Flossing for fun...

Flossing your teeth comes under the dreaded Health Police category...

In my experience the instruction to perform this unpleasant exercise ‘once a day’ comes from a severe, brutally efficient hygienist. You’re left under no illusion that failure to floss is punishable by horrible gum disease and all your teeth falling out.

But if you’re one of those people with really narrow gaps between teeth (I always assumed that was a good thing, but floss manufacturers clearly disagree), the string can easily get stuck deep down. You wiggle it frantically about to find an exit and, if that’s no go, the attempt to force the floss out amidst gently rising panic causes it to fray. I can think of many better ways to spend 30 minutes.

You can always try one of those little catapult-shaped floss picks (pronounce it 'flosh picsh' and you effortlessly become Dutch) with a handle. They seem like a good idea at the time, but they’re still hard to manoeuvre and also get stuck. Then you’re buggered, because the handle gives you way too much leverage and it feels like you’re jemmying a whole tooth out.

Once a day – who’s kidding who?! And to anyone who says ‘I don’t know what the fuss is all about – I find flossing really easy and actually quite therapeutic...’ I say bully for you – I’m happy you’ve found something to enrich your life...

However – always keen to find an easier way and a sucker for a good gadget – when I read about ‘water picks’ I did some diligent research. Then I spotted that Boots had 25% off a decent one with loads of attachments (including a hydraulic tongue scraper), and that was that. Not like Boots to be overly generous (‘never knowingly underpriced’), so I bit the £40-off bullet and brought home a Water Pic Ultra WP-120.

What’s it like? Think of a mini Karcher pressure washer or sand-blasting and you’re getting close to the general idea. So don’t start with the pulsing too high – it can hurt. I began at 5 and slowly worked my way up. It pulses out a needle jet of water which is powerful enough to blast a spider down the bath plughole, even just at Regulo 8.

Until your mouth gets used to it, you may get a tiny amount of gum bleeding – if that happens, turn it down a bit. After a few zaps that should stop, anyway. And it certainly seems to get rid of as many ‘tooth-bacons’ and other crap as the string does... whilst ‘gently massaging your tired gums back to vibrant health’. You must remember to spit out frequently and use the 'pause' button though, or you'll feel like you’re being water-boarded.

Overall a good purchase in my book. More fun (?) than floss and definitely more effective because l’m way more likely to use it. I got it for £47.99 which is obviously a lot more than floss, although it would pay for itself in 3 years – and that’s not even allowing for its spider-vapourising capability...