-between your teeth. They are very helpful for our Placerville clients wearing braces and studies have supported their use for ordinary dental patients too. Patients with gum disease especially can benefit from using IDBs. Don’t throw away your dental floss just yet, however, because floss does things that your IDB cannot.

Using Interdental Brushes

Using these little brushes is simple, which is the primary reason they have become a popular substitute for dental floss. Gently insert the brush between your teeth and simply move it back and forth for each pair of teeth. Don’t force the brush between the teeth or you risk harming your enamel or puncturing the gums. The brushes come in different sizes, so people with large gaps between their teeth can go bigger. People with tight teeth can go smaller.

Some clients of the Placerville Dental Group wearing braces, bridges or dental implants may need specific types of IDBs to assist in cleaning their teeth. IDBs are designed to reach spots where a toothbrush or ordinary floss cannot. If you would like more information about these brushes, talk to our staff during your next dental visit.

Don’t Toss the Floss!

Although these brushes are easy to use, we don’t want you tossing your floss from the medicine cabinet. Consider the spots where your teeth touch. A brush doesn’t reach these places and it takes dental floss to clean them properly. Also, your last molar has a gap between it and the gums at the back of your jaw. The only way to clean this part of this tooth is with dental floss.

Create a Winning Dental Hygiene Team!

To summarize, interdental brushes are a great way to easily clean between your teeth. They help remove plaque, assist people with gum disease to reduce the size of their periodontal pockets and are readily available in many sizes. Dental floss is still important, however, because it can clean away plaque in places that brushes cannot reach. So combine IDBs with your favorite dental floss and create a winning hygiene combo that benefits your teeth and your smile!