Cleaning Between Your Teeth

HEALTH · GLOBAL

Cleaning Between Your Teeth

Why interdental cleaning matters, floss and water flossers, technique and bleeding gums

Brushing cleans around three surfaces of each tooth and leaves two untouched, which is why cleaning between teeth is where gum disease is actually prevented.

Why it matters

Plaque between teeth causes gum inflammation and decay in exactly the places a brush cannot reach. Gum disease is the leading cause of tooth loss in adults and is largely preventable.

Clean between teeth once a day, and dentists generally advise doing it before brushing so fluoride toothpaste reaches the gaps.

Interdental brushes, floss and water flossers

Interdental brushes are the most effective option where the gaps are large enough, and most adults have gaps that take them. A dentist or hygienist will size them for you, since one size does not fit every gap.

Floss suits tight contacts where a brush will not pass. Water flossers are effective, easier for many people and particularly useful around braces, implants and bridges.

The best method is the one you will actually use daily. That matters more than which is theoretically superior.

Technique

With floss, curve it around each tooth in a C shape and go slightly below the gum line rather than snapping it straight down. With a water flosser, aim along the gum line at a right angle and work around methodically.

Bleeding gums

Bleeding when you start cleaning between teeth usually means inflammation rather than damage, and it typically settles within a week or two of daily cleaning.

Bleeding that continues beyond that, or gums that are receding, swollen or painful, needs a dentist rather than more brushing.

Children and braces

Cleaning between teeth matters more with braces, since brackets trap plaque. A water flosser and interdental brushes suit braces particularly well, and an orthodontist or hygienist will show you the correct technique.

Supervise a child's brushing until around the age of seven, and use a toothpaste with the fluoride level appropriate for the child's age group.

What not to do

Do not rinse with water after brushing, which washes the fluoride away. Spit the excess out and leave it on the teeth.

Whitening products

Only a dentist or a suitably qualified professional may legally carry out tooth whitening above a low peroxide concentration in the UK. Beauty salons offering it are operating outside the law and there have been real injuries.

Whitening toothpastes remove surface staining rather than changing the underlying tooth colour, and highly abrasive ones can wear enamel over years.

The rest of it

Twice-daily brushing with a fluoride toothpaste, spitting rather than rinsing afterwards, and regular check-ups at whatever interval your own dentist recommends for you.

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