It’s Monday so that means it’s time to take another look at all those New Year’s Resolutions I made and see how I’m doing. Today I’d like to take a look at the 11th resolution that I threw in a week after my original post. Floss every day.



I’ve actually been pretty good with this one. Missed a couple of days here and there over the last four weeks but for the most part I’ve been flossing before I brush every day. This is a big change from my old routine. My old routine was –



1. Buy floss.
2. Use once.
3. Repeat after 6 months.



My first time flossing in a while was a bit of a… bloody experience but now I’m in a groove I can get that minty string all up in my gums without any blood at all. To help out people who are in the same boat I was in a few weeks ago I’ve put together a handy little picture guide to getting back on that flossing horse. Here you go!



Okay, so you haven’t flossed in a while and the last time you did floss you weren’t exactly in a “daily routine”. That’s fine! The important thing is that you’ve decided to make an effort now to have better dental hygine. Now you may be thinking that even when you did floss you may not have been doing it right so don’t worry. I’ll go through step by step the correct way to floss so you can get the best results for your effort!



STEP 1:
Take about 18 inches of dental floss and wrap the ends around your middle fingers until you have about 4-6 inches to work with. Slide the floss between two teeth with a sawing motion.




STEP 2:
Glide the floss up and down between your teeth, making sure to get all the way into the tip of the gums. If you haven’t flossed in a while there may be some slight bleeding but that’s perfectly normal.




STEP 3:
Unwrap a little floss from one hand and wrap up a little in the other to make sure you have a clean piece as you go from tooth to tooth. Don’t worry about the blood. Your gums are probably just a little inflamed from the plaque buildup and as you make flossing a regular part of your daily hygiene you’ll experience no bleeding in the future!




STEP 4
After flossing most of your teeth you may experience bleeding in other orifices. As shown here, blood has filled my sinus cavities and is now spilling out of my tear ducts as it cannot come out of my mouth fast enough.




STEP 5
If this is your first time flossing in a while you may experience some dizzyness from blood loss and even briefly lose consciousness. This is totally normal. Once you have regained consciouness clean yourself up and make sure to floss the next day. It gets easier every time!




Hope this helps!