this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024
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"People who smoke cigarettes, they say:

"You don't know how hard it is to quit smoking."

Yes, I do. It's as hard as it is to start flossing." - Mitch Hedberg

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[โ€“] BlueLineBae@midwest.social 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I decided during COVID to try to work on my health in whatever way I could get to stick. And I think flossing was my most successful endeavor. I did 2 things that really helped me ease into the habit: 1) I bought a water pik 2) I thought about what it is that keeps me from flossing and I let those things go. So I started off just using the water pik. I did that for about a year and sometimes I would forget, but I'd just hop back on it next time. Just doing this alone helped me to physically feel the difference in my mouth and after a bit, I didn't like how it felt if I forgot. After about a year I started using floss and this brings me to the things I needed to let go. I needed to learn how to use floss properly, but growing up poor, I would often get in trouble for using too much of something including floss. But some of my teeth are tight and I need a longer piece to get enough leverage. I also don't like being wasteful and didn't like using longer pieces especially since it's plastic waste. I decided to let all of those things go and just use big ass pieces of floss so I could learn how to do it properly. This helped a ton and over time as I got better, I used the water pik less and less and now primarily use floss every night. And now that I've learned how, I can use smaller pieces and also have switched to a more environmentally friendly floss. I would say this process took me about 2 years, but I don't have issues at the dentist anymore like bleeding gums or metal tools jabbing at me. It's made a big difference and helped me to look at other problems in a similar light: what's stopping me from doing this and how can I remove those barriers?

[โ€“] dditty@lemm.ee 3 points 1 month ago

Same thing here, also during the pandemic. Only difference on my end is I have also incorporated "Superfloss" into my flossing regimen since I find it easier to get under my permanent retainer