Brushing your teeth three times a day isn’t going to do enough to prevent plaque from building up or gum disease. If you aren’t already you should add flossing into your oral hygiene routine. Flossing provides great value for your teeth, gums, breath, and overall health.
Importance of Flossing
Flossing often can benefit you far beyond just having healthy teeth. It can also help decrease the risk of many unwanted diseases and problems such as:
- Gum disease – Plaque that builds up over time on the tooth and near the gums can cause them to swell and get bloody. If this goes untreated it can progress into gum disease, destroying the gums, tissues, and bones that support your teeth. Ultimately you may have to have infected teeth removed.
- Halitosis – Food and plaque that live between your teeth and is not removed can cause a very serious issue for you and your mouth. Bacteria will start to eat the debris, producing a strong odor and bad breath.
- Cavities – Most cavities start in between the teeth, where one tooth touches the next. No matter how good you brush, your toothbrush can never get to these areas and won’t keep them clean. Eliminating bacteria, food, and plaque daily will help prevent cavities.
Flossing Alternatives
People don’t always what to put in the extra time and effort that it takes to floss, in the past few years has converted into flossing sticks to pressurized water tools. You can pick from tools such as:
- Floss picks – A small plastic tool with a curved end that holds a piece of floss and on the other end a plastic pick that can be used to get large pieces of food.
- Sonicare AirFloss – Using micro-droplets of air and water to remove plaque found between your teeth it is intended to be an easy and effective way to clean your mouth and gums.
- Waterpik – Uses pressurized water to get rid of food and bacteria in-between your teeth.
If you floss once a day this will significantly improve your oral hygiene. It doesn’t matter when you floss, but flossing in the evening prior to brushing your teeth will allow the fluoride in the toothpaste to get in between as many teeth as it can.
