"People who smoke cigarettes, they say:
“You don’t know how hard it is to quit smoking.”
Yes, I do. It’s as hard as it is to start flossing." - Mitch Hedberg
"People who smoke cigarettes, they say:
“You don’t know how hard it is to quit smoking.”
Yes, I do. It’s as hard as it is to start flossing." - Mitch Hedberg
… if your mouth is healthy, neither of these things hurt or bleed. The “shiv” is used to measure the pull away happening between your gums and teeth. If you brush/floss regularly, that gap will be small and not inflamed so it won’t hurt or bleed. Likewise with flossing, your mouth is bleeding because it’s fighting off an active infection in the gum tissue. If you flossed enough, there wouldn’t be an infection there to fight and no bleeding would occur.
That may be true in many cases, but some people have more sensitive gums, so it depends how skilled the hygienist is. When I last switched dentists, it was the first time I’d never bled during a visit. Prior dentists told me my oral health was good, but my gums were just very sensitive.