How to Floss Your Teeth Correctly and Why It’s So Important
A sign in a dentist’s office read:
“Ignore your teeth and they’ll go away.”
Funny but true!
If we don’t protect our teeth and gums with daily flossing, we risk tooth loss and gum disease. Here’s why flossing is so important and how to floss your teeth correctly.
Flossing Removes Plaque and Food Debris
Daily flossing helps prevent dental cavities, gum disease, and tooth loss. Flossing dislodges and removes trapped plaque, bacteria, and food debris from between teeth and just under the gum line—areas a toothbrush can’t reach.
All About Dental Plaque
Plaque is a sticky biofilm. It’s often pale yellow or colorless, so you can’t determine if you have it just by looking in your mouth. But if you eat, you have plaque.
Plaque is created when acids in your mouth combine with starch or sugar from a food you ate. The plaque deposits all over your teeth and gums.
Sounds yucky? It is!
Have your teeth ever felt fuzzy, furry, or gritty when you rub your tongue over them? That’s plaque. But proper brushing and flossing removes plaque and prevents the destruction it causes in your mouth.
Plaque and Dental Cavities
Plaque releases acids that eat through tooth enamel and cause cavities.
Treatment for dental cavities ranges from a simple dental filling to an involved root canal to save the tooth.
Plaque Turns into Tartar
Plaque left on teeth and below the gum line hardens and becomes tartar. This can happen within 48 hours. And tartar is hard to remove. In fact, only a professional dental cleaning can remove tartar. Dentists and dental hygienists use special tools to remove tartar that won’t harm teeth or gums.
Gum Disease
Remaining plaque and tarter cause gums to become sensitive and inflamed. This is the start of early gum disease. Thankfully, you can reverse gingivitis at home with flossing and brushing. You may need some professional dental cleanings.
However, untreated gingivitis can progress to a more serious form of gum disease — periodontal disease. Periodontal disease causes serious dental problems, ranging from receding gums to tooth and bone loss.
Periodontal cleanings at your dentist’s or periodontist’s office can treat periodontal disease. These deep cleanings will remove all plaque and tarter from below the gum line.
Why Flossing Is Important
Daily flossing will help prevent cavities, tarter, and gum disease.
Here’s How to Floss:
- Start with approximately 18 inches of dental floss.
- Hold the floss between the thumb and index finger of both hands, leaving about 4 inches between hands.
- Hold taut the 4 inches of floss between hands.
- Select a flossing pattern that includes all teeth. It doesn’t matter where you start or end. But always keep this pattern to make sure you floss each tooth.
- Gently slide the floss between the first area between 2 teeth. Use a gentle rubbing motion. Be delicate so as not to damage gums.
- When you reach the gum line, curve the floss into a C shape, around one tooth. Gently continue a tiny distance between the gum and the tooth. (Just a few millimeters.) Use gentle pressure against the tooth enamel as you pull up to remove stubborn plaque.
- Repeat this C-shape procedure for the adjacent tooth, and then continue to the next area.
- Be sure to always floss both sides of a tooth, even your end molars or wisdom teeth.
- When you move to new teeth, use a fresh section of the floss. You don’t want to redeposit removed debris and bacteria onto the next tooth.
Additional Flossing Tips
In the beginning, you may see some bleeding. Your gums may even feel a little tender after flossing. This is normal. But never continue to floss if you feel resistance.
Don’t become discouraged. Continue flossing, being gentle and not-irritating to your gums. Bleeding from flossing will stop shortly.
Contact your dentist with any concerns.
The Last Step to Flossing
It’s best to brush your teeth when you finish flossing. Or at least rinse your mouth with mouthwash or water to get loosened debris out of your mouth.
Your mouth will feel fresh and clean.
Types of Dental Floss
Floss comes in several varieties, including waxed or unwaxed, thicker or thinner. Some flosses even have a minty fresh taste. You want to use a floss that works well for you. If you use the wrong type of floss, it may break or get stuck between teeth. If your teeth are very close together, try a thinner, waxed, or easy glide floss.
When floss becomes stuck, simply let go of one end and pull it through to free it. Never force it.
How to Make Flossing a Habit
Flossing is important. Make it a habit.
Here’s how:
- Stay positive. Don’t become discouraged by bleeding gums or poor flossing technique. Remember that daily flossing will help your gums get healthier, the bleeding will stop, and you can quickly learn proper flossing technique.
- Incorporate flossing into your daily routine. Select a time that’s convenient and works well for you. If you’re running off to work in the morning, floss in the evening. Select a time that allows you to take your time flossing.
- Give it time to become part of your routine. The European Journal of Social Psychology reports on average it takes 66 days for a new behavior to become automatic.
- Purposely think about the benefits of flossing. In a short time, you will see the benefits and be happy that flossing is part of your dental routine.
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