Sis had been bugging me to floss my teeth since I came to Cork. Her dentistry friends checked her teeth and taught her how to floss her teeth correctly. Since then, she's been promoting it to me.
I'm embarrassed to say that I've never really flossed my teeth properly before. I remember trying it a few times when I was a teenager but because I didn't know how to do it correctly, my gums bled and it deterred me from flossing.
I remember when I was in primary school, the school dentist gave a class on how to brush our teeth properly. She had a huge plastic fake teeth and a big toothbrush and told us to brush with circular motion. Years later, I realised I still got it wrong. I'm pretty sure that's how the school dentist taught me to brush my teeth but apparently, that's not the correct way. And why in the world did they not teach me how to floss my teeth? They didn't even mention anything about the existence of floss! The only other thing I know about cleaning my teeth is the toothpick (does it even count?).
Anyway, last Thursday, sis signed me up to volunteer as a patient to one of her dentist friends. I didn't like the idea of seeing a dentist but then again, it's free so why not... Went ahead and did the most thorough, 2 hours long scaling I ever had in my life-to-date. No regrets though the counter was a bloody mess when I was done. Got me freaked out when she told me I still have two more wisdom teeth yet to come because my teeth are very crowded without them already.
She also taught me to floss my teeth. I tried to floss that very night but it took so long and I gave up halfway. Sis said I'm still doing it wrong and gave me a few pointers. I also went online (all hail the World Wide Web!) and googled on some flossing tips. I managed to floss all my teeth on the second day. :D
Now, I do it every night. Takes about 20 minutes to do the entire procedure. I'm still using a lot of floss, twice the normal length I think. At least I have clean teeth and gums now!
