5 Reasons You Should Say Yes to Flossing

Flossing for many people is not even a last resort part of their oral hygiene. But if it wasn’t important, your dentist wouldn’t ask “Have you been flossing?” at each visit. What dentists have been trying to teach us for decades is that flossing is a key part of maintaining a healthy mouth and good looking teeth.

Here are five reasons as to why you should start flossing:

  1. Proper Dental Care

Flossing should be a regular habit for everyone. Brushing, flossing, and rinsing with mouthwash work as a team to keep your mouth healthy, teeth looking great, and breath smelling clean. Proper and regular dental care including flossing plays a crucial role in not only a healthy mouth, but a healthy body. Recent studies have shown a link between cavity-and-gum-disease-causing-bacteria to heart disease, diabetes, and premature birth.

  2. Flossing Prevents Tartar Accumulation

The white substance that your teeth get covered with at the end of the day is called plaque. It is actually full of bacteria. If the plaque is not removed regularly, it will harden and turn into tartar. If tartar is formed, then only a professional hygienist or dentist can remove it. Tartar is full of cavity that will eat through your enamel, potentially destroying teeth, gum tissues, and eventually supporting bone.

  3. Prevents Gum Diseases

Dental floss reaches in between teeth along the gum line which can not be thoroughly cleaned with a toothbrush. Only flossing removes the food particles and accumulated bacteria. If plaque is not removed, then the bacteria can inflame gum tissue and lead to gum diseases like gingivitis and periodontitis.

  4. Prevents Cavities

Cavities or dental caries is the decay of the tooth due to the bacteria present on the tooth or in between two teeth. Slowly the affected area starts to go black and chips away disintegrating the tooth. Worst case scenario is that the bacteria starts affecting the interior of the tooth, which at some point may become a severe problem requiring root canal treatment or extraction.

  5. Saves You Money

Adding dental floss to your shopping list and daily dental hygiene routine will not only prevent future, unexpected trips to the dentist, but also to your doctor because the harmful bacteria in the mouth will be regularly cleared away. Avoiding those emergency and other unexpected dental visits can cost a lot of money. Taking care of your teeth by spending $3 on a roll of floss could potentially save you hundreds of dollars in dental fees to treat the cavities, gum disease and other oral conditions.
For more details on how flossing helps and what else you can do to keep your teeth healthy, get in touch with Dr. Morrissey at Boones Ferry Dental. You can give us a call at (503) 683-7484 or visit our office in Lake Oswego, OR.

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