During every dental cleaning here at our Billings, MT, dental clinic, flossing is bound to be brought up. We don’t bring up flossing to shame your oral care routine—in fact, the exact opposite is true! Our staff wants you to enjoy the long term dental health benefits of flossing, and want to ensure you know how to floss properly.
If you are on the fence about flossing and aren’t convinced it can really provide any benefits to your oral health routine, here are five reasons why you should add flossing to your daily schedule.
Routine Flossing Helps Fight And Prevent Gum Disease
Brushing your teeth does much of the work to remove harmful oral bacteria that builds up in your mouth over the course of the day. But flossing once a day also plays an important preventative dental care role.
With dental floss, you can get into the tiny spaces between your teeth where your toothbrush can’t fit. In these areas, bacteria may hide and multiply as you sleep. By flossing before bed, you can prevent excess bacteria from sitting on your gums and potentially slipping between tooth and gum tissue. When these harmful oral bacteria are able to penetrate the area between tooth and gums, periodontitis (gum disease) is the result. But, with routine flossing, you can prevent even developing the early stage of gingivitis.
Use Floss To Safely Remove Leftover Food Particles
When something gets stuck between your teeth, your first instinct may be to grab a toothpick to dislodge the offending bit of food. However, it is far too easy to scrape your gums and cause bleeding with a toothpick, which leaves an opening for bacteria. Also, as most people use wooden toothpicks, you can run the risk of lodging a splinter of wood in your gums.
Instead, you can simply use floss to remove any stuck food particles and prevent any accidental scrapes and splinters.
Daily Flossing Assists In Cavity Prevention
Plenty of cavities form in the small space between your teeth, as your toothbrush isn’t able to fit between these tiny areas. And, if a cavity forms on one side of a tooth, the other tooth that touches that area will often develop a cavity as the decay spreads.
To prevent cavities from forming in these areas—as well as preventing tooth decay spread—you should be flossing once a day as part of your evening dental oral hygiene routine.
Protect Your Dental Work With Regular Flossing
If you have any dental work, such as fillings, crowns, dental bridges, or dental implants, by flossing, you can protect your investment in your dental health. Depending on the type of dental work, bacteria can more easily hide in crevices that are difficult for teeth brushing alone to take care of properly.
With daily flossing, you can carefully work around your dental work and keep bacteria from damaging the supporting tooth structures that are around your dental work.
Prevent Dental Plaque And Tartar Build Up
While dental plaque—sticky biofilm on your teeth—can be helpful, when there is too much plaque buildup, it can become damaging to your teeth. Also, calcium deposits can buildup, turning into tartar, which contributes to tooth decay.
By flossing regularly, you can actively prevent the excess of dental plaque buildup and keep from forming tartar along the gums of your teeth.
Whether you need a kickstart to your oral hygiene routine, are looking to start cosmetic dental treatments, or just need to schedule your biannual dental cleaning, feel free to contact us today to set up your appointment. We look forward to helping you have the best smile possible!
