Brush Picks
Floss alternative
I hate flossing. I hate how the floss cuts into my fingers and lips, and how it gets wet and slimy and impossible to manipulate. I’ve tried those little flossers with handles but they’re not much better than regular floss. I’ve used interdental brushes (they’re like itty-bitty bottle brushes with handles) but they’re not flexible and don’t fit between normally-spaced teeth. After years of ignoring my dentist’s suggestion to just floss the teeth I want to keep, I think BrushPicks are my solution.
“These are AMAZING,” said my mother-in-law as she presented our final, newspaper-wrapped stocking stuffers on Christmas Eve. I was sure her description was a little over the top for what turned out to be a tiny box of glorified toothpicks. That was until I gave one a try.
Each disposable plastic pick has a pick end and a brush end. The pick end has tiny ridges that help to scrape harder material from between your teeth. But it’s the brush end that’s a real innovation. It looks kind of like a feathery antenna, with a flat row of tiny bristles extending on either side of a thin, flexible pick. This brush end is stiff enough and thin enough to poke easily between your teeth, but flexible enough that it readily bends so that you’re not jabbing painfully into your gums. This flexibility also allows for cleaning behind rear molars. Rotating the brush end as you clean helps to loosen and remove gunk from otherwise impossible-to-reach areas.
BrushPicks are so effective that they’re actually kind of fun to use–in a “look what I just dug out of my own head” sort of way. I’ve taken to using one every 2 or 3 days and I’m anxious to see if my dental hygienist notices the difference during my next cleaning.
06/10/10Brush Picks $3 (250 count)
