How to Motivate Yourself to Floss

…and greatly improve your health

For many people flossing presents a quandary — on the one hand flossing is essential to your oral and overall health, but on the other hand flossing is tedious, annoying, and most importantly does not provide any instant gratification, nor satisfy any immediate craving, need, or want, which are essential psychological elements and drivers behind what we as humans do on a daily basis. This presents a dillema for those who want to, but can’t get themselves into the habit of flossing daily.

We won’t bore you with the details of why flossing is important, if you’re reading this, you probably already know that. If you don’t know, or are interested in all the details, check out this article: 8 Real Reasons to Floss Your Teeth.

The basic premise of starting to form any habit is to start with just tiny parts of that habit, so if you want to form a flossing habit, start by flossing just one tooth. Just one tooth a day. Before you know it, your brain will say, I’m already here, might as well floss 2 teeth, then 3. Before you know it you’ll be flossing daily without much thought.

In this post we want to share some tools and options you can use to motivate yourself to floss.

Coach.me

Tony Stubblebine, the founder of Coach.me App, formerly Lift, said on ʎǝɹdsɐ ǝʌɐp’s podcast that he used to jokingly say to his friends:

“Lift is the kind of company that’s going to put me on the stage at the American Dental Association annual meeting, I will keynote as the person who helped more people floss than any other person in the world. I think we’ve helped people floss more than a hundred million times.”

He’s definitely on to something. Coach.me née Lift is an app that helps people accomplish goals and set healthy habits. Goals and habits that people have set and achieved using Coach.me range from eating healthy, and quitting smoking to getting to Inbox Zero, and studying more. The premise behind the app is simple — You set a goal, and the app sets up a task list for you in order to reach that goal, it then reminds you at set intervals when you need to take action on said goal. The app also benefits from a community feature which allows other users to give you “props” for completing tasks toward your habit.

This plays into the human desire for instant reward and gratification. When you continue on a habit streak, and continue to get props from the community, your brain will want to continue to receive the “reward”.

There are currently 75.3K people joined in developing Flossing as a habit on Coach.me — that’s quite the support network! According to Tony, there have been more that a hundred million flossings completed with the help of the app, so if you’ve been struggling to form a flossing habit, there’s definitely a good chance that Coach.me can help you too.

If you try the basic premise of the app, and are still not able to maintain flossing as a habit, the app even allows you to hire a coach for $14.99/week who will keep you on track, check in with you via in-app chat and provide coaching sessions via phone/skype. Seems like a small price to pay for a lifetime of healthy gums :)

Coach.me is available on iOS, Android, and Web.

Invest in fun and/or high tech flossing gadgets

Most people don’t enjoy spiraling a thin piece of floss around their fingers while digging in their mouth for plaque and food particles. Though it sounds unattractive and tedious, this is a necessary activity. If the preceding deters you from flossing, try getting some innovative gadgets to get you through it. Two cool gadgets we’re loving these days are:

Cocofloss

This revolutionary floss is like a tropical vacation in your mouth. Say goodbye to your drugstore thread and say aloha to the scents of Hawaiian beaches. Cocofloss’ flavors will get you amped to floss nightly and have you coming back for more.

With flavors like Pure Coconut and Delicious Strawberries, how could you not want to floss?

Cocofloss was created by the Cu sisters. Chrystle, the dentist, an extreme, pro-flosser and Cat, the artist, who is a little lazier on the flossing frontier. Their goal is to make flossing and oral care more fun, motivating, and rewarding for everyone.

Unlike your typical floss that takes the form of a smooth flat tape, Cocofloss resembles a cylinder. It’s made of hundreds of strong filaments infused with microcrystalline wax, coconut oil, essential oils, and aromas. The strong filaments make it more abrasive and effective at scrubbing away plaque.

Waterpik Power Flosser

This flosser makes flossing so much easier, you’ll have little room for excuses. With the power flosser, which works at 10,000 strokes per minute, it’s easy to clean plaque between teeth and above and below the gumline.

This flosser is especially handy for people who have a hard time reaching to the back teeth which are also areas where plaque tends to linger and cause cavities.

The flosser uses disposable flexible flossing tips which are versatile enough to clean in tough to reach spots like the back teeth, and especially way back by the wisdom teeth where plaque and food debris tend to accumulate most.

Reward System

Work with the biological structures of your brain to trick it into wanting to floss via positive reinforcement.

For example, work out a reward system where you can only have your morning cup of coffee if you’ve flossed your teeth the night before.

Or, if you get a flossing streak by flossing 5 days in a row, you can treat yourself to your favorite snack or even a Netflix marathon.

If you go on a month long streak with flossing without missing a day, go out and celebrate with friends, let them know about your achievement and be proud! Once you’ve flossed for a month, your flossing habit should be formed, and you should not have trouble sticking to it.

However if you do fall off, go back to the above strategies and try again.

No great success ever came without failures!