Recently I saw several patients who suffered from painful swelling gum because of food impaction (food debris being hit into interdental embrasure). They said that they had flossed to remove the impacted debris, but failed and it caused more discomfort.
You should use toothpicks to remove the interdental obstruction, digging from buccogingival to occlusal, and the curved ones are better for posterior teeth. If you use floss to do it, you will hurt your gingiva more, because dental floss must go through interdental contact area from occlusal to gingival first, which pushes the debris deeper into gingival sulcus.
Dental floss is designed to clear plaque off proximal surface, and is not for removing impacted debris.
Some patients request dentists to fill gingival embrasures, but dentists will not fill them because embrasures are natural anatomic landmarks and must not be filled. If the embresures are filled and debris does not seem to enter the space, but in fact, plaque is more likely to accumulate, which can not be cleaned off by flossing.
Food impaction is usually due to occlusion problem. When teeth occlude, nonharmonious occlusal contacts have the adjacent two teeth displace apart, and food is forced to enter the momentarily open contact area that closely contacts together originally. If the debris held between does not be removed for a time, the gingiva will be red, swell and hurt, and caries and periodontal disease will further happen.
You should use toothpicks to remove the interdental obstruction, digging from buccogingival to occlusal, and the curved ones are better for posterior teeth. If you use floss to do it, you will hurt your gingiva more, because dental floss must go through interdental contact area from occlusal to gingival first, which pushes the debris deeper into gingival sulcus.
Dental floss is designed to clear plaque off proximal surface, and is not for removing impacted debris.
Some patients request dentists to fill gingival embrasures, but dentists will not fill them because embrasures are natural anatomic landmarks and must not be filled. If the embresures are filled and debris does not seem to enter the space, but in fact, plaque is more likely to accumulate, which can not be cleaned off by flossing.
Food impaction is usually due to occlusion problem. When teeth occlude, nonharmonious occlusal contacts have the adjacent two teeth displace apart, and food is forced to enter the momentarily open contact area that closely contacts together originally. If the debris held between does not be removed for a time, the gingiva will be red, swell and hurt, and caries and periodontal disease will further happen.
