How-to · 02 Flossing

Get where the brush can't.

A third of every tooth's surface faces its neighbor — bristles never touch it. Floss is how you clean it. Here's the technique, gap by gap.

18 inof floss (~45 cm)

1×a day

26gaps to cover

Ease it down, pull it snug, stroke up and downBoth sides of every gap

The routine

Six steps, start to finish

Wind most of it around one middle finger, the rest around the other. That reel is your supply of clean sections.

Pinch the floss between thumbs and index fingers, leaving an inch of taut line to work with. Control beats length.

Ease it through the contact point with a gentle back-and-forth seesaw. Snapping it down cuts into the gum.

Press the floss against the side of the tooth and slide it gently just under the gumline — that's where the payoff is.

Each gap has two tooth surfaces. Stroke up and down 2–3 times on one, then swing over and do its neighbor.

Unwind a clean stretch as you go. Reusing a dirty section just moves plaque from one gap to the next.

Signature tool

A full mouth has 26 gaps between neighboring teeth — 13 up top, 13 down below. Tap through as you floss and don't let the back ones off the hook.

Gap 0 of 26 Top row Switch to a fresh section

Quick reference

✓ Floss once a day — before brushing is a great habit, so fluoride reaches the freshly cleaned gaps.
✓ Keep going if gums bleed a little at first — with gentle daily flossing it usually settles within a week or two.
✓ Get the back side of your last molars — there's no neighbor, but there's still a surface.
✓ Use picks or a water flosser if string floss isn't happening — the floss you'll actually do is the right floss.

✗ Snapping the floss down into the gum — that's how flossing gets its bad reputation.
✗ Sawing side-to-side at the gumline once you're through the contact point.
✗ Reusing the same section gap after gap.
✗ Quitting because of a little early bleeding — see a dentist only if it persists past two weeks.