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Why is it so Difficult to Regularly Floss Your Teeth?

Habit #21 in my 30-day journey

Mary DeVries
2 min readApr 21, 2021
Photo by Marek Studzinski on Unsplash

On the lengthy list of things you do for your health — exercise, ease up on sodas, eat less salt, eat more Brussels sprouts — flossing your teeth is probably near the bottom. It might even be under Brussels sprouts. — John Donovan, WebMD

I ate Brussels sprouts with dinner last night. They were delicious. What I did not do is floss. I rarely do.

I know flossing is important. I believe everything the dentist tells me about gingivitis. I have tried various times in my adult life to establish a habit of flossing but it never sticks.

According to Steven M. Dater, DDS Dentistry these are the top reasons people don’t floss:

  • Food Never Gets Stuck in My Teeth
  • I Do Not Know How to Floss
  • I Am Not Coordinated Enough to Floss
  • I Do Not Have Time to Floss
  • It Hurts When I Floss
  • My Teeth are too Close Together

I didn’t even have to read the article debunking each of these excuses to know they don’t apply.

Yes, my teeth are close together so flossing is a bit more challenging but it isn’t impossible. Playing around with various flossing…

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Mary DeVries
Mary DeVries

Written by Mary DeVries

I delight, despair and write about a life lived around the world. Fueled by Yorkshire Gold tea.

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