Not bragging about anything. They tell me to floss and I don't. It is harder than hell to do with my teeth packed as tight as they are and it hurts. When they do it they understand what I am talking about and stop pestering me until the next time I go and see a different hygenist who doesn't know me.

After an accident 2 years ago I have a left arm with 3 plates and 23 screws and an elbow that won't bend any tighter than 90 degrees. I can barely eat a sandwich with 2 hands, let alone touch my mouth with my left hand.

 

Thanks for the info on a water pik.

 

True, untrue?

 

does that work on dentures?

 

just drop em in the denture tub and drop in the cleaning tab

plop plop fizz fizz oh what oops wrong ad!

I cant seem to get floss between 'teeth' on my dentures

 

Bleeding should decrease or even stop with regular flossing. but you need a professional examination/cleaning on a regular basis to prevent tooth loss later in life due to periodontitis. Of course, once you have lost your teeth, you no longer have to worry about it!

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gevans17

You guys who don't floss and then brag that you dont get cavities are totally missing the boat. You are putting yourself at risk for tooth loss due to gum disease later in life. Periodontal disease usually is painless and has few signs (except bleeding gums) until it reaches the advanced stage. By that time, it has destroyed the bone supporting the roots of the teeth and it may be too late to save some of your teeth. If you brush and floss your teeth tonight and have blood in the sink when you are done, you are at risk for tooth loss. Forget the Water Pik. It is great for flushing out loose food particles, but the bacteria in the mouth form a sticky plaque film along the gum line, which must be mechanically removed via brush and floss. In addition to tooth loss, the bacteria in the mouth and below the gum line have recently been associated with heart disease, due to the inflammation present.

I found out the hard way that this info is correct, growing up I never used floss and wasn't taught to I had great teeth only one cavity when I was 13 now fast forward 25yrs and I have had a ton of problems with my teeth they are all loose and I had one fall out on its own they are to far gone from gum disease,you can drive a truck thru the spaces I have in them.
I just have to much bone loss for anything to be done and without insurance I can't afford to see a periodontist to see if I can save the little teeth I have left.

 

For those who mentioned difficulty getting floss between your teeth, check out dental tape. It's right next to floss on the shelf at the store, and works the same way...but it has a different shape. Kind of a flat, wide ribbon instead of a round string...

Much easier to get into tight places.

 

Oops. You reminded me of something else the dentist told me. All my gums are tight and strong. The only time I have bad breath is after I've eaten a clove of raw garlic. I, too, have big hands and a small mouth. Flossing just ain't gonna happen unless I go to the dentist. Not bragging, it's just the way it is.

Jason

 

Small mouth? I heard you had a 'big mouth'.
Just kidding, Jason.

Ever think about using something like this, a Reach Access Flosser?
REACH® ACCESS™ FLOSSER

 

My boss doesn't floss regularly, and he's got the @ss breath to prove it. All of that food stuck in between your teeth begins decaying and stinking if you don't remove it.

 

And don't forget that when you don't floss and see you dentist on a
regular basis, your PH in your mouth changes, probably causing bad breath
and other decaying activities.

 

We now recognize that bacterial infections are an independent risk factor for heart diseases," said Howard Jenkins of the University of Bristol in Britain, at a meeting of the Society for General Microbiology in Dublin.

"In other words, it doesn't matter how fit, slim or healthy you are, you're adding to your chances of getting heart disease by having bad teeth," the professor said.

There are up to 700 different bacteria in the human mouth, and failing to scrub one's pearly whites helps those germs to flourish.

Most are benign, and some are essential to good health. But a few can trigger a biological cascade leading to diseases of the arteries linked to heart attacks and stroke, according to the new research.

"The mouth is probably the dirtiest place in the human body," Steve Kerrigan of the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin said.

"If you have an open blood vessel from bleeding gums, bacteria will gain entry to your bloodstream."

Once inside the blood, certain bacteria stick onto cells called platelets, causing them to clot inside the vessel and thus decreasing blood flow to the heart.

"We mimicked the pressure inside the blood vessels and in the heart, and demonstrated that bacteria use different mechanisms to cause platelets to clump together, allowing them to completely encase the bacteria," he said.

This not only created conditions that can provoke heart attacks and strokes, it also shielded the bacteria from both, immune system cells and antibiotics.

"These findings suggest why antibiotics do not always work in the treatment of infectious heart disease," Jenkins said.

In separate research, a team led by Greg Seymour of the University of Otago Dunedin in New Zealand showed how other bacteria from the mouth can provoke atherosclerosis, a disease that causes hardening of the arteries.

All organisms -- including humans and bacteria -- produce "stress proteins," molecules produced by conditions such as inflammation, toxins, starvation, or oxygen deprivation.

One function of stress proteins is to guide other proteins across cell membranes.

But they can also can latch onto foreign objects, called antigens, and deliver then to immune cells, provoking an immune reactions in the body.

Normally, the body does not attack its own stress proteins.

But bacterial stress proteins -- which are similar -- do trigger a response, and once that has happened the immune system can no longer differentiate between the two, said Seymour.

"White blood cells can build up in the tissue of arteries, causing atherosclerosis," he explained in a phone interview.

How to avoid heart disease: brush your teeth, say scientists - Yahoo! News