Do dentists recommend water flossers?
Yes, the dentists we spoke to recommend them. “I always find myself suggesting a water flosser to my patients,” Dr. Larbi says. “They’re a great addition to conventional flossing. It’s a real game-changer for your overall oral health routine at home.”
The dentists we consulted also agreed that people with braces will especially benefit from a water flosser because the wires make it hard to use traditional floss. Sally Cram, D.D.S., a practicing periodontist in Washington, D.C., says that water flossers “are very good at flushing out food and debris that gets caught in and around the brackets.
“Water flossers are also a great option for elderly people or anyone with manual dexterity problems. “[For these people], wrapping floss around their fingers can be discomforting, especially if they suffer from arthritis,” says Adam S. Harwood, D.M.D., an endodontist practicing in New York City. Beyond these examples, however, dentists don’t recommend giving up on regular flossing in favor of using a wet flosser.
Can a water flosser replace string flossing?
Not quite, says Dr. Huang: “There’s nothing that could replace a manual floss going under the gum. So that’s still the gold standard and we should use the water flosser as an adjunct to that. After you floss the bacteria out from the gum, [the water flosser] flushes it out.”
“Both [water flossing and flossing] have their own specific areas of effectiveness, so the ideal dental hygiene program takes advantage of both methods,” says Dr. Harwood. Here’s a good routine to follow, according to the dentists we spoke with:
- Brush your teeth first.
- Use traditional string floss to loosen anything stuck between your teeth and keep gums healthy.
- Finish off with a water flosser to flush it all out.
The bottom line: For most people, water flossing should be done in addition to (not instead of) regular flossing. But if you know that there’s no chance you’ll actually use regular floss, using a water flosser is better than nothing.
How do you clean a water flosser?
GH Kitchen Appliances & Innovation Lab Director Nicole Papantoniou suggests using soap and water to maintain cleanliness between deep cleans.
Some tanks, such as those on countertop models, can be cleaned with soap and a sponge, rinsed with a water and vinegar mixture and then water. For handheld flossers, pull the tank out and clean it with a bottle brush, soap and water.
“I also filled it with half water and half white vinegar and ran a full reservoir (in my shower because it sprays everywhere, and then a few cycles with plain water to rinse it out),” Papantoniou says.
What’s the difference between a Waterpik and a water flosser?
Waterpik is a brand name, while water flosser is the generic term for a device that cleans the mouth with a stream of water. Since the Waterpik brand has created many popular models of water flossers over the years, some people use the brand name Waterpik in place of the term water flosser.
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