Pharmacies offer a huge variety of dental cleaning tools:
- Waxed dental floss
- Unwaxed dental floss
- Interdental picks and special sticks
- Oral irrigators, which use water to remove plaque caught between teeth
- Mouth rinses
Both waxed and unwaxed dental floss works well to clean the spaces between your teeth. If the spaces are tight, waxed floss may glide more easily between them.
Waxed, unwaxed, high-tech teflon types, nylon types. Ask your dentist how to use them properly so you don’t hurt your gums.
Oral irrigators can help remove food caught between your teeth, too; but they shouldn’t replace dental floss and toothbrushing. Likewise, most mouthwashes won’t do an effective job of keeping your mouth healthy on their own.
Many are used simply to cover up breath odor, although some over-the-counter fluoride mouth rinses approved by the ADA can help prevent decay, and some anti-gingivitis or anti-plaque mouth rinses can help fight periodontal diseases.