Good oral hygiene is key if you want to have a healthy and appealing smile. While most people know why and when to brush their teeth, understanding why and when to floss can be an entirely different story. With this guide and your dentist's help, you will learn everything you need to know about flossing.
When to Floss May Surprise You
One of the most crucial things to know is that flossing is necessary, but it is not as necessary as brushing.
Experts recommend brushing your teeth twice a day, which most people know. However, flossing is really only necessary once a day as long as you do a thorough job.
When it comes to brushing your teeth, most people will brush in the morning and at night, which is suitable. When to floss does not actually matter, either. Again, the most important thing is that you are flossing thoroughly at least once a day to remove food residue, plaque, and any other debris or bacteria that may be lingering in between and behind the teeth and on the gums.
Technique Matters, Too
Knowing when to floss is important, but knowing how to floss also matters.
You can choose from using traditional flossing string or flossing picks since both can be effective.
When using flossing string, be sure to wrap the ends tightly around the middle fingers on both hands and hold the floss string in between your thumbs and forefingers. This ensures you have a good grip on the floss.
Gently guide the flossing string between the teeth, moving the floss in a C motion without snapping or sawing the gum tissue. Heavy snapping or sawing can irritate the gums, causing bleeding and inflammation that will prevent you from flossing effectively.
Knowing the Benefits Can Help
Many people are still not convinced flossing is worth the time and effort, so knowing the benefits is important.
Brushing alone cannot remove all of the food and plaque on, behind, and in between your teeth, but flossing should help you be much more thorough. Although you may brush as recommended, flossing will reduce your risk of tooth decay even further.
In addition to a reduced risk of tooth decay, flossing is essential for removing food and plaque located on the gum tissue. This will protect your gums and overall oral health from developing periodontal disease and tooth loss.
Proper oral hygiene is imperative, but brushing is not the only step needed to care for your mouth, teeth, and gums. You need to floss, too, for proper care.
Contact a company like Lake Pleasant Dentistry if you need more information.
Share10 May 2019
When the bottled water craze began, I jumped on the bandwagon with everyone else who was drinking water from bottles instead of from the tap. I wasn't sure why bottled water was healthier, but I liked the taste. When I went for my next dental check-up, I had my first cavity in a while, so I had it filled and didn't think much of it. Well, I had two more during my next check-up after that, and I began trying to think of why my teeth were suddenly going bad. The only change in my habits was the switch to bottled water, so I made the switch back to tap water and my teeth began to improve. I created this blog to encourage others who have begun getting cavities suddenly to look into their changes in habits. They may find they made a change similar to mine.