Properly caring for your teeth doesn’t end with brushing your teeth twice a day. While that’s a good place to start, flossing is just as important to maintain a healthy dental routine as brushing. Flossing allows you to reach the nooks and crannies between your teeth and gums that a toothbrush can’t reach.
Benefits
Flossing offers benefits that regularly brushing your teeth can’t give you. Benefits like:
- Clearing food debris and plaque from in between your teeth.
- Helping prevent gum diseases, tooth decay, and bad breath.
- Reducing the likelihood of cavities.
- Making your teeth look cleaner and whiter.
- Reducing the number of bacteria in your mouth.
Best Way to Floss
So, you’ve started to floss, but are you flossing correctly? Here are some tips to improve your flossing routine:
- Floss at least once a day.
- Don’t rush through your flossing routine, take your time to ensure you clean out your whole mouth.
- Be gentle, don’t damage your gums.
Types of Flossing Products
There isn’t just one type of floss so you have the freedom to try the different products to determine which one works for you and your teeth. Here are some of the different options:
- Waxed Floss
- Has a coating, which allows for the floss to slide easier between the teeth.
- Better for those with braces because the coating makes it less likely to tear on the metal.
- Has flavor.
- Unwaxed Floss
- Has no coating, which makes it thinner and easier to grip.
- The lack of coating makes it easier to floss teeth that are closer together.
- Has no flavor.
- Floss Picks
- An alternative to traditional floss that makes it easier to reach areas like the back of your mouth, especially for those who have trouble using regular floss.
- As the name suggests, they also have a plastic ‘pick’ to help get more debris out of your teeth that the floss itself isn’t able to.
- Electric Flosser
- Uses water to push food and bacteria out of the crevasses in your teeth.
- It’s simple to use as it only requires you to run the flosser around your teeth instead of trying to shimmy a thin string between every tooth.
- Helpful for those with braces to not only get in between your teeth but the metal too.
Flossing is a small commitment that makes a big difference. Taking the time out of your day to floss will not only leave your mouth feeling fresher but also healthier. It’s important to floss so you help prevent gum diseases that are caused by bacteria build-up in places your toothbrush can’t reach.
As for the best option of floss, many people say that regular floss (waxed or unwaxed) is your best option since it gives you the best clean. However, any of these products will give your mouth the care it deserves.