How to use a water pik without getting water all over the place

You may have already been using a waterpik for years and in that case this might not be useful to you. However, if you are a new user of a waterpik like me this might be very helpful.

First of all I chose the tip with the brush that shoots water out the center so I could sort of combine brushing my teeth with waterpicking at the same time some days. I was having trouble not getting water on my shirt and clothes while I did this.

So, today I realized I could keep water off of every thing if I just closed my mouth while it was spraying and then depressing the stop spray button on the handle for a moment while I let the water building up inside my mouth from the waterpik into the sink. This worked great.

Also, I was having trouble getting the water to siphon when I completely emptied the water tank so I realized that the water tank might need a little water to maintain the siphon to get started each time. So, what I could do was to add warm water to the tank each time and then start it up into the sink and let the colder water spout through down to the warmer water. Then I push the stop spray button on the handle for a moment and insert the nozzle into my mouth, close my mouth and start washing  any debris away from in between my teeth. then when my mouth starts filling up with water I push the stop spray button on the handle for a few seconds and let the water out of my mouth into the sink. I feel sort of silly it took me about a month to figure all this out. However, this last month this was the least of my worries. But, it sure is nice not to have to completely undress in order not to ruin my clothes while waterpiking my teeth and gums.

I was told by my dental hygienist that using a waterpik would increase my heart health, increase my gum health and increase the length of time people have teeth in their heads as they age. I have all my adult teeth except one that had to be replaced with an implant and I'm 65. This would have been unheard of for most people while I was growing up during the 1950s. Most people I knew by their 40s then had already lost all or some of their teeth by then  and either had long bridges or false teeth partial or full plates installed in their mouths to be able to chew food ongoing.