If they rated things in dentistry the same way they rated things in sports, entertainment, and the like, I’d say that flossing is highly underrated.

Here’s an article from WebMD. Two things stand out: 1) under 50% of people floss regularly, and 2) dentists say flossing is even more important than brushing when it comes to preventing gum disease and tooth loss.

Why don’t people floss?

That’s what flossing looks like. The girl in the image above seems like she’s having a fun time, but I’d wager otherwise.

Classically, you might say the steps of flossing look like:

Step One: Floss.

But thinking holistically, I’d reframe the process to look like:

Step One: Decide to floss.

Step Two: Unravel and cut a length of floss.

Step Three: Floss.

Here are the pain points behind the scenes:

1. You’re going to have to stick your hands way back into your mouth and they’re going to get icky.
2. Using this technique, it’s actually relatively difficult to be highly accurate. When you’re plucking your hands in and out of your mouth, and between gaps in your teeth, it’s easy to accidentally skip a gap or two — at least compared to the feeling of accuracy afforded by using a toothbrush to brush teeth.
3. In the same vein, flossing is relatively mentally and physically taxing. It requires both hands! In fact, you need to devote your express attention in order to orchestrate their movement in harmony. Brushing your teeth easily affords lazy opportunity to daydream.
4. Less intuitively, but still painful: cutting an appropriate length of floss from the packet prior to flossing can be incredibly difficult.It’s not easy to tell precisely how much floss you’ve drawn and whether that’s a sufficient amount. (Toilet paper, on the other hand, has very convenient perforations.) And the way most floss boxes are designed, you’ve got to also calculate for that little bit of floss that doesn’t end up getting cut after you’ve measured it.

   Cut too small a thread and you’re prone to losing your grip mid-stroke. (Stroke? Swoop? I don’t know.) Cut too long a thread and it feels like you’re being wasteful — one of those human phenomena that’s truly ridiculous but totally exists. A thing of floss costs about $3; an excessively long thread might cost you a fraction of a penny, not to mention the long-run savings in dental work.

   Adhering to our brushing metaphor: It’s mindlessly easy to judge how much toothpaste to apply — the head of the toothbrush is really only so big.

5. At least, until you’re doing it regularly, flossing can be painful and bloody.

Here’s what I use:I don’t think these things even have a name, though “flosser” seems to be what brings them up in an Amazon search.

Here’s why they’re brilliant:

1. Two hands –> One hand.
2. No fretting about cutting the right length of thread. Just grab and go.
3. Much easier, in my experience, to run the flosser along your teeth and gauge whether you’ve missed one. Also much easier to reach back teeth.
4. My hand does still get a little wet. But it’s far more manageable. I stay dry enough that I can easily floss while away from a sink. To boot, I’ve got a hand free which I can use for typing, texting, and the like. In fact, I’m flossing right now.

Ultimately, I save a small amount of time and a large amount of mental tax. But I got lucky that I thought to give these things a try. Biggest next step from here is to understand what’s going on with the influencers — Crest, and more importantly, your dentist — and see if we can’t figure out why these aren’t a bigger deal.