The ‘hack’ we’re about to detail will either absolutely horrify you… or you will have been doing it for ages.
People on TikTok are recommending that when you have food stuck in your teeth and don’t have any floss to hand, you should just yank out a strand of your hair and use that to dislodge that debris.
This might be an obvious thing to say, but: you definitely should not use your hair to floss your teeth.
Not only is this particular habit gross, but an expert has warned that this ‘hack’ could leave you with ‘irreversible damage’.
On TikTok, one video shows a woman using her hair to floss her teeth, which makes her gum bleed. She writes: ‘When you’re at the club and don’t have floss so you use your hair.’
Another Tiktokker posted to say ‘this hair trick is amazing – u can’t tell me otherwise.’
The comments on these videos haven’t been the total revulsion you might expect. Instead, lots of people have responded to say they regularly use the ‘trick’.
Oral health expert and gum Specialist, Dr Reena Wadia says that using anything on your teeth other than the proper tools can cause issues with your teeth and gums, that either can’t be fixed or may need pricey professional treatment to remedy.
Dr Wadia, the founder of RW Perio, explains: ‘Cleaning between your teeth is essential for everyone. Without this, you may be missing cleaning up to half of your mouth.
‘It’s important to use the correct tools to clean between the teeth. Not using the right tools may cause trauma and lead to irreversible damage.’
Rather than using your hair to clean between your teeth, you need to budge plaque and bacteria using floss or interdental brushes.
Dr Walia doesn’t recommend water picks as a replacement for either of these tools.
So, to repeat: do not use hair to floss your teeth, even if you’re out and about and need to get a bit of spinach out of there.
Grab some chewing gum or some proper floss instead and sort yourself out without wrecking your mouth.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/10/17/expert-warns-against-hack-of-using-your-hair-to-floss-your-teeth-13437482/
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