If you are asking yourself, does flossing matter, we are here to tell you, IT DOES! Flossing benefits you by helping to keep your teeth healthy as long as possible.
Although simply brushing your teeth twice a day may seem like enough to keep your teeth healthy, it is not. This is because brushing only removes the easy to access bacteria from your teeth and gums.
The harder to reach oral bacteria resides in between your teeth and below your gum lines. Thus, if you want to remove the harder to reach bacteria in your mouth, you must floss every day.
To further teach you just how important flossing is to your health, we are going to go over eight specific flossing benefits.
Get ready to improve your health!
Flossing Benefits #1: Removes Plaque and Food Particles
Arguably the most harmful oral bacteria that can develop in your mouth is plaque. Plaque is soft and sticky bacteria that accumulates on and in between your teeth and gum lines. Plaque develops due to our digestive processes and the particles of food that we eat.
When plaque and food particles remain on your teeth and gums for too long, it can harden into hard to remove tartar. The digestive acids that form due to the food particles that remain on your teeth and gum lines can also lead to the enamel of your teeth eroding. If left there too long, these plaque, tartar, food particles, and digestive acids will cause cavities.
One of the only effective ways to remove these hard to reach plaque, tartar, and food particles in between your teeth and on your gum lines is to floss. In fact, it is known that flossing every day helps prevent cavities. Thus, the next time you ask yourself is flossing good for you, remember how it can remove cavity-causing plaque and food particles from your teeth and gums.
2. Prevents Gum Disease
As stated earlier, oral plaque, tartar, and food particles not only accumulate on and in between our teeth, but around our gums as well. In fact, much of this harmful plaque, tartar, and food particles like to settle underneath the gum line.
When plaque, tart, and food particles remain underneath the gum line for too long, it causes gum disease, or gingivitis. Gum disease, or gingivitis, is characterized by inflamed gums that bleed easily.
Flossing is one of, if not the most, effective ways to remove plaque, tartar, and food particles from the gum line. This means that flossing prevents gum disease.
3. Reduces Risks of Developing Heart Disease
One of the many other interesting flossing facts is that flossing minimizes heart disease risks. When bacteria builds on and underneath the gum line, it can enter your gum’s blood vessels. Once entered into your gum’s blood vessels, oral bacteria can travel through your body’s bloodstream.
These bacteria can then harden your heart’s arteries and cause you to develop heart disease, a heart attack, and/or a stroke. This means that flossing bacteria away from your gum lines daily reduces your chances of developing heart disease and/or having a heart attack or stroke.
4. Makes Your Breath Fresher
When oral bacteria and food particles remain on your teeth and gum lines for a long time, it causes your breath to stink. The medical term for stinky breath is halitosis. One of the best ways to prevent yourself from developing halitosis is to floss the bacteria and food particles off your teeth and gums.
5. Makes Your Teeth Whiter
When you remove bacteria and food particles from your teeth through flossing, it makes your teeth cleaner. This, in turn, makes your teeth whiter. So, instead of paying tons of money to get your teeth whitened, just floss every day.
6. Makes You Less Tempted to Snack
If you floss your teeth after eating, you are less likely to snack later on. This is because your mouth feels clean and fresh after a good floss. Thus, you will not want to ruin your mouth’s cleanliness and freshness by snacking.
So, if nothing else, flossing can help you keep your diet.
7. Creates a Healthy Oral Hygiene Routine
If you force yourself to not skip a day of flossing, flossing every day will become a regular part of your routine. On the other hand, if you do not floss every day, flossing will never become routine to you. Thus, the best way to maintain a healthy oral hygiene routine is to not skip a day of flossing.
For an ideal oral hygiene routine, brush your teeth and tongue, floss, and rinse your mouth with mouthwash twice a day. One sign that you need to step up your oral hygiene routine, is if your gums bleed when brushing or flossing.
If this happens to you, do not worry too much. If you floss twice a day, the bleeding of your gums should reduce within a week or two.
8. It Sets a Good Example
If you have young children, it is important to demonstrate to them a good oral hygiene routine. By seeing you maintain a healthy oral hygiene routine, your children will more likely upkeep a healthy oral hygiene routine themselves.
How to Floss
To maximize the flossing benefits we just told you, make sure that you are flossing the right way. First, wrap a thread of floss around your middle fingers and hold it with your index fingers and thumbs. Then, gently saw the floss back and forth in an upward and downward motion on each side of each tooth.
Make sure that your floss is forming a U-shape while you floss it around each tooth. As you floss, wind more floss around one middle finger so that you can wind the already used floss towards the middle finger with less floss around it as you go. Also, make sure to wipe the floss beneath the gum lines of your teeth as you floss.
To learn more about ways to improve your dental health, contact Shallow Ford Family Dental Group.