Category: Health

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This Man Wonders How Many Days He Needs to Floss to Trick His Dentist Into Thinking It’s Been a Lifelong Habit

Flossing is something that some people do regularly, I hear – but just as often, it’s something people fudge to their dentist about how much they actually take the time.

This query was posted in Reddit’s No Stupid Question forum, and honestly, it’s information we’ve all probably wondered at some point in our lives.

Just how many days could we floss before an appointment and manage to convince our dentist we’ve been flossing every day forever?

Read on for some pretty enlightening responses!

13. Dentists think they’re so funny.

You can save time by only flossing the ones you want to keep.

12. Just a few weeks…maybe.

I started a few weeks ago after having never flossed consistently and my gums stopped bleeding after about a week of consistent flossing.

For cases of mild gingivitis this is the answer. Ultimately though, if you already have calculus(tartar), flossing will not remove it and your past sins will still visible. But if we see healthy pink tight gums, we are happy.

However, if you have periodontitis, flossing will most likely not be enough and we’re gonna have to go scrapey scrapey.

11. They’ll toughen up.

A lot. But it can help if you floss well and rinse with diluted hydrogen peroxide.

Do your gums bleed when you floss? If so, you probably already have plaque beneath the gum line.

Don’t let that keep you from going to the dentist. They can do a deep clean and you can start your flossing routine after that.

10. Spoken like a true dentist.

2 weeks of flossing can show a big difference.

The best day to start flossing is yesterday; the 2nd best day is today.

9. That’s one way to win…but not for your teeth to win.

The trick is you go to a different dentist for a cleaning before you go to your main cleaning.

8. No regrets? I’m in.

10 days give or take and you will see significant difference. Factors that come into play are when you have tarter build up or deep pockets in your gums. So for example, you get your teeth cleaned regularly 6 months like we recommend, so flossing about a week or so before will bring down inflammation because you probs don’t have significant tarter buildup.

If you haven’t visited the dentist in some time and there is significant tarter then your gums will most likely not bounce back until it’s removed. You’ll definitely see a difference maybe less pain or bleeding but the tarter will continue to irritate your gums until it’s removed.

Moral of the story: floss nightly, save money, save time, save teeth, you won’t regret it

7. No shame in the plaque game.

Dentist here.

If you’ve never flossed in your life, you likely won’t have good flossing technique anyway. You will likely have buildup then that can’t be removed by a couple weeks of flossing.

We aren’t judging you. Actually, some hygienists I know will roll their eyes at nice clean teeth and will fight for the patient with heavy buildup. There’s something so satisfying about removing calculus. Mmmm.

You’ve just got to remember that mouth stuff is ALL WE DO ALL DAY ERR DAY. Save the teeth embarrassment for your Mechanic or something. Not the dentist.

6. Some people are just lucky.

I hadn’t gone to the dentist in 5 years and recently got them cleaned.

My dentist told me I had really strong teeth genetically. Not entire sure what that meant but I did have tarter build up as I only brushed once in the morning.

Since going to the dentist though I have brushed twice a day and flossed too. I think I notice a difference in my gums but I’m not entirely sure yet.

It didn’t take too long to clean, 30 minutes to do my whole mouth.

5. Good habits are as hard to break as bad ones.

On a side note, I’ve been flossing everyday since going to the dentist 7 months ago and they were quite impressed with the improvement today when I went in for a cleaning.

I simply started flossing in the shower and it has been a habit for nearly 7 months now.

4. Not as long as you’d think.

I had not gone to a dentist in 10 years. Gums were bleeding every time I brushed.

Only had 4 very tiny cavities, and one significant one. They took care of one side of my mouth at a time, cleaned all the tarter pockets.

After about 7-10 days, my gums were no longer bleeding, even with flossing.

3. Dentists do get a bad rap.

Totally depends on the person. Some people are more susceptible to tooth and gum damage than others.

Honestly, dentists don’t care. The whole purpose of their job is to clean your teeth because you can’t. Your teeth are strong enough that if you take regular care of them and don’t eat stuff that eats away at them, you can go your entire life without a visit to the dentist.

Since most people don’t do that, dentists exist, and they’re happy to help.

2. Timing matters.

Yes of course. You won’t overdo flossing (unless your gum is already irritated don’t keep picking at it). Brush/floss nightly because it’s the most important time. Our mouths get dry at night and the soft plaque (white fuzzy stuff or grittiness on teeth) sticks and hardens creating tarter. This stuff sucks. It’s loaded with bacteria and causes significant damage if left prolonged.

Not to mention if you leave food or bacteria between your teeth each night it just cultivates and will basically go after your teeth for nutrients aka cavity. Same thing on the surface of your teeth. Floss whenever and however much but make sure to do it at night to disrupt the bacteria and destroy their homes. Fight the plaque before it fight back

1. Hahaha good one.

This reminds me of when I went to the dentist and he asked when did I floss last?

I was like “bro, you were there!”

So I’m going to have to do some firsthand research here.

Dentists, weigh in with your gleaming thoughts in the comments!

We want to hear from you!

The post This Man Wonders How Many Days He Needs to Floss to Trick His Dentist Into Thinking It’s Been a Lifelong Habit appeared first on UberFacts.

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People Discuss the Mental Illnesses That Get Unfairly Stereotyped

There’s been a big effort in recent years to de-stigmatize mental illness in general, which is fantastic.

We’ve come a long way in talking about depression and anxiety, and with normalizing talking therapy, but when it comes to some mental illnesses, the stereotypes are still going strong.

That’s definitely the case with these 16 illnesses, and knowledge is power.

16. It will break your heart.

I have gender dysphoria and as a teen I starved myself to look more like a boy and so that my menstrual cycle would stop (amenorrhea caused by weight loss.) I also felt dirty and being thin made me feel clean and empty.

I hated myself and wanted to not exist. I literally wanted to starve myself into nonexistence. Vanity didn’t enter into it.

15. It’s paranoia, not always voices.

Schizophrenics don’t always hear voices. With mine, I hear people trying to break down my door, trying to open my windows, and movement under my house.

Schizophrenia often involves extreme paranoia rather than evil voices; my Bio Psych professor told us how her BIL, if off of his medication, believed that if he left the house for any reason someone would break in after he left to unplug the fridge and spoil all the food.

14. Sometimes there’s no reason.

Mood/anxiety disorders do not need an objective reason for occurring – you don’t need to have a shit life to be depressed or to be in at any actual risk of something bad happening in order to have anxiety. They can just happen randomly or in connection to things that happened far in the past.

Therefore, the common notions that someone is ungrateful for being depressed or having anxiety or that they’re faking it because they “have no reason” to suffer from them is absolutely flawed and the attempt at “fixing” them by pointing out the good things in somebody’s life is futile and antagonizing.

13. OCD gets co-opted often.

OCD is not about being tidy and clean. It involves rescuing, intrusive thoughts and obsessively cleaning is just one of OCD related compilations. It can seriously f*ck up someone’s life.

An example would be turning a light switch on and off 30 times once entering a room or you fear something terrible will happen if you don’t.

It really annoys me when someone calls themselves OCD because they like a clean kitchen.

12. This makes me angry.

If you get angry and go off on someone they ask, “are you off your meds?”

11. If only it were just that.

That depression only makes you sad. There is a myriad of other feelings, and physical symptoms.

10. Most people are just average.

Mental illness does not make you particularly dangerous or a genius.

9. And it gets worse with stress.

Not everyone with Tourette syndrome randomly yells out obscenities.

8. Usually they do.

That crazy people don’t know they’re crazy.

7. It can happen to anyone.

Most people with PTSD and/or CPTSD haven’t been in the military or a war zone.

6. It’s hard to spot.

People with anxiety being highly strung, or nervous about things.

It can manifest itself in that way, but it’s more like there’s always something at the back of your mind that needs doing, but you’re not sure what. Even if you know what that thing is, you can see the end goal, and maybe even the steps to getting to that goal, but staying on that path requires you to fight with self doubt, and the “what ifs” that plague your mind when you’re on the way there.

Also, you can appear quite well adjusted in social situations, but in downtime, overthink every fucking thing.

5. OCD takes over your life.

It’s not liking your pens in color coordinated order- it’s feeling like if this ‘contaminated’ pen touches that one, your sister will die.

If you don’t hit the light switch an odd/even number of times, you’ll die.

The rituals can literally take over your life, and you know they don’t make sense, but you can’t stop.

4. Sometimes you can’t cry.

Depression isn’t being sad all the time and crying a lot.

Parts of it can be but it’s different for everyone.

Personally, I don’t cry often and I’m not overwhelmingly sad, I just don’t feel things. Everything feels numb.

3. It’s much more complicated than that.

That eating disorders are a vanity thing.

And that people with an eating disorder only “want to be skinny and get attention ”

And that eating a banana is going to heal you.

2. Don’t judge a book by its cover.

Anorexic people aren’t all skinny teenage white girls.

I’m an average weight, adult man and it drives me crazy how hard it is to find support in the professional world because I’m “not thin enough”

1. Depression is rough.

The sheer exhaustion and feeling of weight. On particularly bad days it’s like I’m wearing a 50lb weight on each limb and a 100lb vest.

People love to say “Exercise and nature will cure your depression!” but it got to the point where I had to stop going to the gym because I was routinely leaving in tears halfway through my workout because I just could not physically or mentally do it anymore.

I have days where I can scarcely physically get out of bed. And all those things that are supposed to give you good endorphins – exercise, fresh air, sunlight, food, even sex… They leave me even more exhausted and miserable.

Now that we know better, let’s do better.

No one likes to be stereotyped, after all.

The post People Discuss the Mental Illnesses That Get Unfairly Stereotyped appeared first on UberFacts.

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What Causes Social Anxiety in a Child?

A child is a pure soul and like a neat canvas for parents to instill their values. Parenthood holds a different meaning for everyone, and it has a significant impact on a child. When we are at the developmental stage, we learn a lot of things from our parents. A lot of things we pick up are from our surroundings. We need to have a positive outlook on things since childhood to stay in the right mind frame. However, anxiety is a mental disease that can develop over time. Parents should always pay attention to their child’s wellbeing. What is

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Swimming in Cold Water Might Help Ward Off Dementia

If you’re fast approaching middle age (like I am) or are staring down the later years of your life and hoping to spend most of them lucid and enjoying the fruits of your labor, then keeping your mind in tact is likely something that interests you.

Dementia is scary, and it affects so many of our family and friends – which is why there’s so much research that goes into finding ways to combat it.

Most recently, a team from Cambridge University found that people who regularly swim outdoors in the winter had elevated levels of a protein that plays a key role in forming brain connections.

Image Credit: iStock

The protein in question has been found to help protect the brain against other neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, too.

Professor Giovanna Mallucci, the Associate Director of the UK Dementia Research Institute, talked about the results in an online lecture.

Researchers have known for some time that the process of forming new synapses declines over time, and also that this process can be influenced by temperature. Hibernating mammals, for example, experience a loss of synapses when they sleep through the winter, but they are restored upon awakening in the spring.

A previous paper, published in Nature, revealed that a “cold shock” protein in the brain – RBM3 – is responsible.

In mice, exposure to freezing temperatures caused a loss of synapses… but that their RBM3 levels skyrocketed as they warmed up, allowing them to form healthy new ones.

Image Credit: iStock

Researchers then measured RBM3 levels in a group of outdoor swimming enthusiasts, all of whom became hypothermic during their chilly dips.

When compared to a group of non-swimmers, the ones who swam in cold water had higher levels of RBM3 in their blood, leading to the belief that hypothermic conditions does trigger the release of this key protein in humans, too.

This foundation is exciting and strong, but without peer-reviewed research or other, similar findings, we can’t say for sure that taking winter dips in the water will keep your brain healthy for years to come.

Image Credit: iStock

Letting yourself get too cold, or wandering too far down the path to hypothermia, is also deadly – so don’t try this at home until the scientists are sure it’s something that works.

So… just don’t do it alone. Or do it at the gym if they have a cold dip pool. We just don’t want you to drown or get hurt.

The good news for those of us how HATE being cold? If the RBM3 protein is shown to help regenerate skills, we’ll likely see the development of drugs that can help stimulate the desired responses without having to go swimming in the freezing cold.

Three cheers for science!

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People Are Sharing Things They’ll Miss About Lockdowns

Guess what, everyone?

The pandemic isn’t over yet! Not even close, in fact…

And, while we’re seeing a lot of people out there ACTING like things have improved, we all need to be smart about wearing a mask, keeping our distance from people, and washing our hands.

Regardless of all those pesky FACTS, people have been tweeting out what they’re going to miss about lockdown…whenever that happens. It’s good to dream, I guess…let’s take a look at what people had to say! Stay safe out there!

1. That’s a good thing.

Trust me, you’ll be able to hibernate this whole winter.

2. Awwwwww. Keep on enjoying that.

Looks like a good companion.

3. That is definitely a positive thing.

Let’s all keep ’em clean when this is over, okay?

4. The perfect excuse…

What’s YOURS?

5. They’re always there for you.

You gotta love that!

6. All kinds of experiments going on.

That can be good or bad…just ask your pets.

7. All kinds of good stuff.

You still have a good amount of time to enjoy all of this.

8. Pretty steady where I’m at.

That’s cheap!

9. Livin’ the life.

Like I said, lockdown ain’t going anywhere, so keep on enjoying it.

10. Guest appearance!

You know your co-workers love it!

11. Family is everything.

I’m sure they love having you there!

12. Oh come on, lighten up…

Give people a chance! It’s worth it!

Sorry, folks, but we still have quite a ways to go before we can get back to normal again…

Now we want to hear from you!

How are you spending your time during the lockdown?

Talk to us in the comments! And stay safe out there!

The post People Are Sharing Things They’ll Miss About Lockdowns appeared first on UberFacts.

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Flight Attendant’s Video Highlights All of the (Many) Things You Should Never Touch on an Airplane

We’re all thinking more about germs and what we touch when we’re in public these days, and that goes double for indoor, confined spaces like airplanes. And while you’re probably not under any kind of illusion that commercial aircraft are super duper clean places, this flight attendant’s TikTok should probably still come with some kind of trigger warning.

Seriously, if you were a germaphobe before the whole pandemic situation, you might not want to subscribe to Kat Kamalani’s TikTok.

Kat has gone viral will all kinds of insider videos, in which she shares tips, tricks, and behind-the-scene knowledge from the airline industry.

Image Credit: TikTok

This video, though, shows all of the places on airplanes that people touch and touch and touch – and that only get cleaned at the end of the day.

As someone with a fairly severe peanut allergy, I’ve known for years that planes don’t really get cleaned between flights – which shouldn’t come as a surprise to you, either, given how quick the turnaround is between deplaning and boarding the next set of passengers, right?

Image Credit: TikTok

If I don’t wipe down everything in my tiny sphere, I will end up with puffy eyes and more sneezes than I can clean up with a travel pack of Kleenex.

Which means someone (or many someone’s) have been there before me, touching everything in sight with peanut oil on their fingers.

@katkamalani

Flight attendant hack. GROSS things on airplane. #flightattendants #fyp #flightattendantlife #lifehack #travelhacks

♬ original sound – Kat Kamalani

So, Kat’s video is just confirming all of that for me – and now you, too.

Her video has been viewed over 1.2 million times.

The next time I travel, I’m going to bring plenty of Clorox wipes and hand sanitizer along for the ride…providing I can find them on the shelves.

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