There is a division in the flossing world, between the Floss People, and the Floss Pick People. This division has been causing household drama for too long, and we are here to settle the score: Dental floss is better than floss picks. Here’s why:

Dental Health

Improving or maintaining a level of dental health is the #1 reason people floss, and rightly so! Flossing is an integral part of any full oral health routine. Flossing has a multitude of benefits, including reducing your risk of gum disease, prevent gingivitis, improving breath, and making your teeth appear whiter! Flossing removes the plaque, residual food, and bacteria from between the cracks in your teeth, reaching deep into crevices your regular toothbrush won’t reach.

With all the positive side effects of flossing, you’re probably ready to pick up some floss and get to cleaning, but you still need to choose your tool. Here are the pros and cons of using floss picks vs. floss when it comes to your dental health:

Floss Picks

Floss picks are comprised of hard plastic ‘handles’ and short pieces of floss. This relatively new invention has gained a bit of popularity as a convenient one-handed method of flossing, but are floss picks really a good alternative to regular dental floss?

Pros:

• Floss picks are readily available, which encourages people to floss
• Floss pick handles are easier to hold for some individuals than regular dental floss

Cons:

• While floss picks can easily reach your front teeth, many people struggle to get floss picks into their back teeth (molars)
• Floss picks only have a short piece of floss, which means you will most definitely need to use more than one in order to floss your entire mouth
• Again, due to the short piece of floss, floss pick users risk redistributing bacteria between teeth
• People with braces should not use floss picks

Dental Floss

Dental floss is the oldest flossing method around, and its long-lasting popularity is well deserved. Flossing with regular dental floss is the original method of fighting that hard to reach plaque and keeping those pearly whites shining bright!

Pros:

• Dental floss is readily available, which encourages people to floss
• Because regular dental floss requires only the use of your hands, you can easily reach it into tight places and your back teeth, ensuring your entire mouth gets an equally good clean
• Floss can be cut to any length, so there is no need to use the same area over and over again to clean your teeth; this helps to actually remove plaque and bacteria, rather than redistributing it
• When it comes to dental floss for braces, traditional floss is the way to go

Cons:

• Some people may find regular dental floss difficult to hold (i.e. individuals with arthritis)

Economics

Not convinced floss is better than floss picks? Here’s what a year of flossing with dental floss picks vs. regular dental floss will look like on your wallet:

Floss picks, as we mentioned, are readily available in a huge number of stores. Floss picks will typically run you between $5 and $17, and typically contain between 30 and 150 picks. If a pack of 30 costs around $5, and you need to buy two per month, that leaves you potentially paying more than $120 a year on floss picks alone. Considering the fact that you need to use more than one pick every time you floss, and their price tag is fairly hefty, picks are far from an affordable option.

Dental floss is even more readily available than dental floss picks, and will typically run you between $1 and $15 for packs of 1 to 3 boxes of floss. When flossing with regular dental floss, you only need around 12 inches of floss per day. With one box of dental floss typically containing between 30 and 60 yards, most people will not have to repurchase dental floss more than twice a year. Regular dental floss is a far more affordable option than dental picks.

The Environment

There is some debate around whether dental floss is more environmentally sound than dental floss picks, as neither can be recycled, and neither are biodegradable. Both dental floss and dental picks typically come packaged in hard plastic boxes, or mixed plastic bags, both harmful to the environment. Though neither option is an entirely environmentally friendly one, dental floss is inarguably more eco-friendly than dental floss picks.

Dental floss picks are made from hard plastic, and cannot be recycled due to their mixed material nature. Once single use dental picks have been used, both dental floss and pick must be thrown away. Reusing dental picks is not advisable, as you risk redistributing bacteria and fraying the floss. As such, each and every floss pick that has ever been used has ended up in a landfill, or polluting some natural area.

Most normal dental floss is made from nylon, and coated in a synthetic wax such as Teflon. Again, a mixed material plastic, dental floss cannot be recycled. Despite its non-recyclable nature, dental floss takes far less time to decompose, and poses less of a hazard to global health. Because dental floss is far simpler to create than floss picks, many manufacturers have also been looking into ways to make dental floss more eco-friendly.

Luckily for us, we don’t have to wait for huge corporations to get on-board with eco-friendly products and eco-friendly dental floss.

Solution

Now that you understand why we think dental floss is so much better than dental floss picks, you might be wondering if there are differences between different kinds of floss. We could go into all the details of flavorings, packaging, and waxed dental floss vs. unwaxed dental floss, but instead we will just share a super easy solution to your problems. Wowe Lifestyle is a brand dedicated to creating and sharing eco-friendly everyday products with people like you that are concerned for the environment as well as their health.

The Natural Biodegradable Silk Dental Floss from Wowe is the best regular dental floss alternative, and fully equipped with a stainless steel cutter box, and refills. This natural dental floss is made from 100% natural silk, which has a natural slip and strength perfect for getting in between teeth. Rather than being waxed with harmful ingredients like Teflon, Wowe’s Natural Biodegradable Silk Dental Floss is waxed with natural candelilla wax, and flavored with natural mint.

While the Natural Biodegradable Silk Dental floss from Wowe is impressively high performing, its eco-friendly credentials are even more impressive. An entirely biodegradable dental floss, disposing of Wowe’s Natural Silk Floss will never leave you feeling guilty. The silk and candelilla wax will over time naturally biodegrade, leaving no trace of their existence, and without causing harm to wildlife or the environment.

The packaging used to protect dental products is typically made from hard and mixed plastics that can be harmful to the environment and take hundreds of years to decompose. Wowe uses plastic-free eco-friendly packaging, so you can feel good about every part of your purchase. When you purchase your first Natural Biodegradable Silk Dental Floss from Wowe Lifestyle, you also receive a plastic free dental floss box made from stainless steel. When you finally have to repurchase, simply buy a refill pack, and you’ll be set for over a year of flossing.

Do you want to learn about more ways to save money, your health, and the environment by purchasing eco-friendly products? Check out Wowe Lifestyle, and see how we make living eco-friendly a little easier.