You might be brushing your teeth twice daily as recommended by dentists worldwide including Dr. Durning Moore, of Charlotte Center for Complete Dentistry. However, brushing alone is not enough to ward off tooth decay and gum disease. While it is an important part of your oral hygiene regimen, flossing is equally important and essential. Brushing your teeth only removes the bacteria and particles forming plaque that are easiest to reach leaving your smile still at risk from tooth decay from plaque between your teeth.
Plaque is formed when saliva combines with food particles to create a sticky but clear and colorless substance that attaches to your teeth. In plaque, the usually harmless bacteria that lives in all our mouths finds a fertile environment to live and feed. It begins to eat away at this plaque and then keeps on going down into your tooth enamel. This tooth decay eventually leads to cavities.
Why Is Flossing So Important?
This is why you really do need to floss. Flossing removes the plaque that your toothbrush can’t easily reach in places like between your teeth. However, it is very important that you are effectively flossing. Flossing helps prevent tooth decay so that you can avoid painful, time-consuming and potentially costly dental procedures that can become necessary when tooth decay is allowed to continue untreated between teeth.
How to Floss Correctly
1. Wrap around your middle fingers a length of floss about eighteen inches long. Use your thumbs and forefingers to move the floss. You should wind more around one finger than the other so you can wind the already used floss toward the finger with less floss wrapped around it and access a fresh length.
2. Push the floss between two teeth and use a gentle “sawing” (back and forth) motion all the way from the top of the teeth down to their base where they erupt from your gums.
3. Wrap the floss around the side of one tooth in a “U” shape then gently slide up and down your tooth. Repeat this several times, making sure to go slightly underneath the gum-line, then repeat on the other side of the tooth. Do this for each tooth.
4. Again be sure to wind up the floss around your finger so you’re using a clean length of floss for each space between your teeth that you floss. Bacteria that has been removed on floss can linger and make you sick if reintroduced later
5. Don’t worry too much if you see that your gums are bleeding as you floss. A little bleeding is perfectly normal if you don’t floss regularly. This bleeding is due to inflammation caused by the bacteria dwelling there. If you floss daily as recommended by your dentist, you should see an improvement in the health of gums in one to two weeks.
Floss Picks Are Less Effective Than You Think
Some patients prefer to use floss picks. These “Y” shaped pieces of plastic with floss strung between the “arms” of the “Y” are widely available at most stores. However, dentists prefer using a length of “free” floss and your hands. Floss picks don’t allow for proper flossing due to the fact that you cannot wrap them around a tooth in the “U” shape recommended. However, it’s still better than not flossing at all.
Schedule An Appointment With Your Dentist
Common wisdom is that flossing after your brush is best as there will already be less plaque and food particles to get stuck on the floss. If you have any additional questions about brushing, flossing or your oral health, call (704) 761-7870 or schedule an appointment online with Dr. Moore at Charlotte Center for Complete Dentistry in Charlotte, NC today.
