How important is it to floss?

Although many people do have an established daily oral hygiene routine, there are not too many people who floss their teeth on a daily basis. Mornings can be very chaotic as people are rushing to work or getting kids off to school, and taking those few extra minutes to floss might seem like a waste of time, other than when you have a piece of food stuck in your teeth.

In order to understand why it is important to floss, you need to know what flossing actually does. When you floss daily, it can help to prevent gum disease and it can also decrease a person’s chance of having gums that bleed. People who floss are also less likely to suffer from gingivitis, which is an inflammation of the gums. If you leave little particles of food stuck in between your teeth, it can also lead to tooth decay.

Toothbrushes do a wonderful job of cleaning teeth and helping to remove particles of food and plaque from your teeth. Unfortunately, a toothbrush cannot handle the workload alone. There are places in the mouth that a toothbrush simple cannot get to. Floss is able to come in and finish the job that the toothbrush started. Floss is able to get into those tight spaces in between your teeth to remove any remaining food particles that the toothbrush could not get to.

It is also important to note that flossing is most effective when you use the right technique. It is recommended that you take about 18 inches of dental floss and wrap most of it around your middle fingers, while leaving about 2 inches of floss. You should then take the floss and gently bring it to the bottom of each tooth and bring it beneath the gum line, very gently. Once you move onto the next tooth, you will want to slowly unwind a little bit of the floss. It is also recommended that you move the floss up and down in between each tooth several times, to make sure that all of the food particles are removed.

There may still be some people who are still highly opposed to flossing, but understand why it is an important part of an oral hygiene routine. There are some alternatives to flossing that may be more suitable for some people.

Floss picks are small pieces of plastic that have a handle on one end and an inch of dental floss at the other end. It is very easy to hold and utilize and some people prefer this to traditional dental floss. Soft picks are another alternative that are still fairly new. This might be a good option for people who have braces and for older people, since they floss your teeth in a very gentle way.

If you are a person who never flosses, tartar can build it in your teeth and this can only be removed by going to your dentist for professional teeth cleaning. Depending on the amount of tartar that you have, it can make the teeth cleaning a little more uncomfortable since the dentist has to spend a lot more time scraping in between your teeth. People who do not floss are also more likely to have bad breath, because of the rotting food particles in their teeth.

There are so many benefits to flossing and flossing will only add a few minutes to your day. If you are someone who does not floss on a regular basis, you should schedule to get a professional teeth cleaning a few times a year.