Best flosser & flossing tools

I always find that flossers or picks get stuck between teeth and I'd find it better to use a water flosser thinking of getting one

interdental brush? never heard of it

Can you do a video for interdental cleaning for kids? The rules for an adult solo don't really work for a clumsy or heavy handed little human and the damage that can be done to gums when done wrong makes it a big gamble.

Have you got any tips please I have the smallest size interdental brushes but I can’t get it through my teeth

I have autism, fibromyalgia, ADHD and OCD so I find interdental brushes and floss to be unusable. The water flossers are loud and wet and definitely still uncomfortable to use but they prevent me spending too much time, they make my mouth feel clean, they accommodate my low pain threshold and dexterity so they're the best option for me. That being said I'm currently trying to find solutions to the noise issue, considering getting a more new model of flosser and earplugs, gonna try earplugs first unless there's another reason to upgrade but if it isn't enough I wanna know what to upgrade to. I don't know if my technique is correct but I see it as a good sign when little bits fall into my sink, so I'm doing more than nothing when I use it even if I'm not perfect. Unfortunately I haven't done any dental care in weeks, my gums are red and angry and receding and there's white stuff gathering on my gum lines and between my teeth. I'm terrified how receded my gums will be once they aren't inflamed but I'm looking into solutions. If anyone's reading this who has similar problems you're not alone and we will all get through this, hopefully with all our teeth in tact but if not don't blame yourself, mental and physical health has a huge part to play in self care. If it helps anyone here's what I'm looking at doing to improve my dental health, keep in mind I haven't tried this yet but I'm hopeful. It might give you ideas for your situation as well:

1--) Since brushing with manual or electric brushes causes me to spend ten-fifteen minutes brushing and trigger my gag response when brushing the back of my mouth, which causes a lot of pain and isn't something I'm able to do twice a day and brushing with electric brushes also gives me a huge headache and triggers me with the vibrations, I'm looking into something called the Autobrush. It's a mouthpiece brush that brushes all teeth at once. It's timed and though you still have to move it around it requires less effort and dexterity and takes max 90 seconds on the top teeth and 90 on the bottom depending on if you get a single sided or double sided head (I'm currently writing an email to them to ask if there's a difference between the heads' effectiveness along with a few other questions I have). It still vibrates but because it's timed I know it won't be as long as my brushing with the electric brush so I'm hoping I can handle it better and work through that to brush twice a day. I don't know if it'll trigger my gag response but I'm not too worried about that since I don't think there's a high chance of that. Since I don't have to twist my arm all over the place, bend over the sink for ten-fifteen minutes and worry about whether I've spent enough time on each tooth surface I'm pretty sure it'll be way less stressful and physically painful too. They've improved the design over time and now claim it's fairly effective where previous mouthpiece brushes have been basically worthless. Based on what I've seen it certainly seems to be better than nothing, so better than what I'm currently doing for sure. They showed a study where kids brushed with the Autobrush for kids and it was 27x more effective than the kids brushing manually, however I think that included the lack of technique and care the kids were using with the brushing. If you have no trouble brushing with proper technique then I wouldn't recommend it necessarily unless you were having trouble with regularity but for people like me with disabilities making dental care difficult to do at it really seems like an amazing solution. Do your own research though, I don't want anyone to make a mistake because of me.

1b--) I'm still going to try to brush my teeth manually once a week just to make sure I'm preventing any build-up in case the Autobrush isn't doing a good enough job on its own, and to brush the inside of my cheeks since the Autobrush only cleans the teeth and I'm used to scrubbing my cheeks a little too, but if I can't bring myself to do it at least I'll have some way of cleaning my mouth to a degree which, again, is better than nothing and will hopefully save my teeth and gums long-term.

1c--) Also considering maybe organising more frequent dentist visits (maybe every 3-6 months instead of every 12 but will ask the dentist what he thinks is best) just to make sure my teeth are fine since dental hygiene is so difficult and the mouthpiece brushes are so new but, again, using the Autobrush will hopefully be way better than what I'm doing now which is nothing. I also haven't seen the dentist since the pandemic and am terrified of the dentist, especially the painful, painful cleans so next time I go I'll try to have a conversation with my dentist to come up with a way to make the appointments less intimidating, so I can attend without having a panic attack and without so much pain.

2--) I'm looking into earplugs to block out the noise from the brush and flosser. I'm gonna try getting multiple colours to add a bit of whimsy to the event of brushing. Each time I brush I can choose a different colour if I want, even mismatch colours, spark a bit of childish whimsy to make the event more joyful. As of now I'm 27, turning 28 in less than two months, take it from me if you need to do something a little childish and fun to make life easier do it. Don't let yourself feel like less of an adult for doing something immature, the most important thing is to figure out how to live this life in a way that works for you.

3--) In the vein of whimsy I'm also looking into fun, waterproof stickers to stick on my flosser and on the Autobrush (obviously not the part that goes in the mouth) again to make the items seem more approachable and joyful. Not sure if stickers would work on a normal brush but I don't see a reason why not for the handle and you can change them every time you change out the brush for extra whimsy!

4--) I usually brush my tongue when I brush my teeth cause my tongue feels gunky so I'm also getting the "tongue scraper" head for the Autobrush which will hopefully make cleaning my tongue much less... Sensory overload and horrible. If you also hate brushing your tongue apparently a tongue scraper is recommended anyway, you don't have to fork out for the Autobrush one but using a scraper might be a bit better than coating all those little divets in strong tasting toothpaste like I used to do.

5--) Finally, I'm looking for a gentle mouthwash to help heal my gums and remineralise my enamel and protect my teeth throughout the day and night. It seems most mouthwashes have only one purpose but when you look at the ingredients much of them are the same. I'm looking at reviews to find ones that are well liked and looking for alcohol-free so they (hopefully) don't burn my mouth. I usually count in my head when using mouthwash so another tip for this is to use your phone or a timer so you don't have to focus on anything but sloshing and holding your breath. Mouthwash is always stressful for me since breathing through my nose is often hit or miss, small sinuses and hayfever ya know? So holding my breath for thirty-sixty seconds can be stressful. As well as that focusing on making sure not to swallow, to slosh so it reaches my whole mouth, AND counting all while my eyes tear up and my face goes red from the burning in my mouth, it's a lot. Hopefully, gentle alcohol-free mouthwash and an actual timer will help tremendously.


Hope that helps anyone in a similar position. I haven't tested any of these yet but I'm hopeful. Good luck!