Dear everyone in the dental profession...
I hate to be the one to break this to you, but we here outside of the dental profession don't really think about teeth a whole lot.
Yes, I am aware that flossing is vital to my health, but shit I'm tired and I just want to go to bed so I'll do it completely the next night alright?
Yes, I am aware how tooth decay works. No, you don't have to explain what pH means or how bacteria and white blood cells work. Trust me, I learned about them before and still remember how it all works.
I'm sorry my gums bleed. You keep saying it like I have some sort of control over it, or if I chose the "super bleedy gums that will get in the way of cleaning properly" off a shelf at Costco. I assure you, I have no control over it.
Yeah, I'll try to floss more completely and more often, but I'm not going to go crazy on it. I'm ok with you having to clean a lot of junk off my teeth every few months.
Let me just say upfront that I might not dutifully use a 2min egg timer to time my brushing twice a day with your special toothpaste, and the chances that I reset the timer for 1min with your special mouthwash (which I may not measure to the exact amount with the cup you provided) in the morning and night, every single day for the next six months are kind of slim. Sorry. It's called being human and busy with other stuff.
Like I said, I hate to be the bad guy here. Please don't shoot the messenger, but we here in the real world don't think about our teeth as much as you do.
Comments
I recall the Rotadent being quite $$$ some years back. My old dentist sold me one and it was a real pain in the ass.
For the gadget enthusiast that can't get enough of flossing: The Hummingbird. It's pretty small, comes with a AAA battery and costs about $5 CDN (that equals a couple of American bottle empties).
Just buck up and floss. Sorry. Buy a Sonicare toothbrush. It does the two minute thing for you. In the long run, it's all formed habits and once you do them enough they are second nature and you'll never think about it again as anything except either (1) getting up activities or (2) going to bed activities. Although, yes, I brush twice a day now, and floss once a day. And get my teeth cleaned religiously ever six months.
Oh, did I mention how unbelievably cute my dentist is? :) (Oh, and she's the single best doctor I have ever had.)
I would like to point out that, in fact, my gums now never bleed when I go for cleanings. My hygienist complimented me on how clean my teeth were and the cleaning only took a short period of time and was largely unnoticeable after I left the dentist's office.
So... I guess... I'm on the side of "Just do it." in this case. :)
My 92 year old grandfather has all but 1 of his original teeth. The one that's missing, btw, he pulled out himself. With pliers. When he was 90. As much as I respect the manliness of that, I also <i>really</i> want to avoid that when I'm 90.
After years of ignoring my teeth and hoping that things would just sort of work themselves out, I've been flossing regularly for the first time in my life this year. And by regularly, I only mean 4 times or so a week. Every day? Twice a day? Ugh. For years I banked on the vanity of baby boomers, assuming that as they hit their sixties and seventies and beyond, advanced denture technology was going to come to my rescue. I still sort of hope that. But I'm flossing now anyway. I hate flossing. It just seems like time out of my life wasted.
Soon I flossed every night, even weekends. And more importantly: my teeth felt so much cleaner, and my breath seemed better. Now I can't stand not flossing, it feels gross to me, like my teeth aren't clean. And it takes all of thirty extra seconds.
Also, I second Jason's rec. on the Rotodent. Buy it. It's worth the $ and it does an amazing job of brushing. Even if you don't floss, it will help your gums. My teeth are really great now, and cleanings take no time at all. Sure, I still don't care about them as much as my dentist, but I do care enough to brush and floss every night.
But I have a little routine. I generally go to bed as The Daily Show is coming on, so I just floss and watch that (because I am not a flicking my goo everywhere flosser, I can do this) then let the Sonicare do its two minutes of business right after than while I continue to watch the Daily Show. :) That's my routine. Seems to work so far. In the morning I brush in the computer room in front of the computer while reading the weather, SFGate and Metafilter. Two minutes goes by pretty fast, actually.
I have to be the "bad guy" to my wife on a regular basis though: "Did you floss?" "No!" "Why not?" "...unnnnHHHH! Don't wanna!" :) And SHE is the one that wants kids?! Oy!
However, when I used to go to a dental clinic in Seattle, I'd always get the super-evangelist hygeinists who made it a personal holy war to shame me into better tooth and gum maintenance. My teeth are okay, but started out ungood due to bad genes and unflouridated well water. Dental people think my teeth are bad because I don't care so they go the guilt guilt guilt way. I found a way to make it stop.
Now usually I wouldn't do something like this because I don't like to lie and I don't like to make people feel bad, but I also don't like people who do the "shame on you" schtick especially when, in my estimation, it's counterproductive and actually keeps people away from the dentist and inhibits good dental health.
So, when the hygeinist was laying into me about flossing (I'm an erratic flosser) I said "Yeah, don't you have anything in your life you really know you should do but you just can't do sometimes?" She smugly said no. I put on a real morose face and said "Oh, I guess you don't have any experience with chronic depression then. I'd appreciate if you'd stop bringing this up, I have larger problems I'm working on." and she pretty much continued in silence for the rest of the appointment.