Many people know that they should be flossing on a regular basis, but they just never really establish this good dental hygiene habit. Our Glendale dentist office wants to stress how important flossing is to maintaining a strong and attractive smile over many years. So today we are going to help you understand how flossing in conjunction with the rest of your oral health routine can work to benefit your oral health.
When you floss, you are focusing your efforts on battling plaque—so flossing is working to achieve the same goal that brushing and rinsing with mouthwash do. However, the different steps of your oral hygiene routine attack oral plaque in different ways and from different angles.
Flossing, in particular, works to clear plaque away from the places where your teeth meet each other, and the spots where your teeth meet your gum tissue. Dental plaque tends to accumulate in these spots. Over time the plaque hardens, and wears away your healthy oral tissues. When you floss, you help to clear away this plaque before it starts to damage your oral health.
Brushing is great for buffing plaque from the flatter surfaces of your smile. And mouth rinse effectively sweeps away dental debris. So the ideal way to use these oral health strategies together is to:
· Floss your teeth and gums—this loosens plaque and food particles
· Brush your teeth—buff away that surface plaque and bacteria
· Rinse with a dentist-recommended mouthwash—in this final step you can rinse out all of those remaining small bits of plaque
that might be hanging on to your smile
The key to keeping your smile as healthy as possible is to utilize all of these different oral health tools—and to not skip any days when cleaning your teeth!
Our Glendale dentist office would be happy to give you any additional information about at-home oral health care. Just give us a call!