Let’s be honest: Flossing is a pain. And though everyone knows oral health is important and this bit of oral hygiene can help reduce cavities, plaque and bad breath, many don’t get to it every day — mainly due to laziness and, well, the general grossness of sticking your fingers in your mouth. Which is why I was excited to try the Flaus Electric Flosser Starter Kit, a new electric flosser with an ergonomic handle, USB charging and easy-to-replace floss heads.
Though the best water flossers have long been a common solution to a less hands-in-mouth lifestyle, the dental community generally believes that if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. According to the Mayo Clinic, electric water flossers are aimed at folks who have braces or other types of dental work that won’t work with traditional floss. But, as the first electric flosser on the market, Flaus breaks the mold by combining the ease of a water flosser with the benefits of waxed thread. Throw in the up to 18,000 sonic vibrations per minute and by golly, it does do the trick like nothing else I’ve tried.
After flossing daily with Flaus for a month, I’m a convert — even with the $99 price tag. Here’s what you need to know if you’re ready for a cleaner, healthier mouth with a lot less yuck.
Flaus is a new electric flosser that makes daily oral hygiene easy?— and maybe even a little fun. With a fully waterproof IPX7 body, ergonomic handle and waxed, high-performing glide floss heads — and running at up to 18,000 sonic vibrations per minute — it keeps dirty fingers out of your mouth and plaque at bay.
What I liked about it
The appealing design
I try to floss daily. I really do. I even bought a bag of those easier-to-use flossing picks that I kept in my bedside table. And it helped. A bit. But the fact is, if you need to do something that prominently features sticking your fingers in or near your mouth, making it easy (and palatable) is super important. Which is why I was so intrigued with Flaus and its clean, ergonomic architecture.
For an oral health care product, Flaus is particularly attractive. Like an electric toothbrush if?crafted by Apple. It’s stark, simple and downright attractive. It has a smooth, soft handle, which felt good in my hands, and a curved neck. This last asset, when angled in my mouth, got to every nook and cranny between my teeth, including hard-to-reach molars. A bite pad, which is located on the back of the handle, helps you better control your flossing by using your teeth to leverage the head and get even deeper. (Don’t be scared — you can bite down as hard as you like.)
As you may expect, the actual floss on the recyclable head is super glide — comparable to more expensive string floss. And because the Flaus is totally waterproof, you can also run it under hot water and use it for two days if you aren’t an aggressive flosser.
Easily changeable Flaus heads
Of course, it makes perfect sense that you need to change the floss head — it would be disgusting not to — and thankfully it’s easy to do. To put it on, just fit it into the groove at the top of the Flaus and click. To remove, press the top against a flat surface and rotate your thumb to ease it off. There’s nearly no learning curve, and as mentioned above, the floss itself is high quality and never got caught in my teeth.
Battery life
Flaus comes with a USB-chargeable base, which I keep next to my bed. My only gripe here is that I wish it came with a longer charging cord, because the shorter one only allowed me to stow it on the lower part of my bedside table. An easy fix was to purchase this Anker Powerline+, which was chosen as our top-tested USB cable, so I could keep it handier.
A full charge can last up to two months, and you’ll know it’s full when the base shows a solid white light (it will flash while charging). I especially like knowing I can throw the Flaus in a bag to take with me when I travel and not have to worry about toting the base as well. And, to that end, you can also trigger a Travel mode, which will stop it from turning on accidentally and running out that enduring battery, by holding down the power for about five seconds. When you get to your destination, just repeat to unlock it.
Sonic vibrations
Unlike regular flossing, Flaus offers sonic vibrations in three speeds: 10,000, 14,000 or 18,000 sonic vibrations per minute. This added oomph helped me efficiently wrangle all that crud from between my teeth — without my bacteria-laden fingers. This is even more important right now because as I get older, my teeth seem to be shifting, meaning my flossing habits have had to change. So yes, in addition to being more comfortable, Flausing (if you will) was also a whole lot faster. I admit, I tended to stay at the lower level of 10,000, but once in a while I’d power up to get to that hard-stuck gunk.
What I didn’t like about it
Pricey floss
My problem with the Flaus floss heads is twofold.
Firstly, though I love that these are recyclable, I did not care for the fact that I had to find a place to stash the used floss heads, then email Flaus for a free return label so I could physically mail them back to a recycling facility. Don’t get me wrong, I know it’s not easy being green, but this was just one step too far for me. At the very least, I would expect Flaus to give a discount on future floss heads for going this extra mile. Flaus does mention that you may be able to recycle at your local facility, but each one is different, so it’s worth checking if you’re interested.
Which brings me to my second problem: The heads are pricey at $15. Compare that to the $10 three-pack of Oral-B Glide Pro-Health. Plus, there’s a $5 shipping fee if you don’t purchase the subscription every 90 days. I don’t mind subscribing, but because I’m attempting to be a better earth citizen, I always thoroughly run the head under hot water and use it a second day. However, when I attempted to change the frequency of my first delivery of floss heads, this was not an option. I checked in with Flaus about this and was told that you can always pause your subscription (or speed it up if it’s been a busy flossing month), but only once you’ve ordered it. I haven’t tried yet, but this seems like a solid fix.
Bottom line
If you want to floss more but feel put off because of the gross factor (or general laziness), Flaus can be a dental life-changer. This revolutionary electric flosser is not only simple to use, store and travel with, but it also looks particularly attractive for a simple oral hygiene device.
Flaus got me to start flossing at least every night, and sometimes twice a day, and it also made it efficient. Yes, it’s not cheap at $99 (that’s more than our top pick for best electric toothbrush) and you can only use the similarly pricey Flaus floss heads, but if you’re tired of being reprimanded by your dentist and need motivation for better oral care, I’d say it’s worth every penny.
