Try stopping the flossing and using toothpicks instead. They go in between as well as once they feather out they become tooth brushes. The only things missing are the actually good ingredients of modern toothpaste.
I also do hope that since Covid everyone with bad breath knows they have it. Except for anti maskers I guess.
Replacing flossing with diligent tooth picking is a lot different than not flossing. Most people don’t use a tooth pick or floss. If you don’t do either, you’ll probably show improvement from the act of caring to clean your teeth.
Wait, weren't you just making the case that flossing "has not been shown to do anything"? If it hasn't been shown to do anything, why would you suggest I replace it with something else?
You said you were not OK to not do it and that bits of food get stuck etc. Thus I suggested you might just try toothpicks instead if you really can't go without and insist that flossing is the only way.
I also mentioned copious use of toothpicking in my original post, though mostly as a replacement for some of the brushing.
Flossing is faster but it would be an extra step / thing to do at the end of the day (the recommended daily flossing). In the way I told my parent here to try replacing that, you're correct. Flossing would be faster!
In the original comment I made about toothpicking by dad, I'm wasn't talking about using a toothpick to just get some food that's stuck out. Everyone uses that from time to time I suppose. And also not as a floss replacement task at the end of the day. The kind of toothpicking I mentioned that he did was basically "automatic" and while doing other stuff. Basically a way to keep your hands occupied while otherwise idle and not as a specific "do this X minutes every day as part of your brushing routine".
Less painful: That really depends as well. The flossing the dentist does is super painful. I hate it when they do that. Using a toothpick? Not painful at all. I don't poke it into the gums. What do you do?
Thorough: Potentially, I'll give you that. It can reach some parts that toothpicks never will be able to I suppose. Then again, those are the parts in my experience where the floss gets stuck, feathers out and bits stay in between the teeth and you gotta try to get them out with yet more floss. They're also the parts that make flossing painful because you have to apply so much force to get the floss through that it tends to hit the gum line. That hurts. It's why it sucks so much when the dentist does it. If you do it yourself you at least have a bit of control and will be able to try to avoid that. But the dentist just wants to get through the flossing as fast as they can, so they really jam it in there and pull it down hard.
You likely find the dentist's flossing painful because you don't floss. It is not painful if you floss regularly (even just once a week) because it gets your gums used to the sensation and clears out the gunk that makes gums sore and sensitive. If your gums are in good condition (not inflamed from plaque), the floss will slide down between the tooth and the gum, rather than hit the gum directly.
I find toothpicks painful because they are wider and shaped like a wedge, and so they tend to push some food in deeper (like the thin, hard fragments that come from eating popcorn). Instead I use very thin, tape-like floss, which is minimally invasive and does not get stuck. It functions more like a scoop, slipping neatly under trapped food so it can be lifted out.
I also do flossing as an idle activity. I keep floss in the shower and at my desk. I almost never floss when I brush my teeth (can't be bothered) and only floss while I'm occupied with something else, like watching a show or waiting for hair conditioner to soak in.
Floss gets into the tight spaces between the teeth that a toothpick cannot reach. Toothpicks are a useful adjunct for flossing, but by no means a replacement.
Sorry, but unless one is blessed with near-perfect genetics, oral hygiene is real work. But it's worth it if you want to stay in good overall health into old age.
I also do hope that since Covid everyone with bad breath knows they have it. Except for anti maskers I guess.