Flossing is a simple yet powerful practice that targets areas between teeth and beneath the gumline. This process removes the sticky bacterial film known as plaque, which contributes to tooth decay and gum inflammation. Effective flossing requires using the correct amount of material to ensure a hygienic and thorough cleaning session. The correct length of floss is necessary for proper technique, allowing you to use a fresh section for every pair of teeth you clean.
The Optimal Floss Length
The recommended length of dental floss for a single, comprehensive cleaning session is typically 18 inches (approximately 45 centimeters). This generous measurement is purposefully designed to accommodate the entire mouth while maintaining hygiene. Using this length ensures that a fresh, unused segment of floss can be deployed for cleaning the surfaces of every tooth, preventing the transfer of plaque and bacteria from one area of the mouth to another.
The 18-inch length provides enough material to wrap securely around your fingers while still leaving a manageable working section. This amount is often visually compared to the length from a person’s fingertips to their elbow, offering an easy way to estimate the correct measure. Using a shorter length risks running out of clean material, forcing you to reuse a contaminated section and undermine the purpose of flossing.
Mastering the Flossing Grip and Setup
Once the correct length of floss is dispensed, the next step is to establish a secure and controlled grip, often referred to as creating the “spool.” Most of the floss should be wound around the middle fingers of both hands, leaving only a small segment free to work with. The fingers act as anchors and reservoirs for the clean and used floss.
The ideal working length of floss—the taut section held between the fingers—should be a short one to two inches. This small gap is maneuvered with the thumbs and index fingers, providing the precision and control needed to guide the floss between the tight spaces of the teeth. Keeping the working section short is important because a longer segment will slacken, making it difficult to apply the necessary tension and control the cleaning motion.
The Proper Flossing Motion and Hygiene
With the floss properly secured and a short working length established, the actual cleaning motion begins by gently guiding the floss between the teeth, using a soft, back-and-forth motion to avoid snapping it into the gums. Once past the contact point, the technique requires curving the floss around the side of one tooth to form a “C” shape. This C-shape allows the floss to hug the rounded surface of the tooth, enabling it to reach slightly beneath the gumline where plaque accumulates.
The floss is then moved with gentle up-and-down strokes, scraping the side of the tooth before being uncurved and reformed into a C-shape around the adjacent tooth. After cleaning both surfaces of a pair of teeth, advancing the spool is necessary for hygiene. By unwinding a small amount of clean floss from one finger and winding the used segment onto the other, you ensure that the next tooth surface is cleaned with a fresh, uncontaminated section.