When seeking oral hygiene advice from various dental offices, they’re likely to agree that people should floss more. According to the American Dental Association, people should floss at least twice daily. This regular oral hygiene practice can provide you and your household with surprising benefits. Here are a few to keep in mind!
Prevent Cavities
According to a report by the National Library for Medicine, almost 25% of Americans don’t include flossing in their daily routine. However, if you’re among the Americans who regularly floss, you have a better chance of avoiding cavities. Cavities are tooth decay that occur based on the type of food you eat and a lack of oral hygiene practices. Sugar is one of the worst culprits that can create cavities in your teeth. A cavity can happen on any part of your tooth surface, including between teeth in areas that floss can reach.
When food particles, especially those made from sugar, sit on your teeth for some time, it can cause stains and decay to set in. However, you can prevent that from happening by getting rid of those particles between teeth after every meal, or at least twice daily. When you take the time to prevent cavities from forming, you’re likely to enjoy your natural teeth for decades to come as well as avoid tooth replacement. Be sure to also make cleaning appointments with one of the top dental offices in your area twice a year!
Enjoy Fresh Breath
Morning breath is natural for everyone to have in the morning before brushing their teeth. Unfortunately, bad breath could continue to linger throughout the day if you suffer from halitosis or don’t brush and floss well enough. After all, when certain food particles sit on your teeth, it can create bad smells that can linger. You don’t want to be known as someone with bad breath!
Suffering from bad breath could also put a dent in your social life, especially if you’re trying to date. At least with good flossing, you can get rid of those smelly food particles that can wreak havoc on the freshness of your breath. You can even use flavored floss, particularly those with mint, that can add even more fresh smells to your teeth.
If you’re a social person or must talk in person at your job, fresh breath can leave a good first impression. People may not care whether your breath smells minty or fruity. At the very least, they’ll quickly understand that you have good hygiene, including maintaining your smile and breath.
Prevent Gum Disease
Gum disease is a major problem that more and more Americans are suffering from. Gum disease is highly preventable as long as you practice good oral hygiene, such as regular brushing and flossing. After all, taking care of your mouth isn’t just about your teeth. Your gum tissue is also affected when you don’t maintain proper oral hygiene. When you regularly floss, you’re getting rid of food particles between teeth and near the gum line.
When you’re dealing with gum disease, it can show up by way of swollen or bleeding gums. The gums may also become very sensitive when you brush or eat certain foods. If you don’t manage this gum disease properly, it could eventually result in loose and missing teeth. Making sure that your mouth doesn’t have plaque forming is the first step in keeping gum disease at bay. Otherwise, in addition to possibly losing your teeth, you may also risk the health of your gum tissue. In severe stages of gum disease, the gums can pull away from the teeth, which can cause them to loosen. However, you may also need to get a professional procedure, such as gum grafts, to repair those damaged gums from one of your local dental offices.
Fight Off Plaque
Dental offices are often warning people about the dangers of plaque buildup. Plaque is a sticky film that can build up on teeth when you don’t properly keep them clean. It can also build up along your gum line. If you don’t keep up with hygiene by way of flossing, that plaque can further harden and become tartar. It’s much easier to remove plaque from your teeth than tartar. For example, regular brushing and flossing get rid of plaque every day. However, if tartar has hardened, you need your dentist to remove it with specialized cleaning processes.
Ongoing plaque buildup can eventually lead to gum disease, too. The first stage is gingivitis, which can turn into periodontal disease without treatment and/or without a change in your habits. Get rid of that plaque between your teeth with daily flossing, and you’re less likely to have gum inflammation or lose your teeth, which can occur due to with gum disease. After all, it’s also much cheaper to brush and floss daily instead of paying for expensive restorative care or gum surgery.
Save Money and Time
Regular flossing can save you a great deal of time and money. It only takes a few minutes to properly brush and floss twice a day. However, if you have to visit local dental offices for restorative care due to losing or missing teeth, you’re going to spend more time on those processes.
If you end up with gum disease and lose one or several teeth, you may need to get dental implants. While such implants are a helpful restorative process that acts and looks like natural teeth, it’s also a time-consuming process. It could take several months for the implants to adhere to your jaw. From start to finish, you’ll need to make several dental office visits from the initial exam to the implant surgery to the checkups which see if the implants are adhering correctly to the final dental crown application.
While flossing can prevent decay, it can also prevent stains on teeth. After all, when you’re not properly cleaning your teeth, it’s easy for them to become stained from food particles, drinks, and smoking. If you want to correct your discolored teeth, you may have to pay for professional dental tooth whitening. You can get dental whitening in as little as an hour, making the process short compared to getting dental implants. However, it’s also more expensive than flossing.
Even if you have dental insurance that can cover many of these procedures, in most cases, dental insurance doesn’t cover it 100%. Therefore, you can expect to pay a good chunk of these dental care processes out of your pocket. However, on the other hand, a simple trip to the store to buy floss is affordable.
As you can see, there’s a reason why your local dentist as well as the American Dental Association are constantly trying to get people to floss as much as they brush their teeth! Flossing twice daily can come with many benefits such as better aesthetics, fresh breath, and time and money savings by avoiding expensive procedures. To care for your teeth and gums, you want a dental office that you can trust. That’s why you shouldn’t look any further than our team at Bright Side Dental. As one of the top dental offices, we offer a range of professional dental services, from cleanings and education to dental implants and veneers. Contact us for a consultation for a checkup and to see which dental procedure is ideal for you.