Listerine Gentle Gum Care vs Oral B Glide

Listerine vs Oral B Floss
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One thing I've never been all that great at is flossing (and I suspect many others are in the same position). For a long time, I've used Oral B Glide, mostly because that's the brand of floss, along with a Oral B manual toothbrush, that my dentists gives me after my biannual cleaning. The main reason why I stuck with Oral B Glide is because it was always so easy to use. One of the main problems with flossing has always been the difficulty of getting the floss between teeth. Glide is the perfect marketing terminology for floss because it implies it's simplicity.

However, in the long term, my belief is I tended to get discouraged from using Oral B Glide because I wasn't seeing any gunk come off my teeth after flossing. It felt like I was wasting my time. Subconsciously, I probably incorrect assumed that meant I didn't need to floss because there was nothing in my teeth. I would therefore eventually discontinue flossing until my next cleaning and the dentist would insist I floss daily.

A few years ago, my dental hygienist suggested I use Listerine Gentle Gum Care floss by J&J. I was told the main advantage of Listerine's floss is it contains multiple threads of intertwined floss. This creates more gaps between the strands of the floss that are more effective at cleaning out plaque and leftover food. And sure enough, Listerine Gentle Gum Care floss always seems to pick up something, which makes me feel like the floss is doing its job. Using Listerine's floss did take some getting used to since the floss does feel a thicker than the Oral B floss, but that only took about a week to get accustomed.

Finally, just to further confirm Listerine's Gentle Gum Care floss a better option for me compared to the Oral B Glide floss, I decided to alternate Listerine vs Oral B. To my surprise, whenever I used Oral B's Gentle Gum Care, and then followed up with Listerine's Gentle Gum Care, I was more often able to visibly see more gunk out from between my teeth with Listerine's floss compared to Oral B, surprisingly even when I gave Oral B the first cleaning.

Lastly, after meals, I would occasionally get stuff stuck between my back molars, like bits of kernels of corn, or small pieces of steak. In the beginning, I would have almost always have Oral B Glide floss laying around that was easily accessible. It would always take 2-3 swipes between my teeth before I could get out food that was really stuck. However, Listerine's floss was almost always able to immediately remove the stuck food between my teeth the first time around.

Once I determined I was going to use Listerine's floss instead of Oral B, I realized that Listerine's floss is more expensive that Oral B Glide. Unfortunately, Costco carries Oral B Glide, but doesn't carry Listerine Gentle Gum Care. There's no easy answer to this but for me pay more, but realizing that even though Listerine's floss might be a few bucks more expensive compared to Oral B, if I'm using it because it's more effective, it will help prevent cavities and root canals. That will save me money in the long run.

To be fair, after I discovered how much I liked Listerine's floss, I tried getting my wife to use it. She didn't have the same reaction to the floss as I did, and actually still prefers flossing with Oral B Glide. Our house now has both brands of floss.

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