Floss Before Brushing
76 comments
·October 29, 2025aaronbrethorst
stronglikedan
My dentist says the opposite, since toothbrush bristles don't get between the teeth. According to her, brushing after flossing just pushes all the dislodged stuff back between the teeth.
In my opinion, it doesn't really matter which you do first, as long as you rinse well after each step. I brush first - get most of it with the brush and rinse, then get the rest of it with the floss and rinse.
peacebeard
General awareness of if what you’re doing is successfully getting stuff out of your teeth beats following a guiding principle and trusting it’s automatically working.
HPsquared
Surfactants in toothpaste should prevent anything sticking while brushing.
OutOfHere
1. Rinse with water.
2. Brush without toothpaste.
3. Floss
4. Brush with toothpaste.
tonyspiff
There's the argument that flossing afterwards would drag some fluoride/nHAP to the space between your teeth which wouldn't be reachable by the toothbrush.
So I floss during brushing. One pass with the toothbrush, floss, second pass with toothbrush, rinse.
dsego
I've also seen some tiktoks with people coating the floss with toothpaste so it reaches in between the teeth.
sauwan
Well, the benefit here is the application of fluoride, which isn't something most people are actively thinking about maximizing.
Traubenfuchs
I have talked about this flossing topic surprisingly often and it's one of the reasons I believe the majority of people are idiots with zero critical thinking. Especially in regards to health. No one seems to read inlets or understand them. It's awful.
jauntywundrkind
My logic was that brushing deposits fluoride onto the teeth, and that I want that there.
Flossing feels not that different from following up toothbrushing by rinsing (bad): it's removing a bunch of the amazing good stuff the toothpaste is designed to deposit.
dsego
Why don't you have the opportunity? Flossing removes the stuff.
dexwiz
Not completely. It might end up on the floss but it might also end up on your teeth or gums.
dsego
How does brushing remove it then? I'm guessing it's still in between your teeth.
stronglikedan
And just rinsing removes it.
NoboruWataya
It so happens that this is what I was doing, which is good. However, for years I was brushing after eating my breakfast because I assumed it was the better way as then you aren't going about your day with your breakfast on your teeth. But when I looked into it I found that for a variety of reasons it is apparently better to brush before breakfast. So it was an important lesson in not assuming the "obvious" (to you) way is the best.
PcChip
I'm curious what these reasons are
(My second thought after typing that was "I suppose I could just ask an LLM though")
chucky_z
There are 'best to brush' timelines around eating/drinking. Usually you want to either:
- Brush no less than 15m before eating
- Do not brush until 45m+ after eating
I don't fully understand the science, as I'm not a dentist, but it's something related to the way that things stick to/are absorbed by enamel and dentin.
I believe water is the exception here, you can drink water and then immediately brush. You should not brush and then immediately drink water though. You want the toothpaste to stick around and form a barrier.
dsego
Supposedly, after eating the pH in the mouth drops and becomes more acidic, which softens the enamel, so brushing will do more harm than good. That's my understanding.
jhack
This is how I've always done it and I was blown away when I found out people do it backwards. It makes no logical sense.
dsego
Why not? Brushing and swishing removes most of the particles, and then you floss to reach the tight spaces.
DuncanCoffee
Because when you floss you create more particles
azemetre
Doesn't rinsing your mouth out with water solve this?
jayd16
I thought the ideal order was brush, floss, mouthwash.
dingaling
No, mouthwash after brushing removes the fluoride that the toothpaste has just deposited. Similarly, avoid rinsing after brushing.
There's not really a 'good' time to use mouthwash. Maybe an hour or more after a meal, if you're in a rush - but no sooner than that, as the tooth enamel will still be softened by the food.
jayd16
Even with flouride mouthwash? You're saying the paste/gel is physically more capable of depositing flouride or something?
srik
Using mouthwash every time is not ideal because most mouthwashes disrupt your oral microbiome which will result in undesired side-effects like teeth staining etc.
ravenstine
I've heard this before, yet my mouth remains... unaffected.
What does an "oral microbiome" even mean? I understand what it means in the literal sense, but would a person's mouth be dysfunctional if it were hypothetically devoid of microbes? Is there an accepted healthy oral microbiome composition?
dsego
You can get oral probiotics, like lactibiane buccodental. These healthy bacteria compete with harmful bacteria that causes cavities and gum disease.
jayd16
You're saying we can make good toothpaste but we can't make good mouthwash?
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gcanyon
For anyone who's curious, Reach TotalCare Floss is the best:
* Very shred-resistant
* Grippy, even when wet, so you don't have to turn your fingertips purple
* Thin enough to fit most teeth, but supposed to have some sort of textured surface to work betterstronglikedan
I find that regular old Reach waxed works just as well, and has two benefits over Totalcare: it's more comfortable and it's cheaper — dirt cheap for floss, really.
brap
Might sound like an ad but I don’t care:
I cannot recommend enough Jordan Expand floss. There are probably other brands that have these but that’s just the one I know.
The amount of shit this floss scrapes out is like an order of magnitude more than regular floss. Going back to plain floss feels like you’re not even flossing, it just glides over without really doing anything.
eqvinox
Did they teach it the other way around somewhere? Here (Germany) I've been told floss before brush for as long as I can remember...
bena
When I get my teeth cleaned at the dentist, flossing is the last thing done. So I assume people internalize that
distances
So a stupid question, but does teeth cleaning do something more than removing the stone (calculus)? My dentist removes that with a spike during a checkup and isn't doing any upsells so I've never in my life had a separate cleaning appointment.
RandallBrown
My dentists have always done a floss, polish, and fluoride treatment (in addition to the tooth scraping) as part of my cleanings.
AznHisoka
What about rinsing your toothbrush as you brush? Is there a min number of times you should do so? Just can I just wash it out when i am done?
CoastalCoder
Is there empirical evidence that this order is more effective?
derbOac
The essay links to this study, so yes:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29741239/
I was a bit confused about why it would matter, but then realized I brush, then floss, then use a fluoride rinse, which isn't really addressed by the study. If you didn't use a rinse or a fluoride floss, presumably the toothpaste from brushing would be more likely to get into the areas between your teeth after flossing.
If you use a fluoride rinse or fluoride floss I'm not sure it would matter much, or brushing first might even be better, because it would remove material to make flossing more effective. Maybe?
gcanyon
The article cites a study saying that it is.
ninju
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29741239/
(a study linked in the article)
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SilverElfin
How do people here feel about water flossers?
pyk
Incredible for post-popcorn, and for $10 nowadays a no brainer. I still find floss does a better job at scraping the sides of the tooth vs water flossers for dislodging.
OptionOfT
From my convo with the dentist (N=1): flossing is better. But anything is better than not doing anything.
Herring
I got one recently. Felt like my teeth have never really been clean before.
random3
I guess this goes for water pickers use too
I'm surprised that this isn't self-evident. Flossing dislodges stuff from between your teeth. Brushing beforehand means you don't have an opportunity to remove that stuff.