“Have you been flossing regularly?”
“Have you been flossing regularly?” - Your Dentist
Don’t you hate it when you go to the dentist and, while the dentist is digging around in your mouth, he asks if you’ve been flossing?
“Huh-mhqhg,” you respond, hoping that all the fingers in your mouth made your negative answer sound like a “Yes, sir” on the way out. But no; dentists (and their assistants) have an uncanny ability to understand the most garbled language correctly. Either that, or they’re just really good at reading the guilty look in your eyes.
And then the kicker comes:
“Yeah, I could tell by the profuse bleeding that happens when I start jabbing your gums with this sharp metal instrument of torture.” Ok, so the dentist doesn’t actually say that, but hey, if he can hear what he wants in my garbled mumblings, I should be able to hear his words the way I want to, right?
Anyway, let’s assume he’s probably right, and that regular flossing would actually eliminate the need for blood transfusions after each visit to replace all that was lost. From the scattered times in my life when I’ve been able to keep up flossing for a week or two, I know that after the first few days the bleeding does go down significantly. So maybe the dentist has a point, and not just at the end of those instruments of torture.
But how do you go from a lifetime of flossing for a week or two after each dentist visit and then forgetting about it completely until the next one, to actually making it something that you do each day without thinking much about it?
The trick is building a habit. No, it’s not easy. Yes, it will take time. If you need help, I recommend following these basic steps. There is no easy way to build a good habit, but you can make it easier. Choose a trigger, make it public, keep it simple, build anticipation, take your time, report to others.
I went through these steps over the last month or so, and now I’m flossing daily, even under the dental wire that is the last, permanent reminder that I had braces as a kid. Yeah, I was even more nerdy back then.
Anyway, I’m writing up this post because my next dentist visit isn’t coming for a few months. But if I tell my small corner of the internet how that visit will go it will help me stick to my habit until then.
So now, the next time my dentist asks, “Have you been flossing regularly?”, I’ll have a better answer for him:
“Huh-mhqhg”
Ok, you might not be able to tell the difference, but somehow the dentist will see the gleam in my eye, and know it is not the glint of guilt he saw at my last visit.
