“How often should you floss if you have periodontitis?”
I am a 39 year old male and I have periodontitis. How often should you floss if you have periodontitis?
6 Answers
Periodontics need medication, cleaning, and then regular flossing.
One should floss a minimum of once in 24 hours especially at night or after your last meal of the day. You can floss before and after brushing. If you’re using the water flosser, I would use it before brushing. If you want to floss after very meal, that’s helpful as well.
At least once a day, preferably after you brush before going to bed. Use of a waterpik in conjunction with flossing would help even more.
I'm a dentist who also has bone loss. I don't want any more bone loss, so I floss after eating (3x/day)If you floss once per day, usually before bed, you can slow down the bone loss. Use only UNwaxed floss, like POH brand, as waxed floss slides over the biofilm on your teeth. Biofilm (like egg yolk on a plate) is where the bacteria lives. Flossing is not just for getting food out from between teeth. Biofilm is the danger!
How bad is your periodontitis? Early, moderate, or advanced? You should floss at the minimum of once/day - and the best time to do it is in the evening. If you are in the moderate to advanced stages, you may need to use proxy-brushes to clean in between as the gaps will have a tendency to collect more food and flossing may not be as sufficient in removing plaque.
You should be flossing thoroughly once every 24 hours whether you have periodontitis or not - it takes 24 hours for the biofilm to reform and start causing more damage. If you have periodontitis, you should also be getting your teeth regularly scaled (cleaned) by a good hygienist as well, since you can't remove the biofilm with floss after about 3 months - it starts to calcify, hence the need for the professional help every 3 months.
