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Dental floss is commonly supplied in plastic dispensers that contain 10 to 50 meters of floss. After pulling out the desired amount, the floss is pulled against a small protected blade in the dispenser to sever it.

Dental floss is held between the fingers. The floss is guided between each tooth and under the gumline to remove particles of food stuck between teeth and dento-bacterial plaque that adhere to such dental surfaces. Ideally using a C-shape, the floss is curved around a tooth and placed under the gumline, and then moved away from the gumline, the floss scrapes the side of each tooth, and can also clean the front or back of the tooth. Gently moving the floss from below the gumline to away from the gumline removes dento-bacterial plaque attached to teeth surfaces above and below the gumline. A clean section of floss can be used to clean each tooth to avoid transmitting plaque bacteria from one tooth to another.

There are many different kinds of dental floss commonly available. The most important variable is thickness. If the floss is too thick for the space between a pair of teeth then it will be difficult or impossible to get the floss down between the teeth. On the other hand, if the floss is too thin, it may be too weak and break. Different floss will suit different mouths, and even different parts of one mouth. This is because some teeth have a smaller gap between them than others. It's possible that thicker floss does a better job of scraping bacterial plaque off teeth, given that there is space enough between the teeth to use it. When a piece of hard food is tightly wedged between the teeth, one may need to switch to thinner floss, because thick floss cannot get past the food. It is possible to split some kinds of dental floss lengthwise generating a pair of thinner pieces that are much weaker but sometimes usable. This is possible because some kinds of dental floss are made of many very thin strands that are not woven together but rather run more or less in parallel. This can also be useful if the dental floss you have is too thick for you, for any other reason, and you do not have access to any other, for example when travelling in a foreign country.