dental water jet vs. dental floss?
Careers in Dentistry, Dental Supplies, Going To The Dentist, Other Dental Equipment, Tooth and Dental Care August 21st, 2009
william asked:
Is using a dental water jet like the “Waterpik Ultra Cordless Dental Water Jet” more effective than using dental floss?
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Ideally you should continue to floss, even if you use a waterpik. A waterpik will remove food debris from around and between the teeth, but just as you need a toothbrush to manually brush plaque off the teeth, you need floss to manually scrape plaque from the sides of the teeth and below the gumline. Plaque is sticky and cannot be rinsed off, it needs to be physically brushed or scraped off.
NO….as an experiment, just try using the water pik and nothing else for a day or two. You’ll see that it doesn’t remove plaque from the teeth. It just removes debris that’s loose. Floss will get the plaque off between your teeth the same way a toothbrush gets it off from the surfaces.