Taking over, she handed me a mirror and placed the waxy string in between my teeth. “Healthy gums do not bleed! Bleeding when flossing is actually your body using blood to try to assist in removing the tiny bacteria that gets trapped in between the teeth,” she said, gliding the floss around with knit one-purl-two motions. The key to healing the gums, she said, is to avoid smashing the floss into the gum tissue. Instead, she instructed me to slide the floss along one side of the tooth, gently cleaning the surface as you reach the top, then to slide it back down (still hugging the tooth, not the gum) and up the other side, creating a V-shape with the floss.
Okay, so I’ve literally been doing this wrong my whole life, I thought. My mentality had always been get in, get out, and go as high up to dislodge whatever was causing the bleeding. According to Gromko, this was a) totally wrong but b) common.
Marc Lowenberg, DDS, a cosmetic dentist and partner at LLK Dental in New York City, agrees. Healthy gum tissue has a V-shaped point between each tooth called a papilla, he explains “In order to keep your gum tissue clean when you floss, you should slide the floss underneath the papilla, gently moving it up and down, hugging the tooth as you floss,” he says. “Then flip to the other side and repeat the same action.”
He also added that you should ideally floss once a day, but the healthiest mouths are those who floss after every meal. Goals. I made a mental note to do better since I’m definitely a night flosser, not a floss post-lunch kinda girl.
“A common misconception is that the floss’s sole purpose is to remove food particles in between the teeth so many people put the floss in between their teeth and in their search for food, beat up the gum tissue, causing trauma and bleeding,” adds Gromko. But this can actually result in cutting the fibers that hold the gum tissue to the root of the tooth, resulting in gum recession and pain because the gums protect the tooth structures and bone beneath the gum line.
Thinking back to all my years of dentists, dental office visits, cleanings, and reprimands about my bloody gums, I realized I never had anyone break down what exactly I was doing wrong. At least not like this. I was always told to floss more to reduce the bleeding. Why had I not been given clear directions as to how to floss to stop the floodgates?