What Happens When I Forget to Floss?

Our team strongly encourages everyone to floss daily, but do you ever wonder why? Well, flossing is vital for top-notch oral health and smiles. It can help you and your oral health in more ways than you might realize. This means that if you forget to floss, your smile can also suffer. Forgetting to floss can:

– Leave your smile vulnerable to developing cavities: If you don’t remove food particles, plaque, bacteria and other harmful substances from between teeth, they can attack the tooth enamel and create a hole in the surface, creating what is known as a cavity. The cavity can affect one or more teeth and can spread, infecting multiple layers of the teeth. If you’re not careful, it can affect the tooth nerve, tooth pulp and even the root canal.

– Make you fall victim to gum disease: If you don’t remove plaque from the surfaces of the teeth as well as from the gumline, it can severely affect the gums. In fact, it can irritate and infect the gums to make them swell and bleed. It can also turn into tartar and make the gums recede from the base of the teeth. As time passes, that tartar can spread to the jawbone and deteriorate it, causing loose and even lost teeth. It’s very important to remove plaque daily before it affects the gums.

– Compromise the entire health of your body: If you don’t treat your gum disease quickly, it can contribute to serious health issues like heart disease, diabetes, stroke, respiratory disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

When it comes to proper flossing, some tips we have include the following:

– Use about 16-18 inches of floss and wind most of it around your middle fingers
– Using your thumbs and index fingers, gently use back-and-forth motions to slide the floss between your teeth (avoid snapping the floss onto your gums)
– Following the curves of your teeth, gently floss between each tooth and along the gums
– As you move between each tooth, use a clean area of the floss
– Keep floss or travel floss picks on hand for when you get food particles stuck during the day

Proper flossing helps you not only achieve better oral and overall health but can help avoid costly treatments. If you do need a specific treatment, our team will help you find the most cost-effective solution.

Make sure to floss regularly and at least once a day! That way, you can have the top-notch smile and oral health you deserve. To learn more about flossing, please reach out and talk to a member of our team. We will be more than happy to give you and your family the answers and information that you need for a great smile!

You Might Also Enjoy...

Why Would I Need a Tooth Extracted?

It’s always preferable to keep your natural teeth, but sometimes circumstances require that you have a tooth extracted. Why would you need a tooth extraction? Keep reading to learn more.

Help! My Teeth are Yellow

If your teeth are dingy and yellow, you’re probably not inclined to do much smiling. Fortunately, we have a solution that will take you from dingy to dazzling in under an hour.

What Can I Do About My Chronic Bad Breath?

Chronic bad breath can be caused by a lot of different things, many of which are within your control. Learn all about the causes, treatment, and prevention of chronic bad breath here.

5 Problems that Veneers Resolve

If you have cosmetic concerns about your teeth, dental veneers are a quick and effective way to resolve a number of problems. Learn more about them here.

Here's How to Floss Properly

Brushing and flossing are two parts of essential oral health care. You know you need to floss your teeth to keep them healthy, but do you know how to floss properly? We’ve got the how-to for you here.