Why we should floss
You could be forgiven for thinking that flossing isn’t that important. Sure, food stuck between your teeth is inconvenient but it’s nothing your toothbrush can’t sort out later on. The truth is, that little piece of food could cause a lot of trouble and after brushing flossing is in fact the most important thing you can do to protect your teeth.
Flossing and brushing go hand in hand as one cleans the area that the other can’t. We all know that bacteria thrive in the moist, warm conditions your mouth offers, and they do this all day every day.
It’s a fact of life and we can never stop it completely. But regular cleansing will at least prevent the bacteria causing any problems. When you brush properly it does a great job of removing the bacteria and other debris, but no matter how well you brush it can never remove everything. At best, brushing will clean around 65% of the mouth but the job just can’t be completed without flossing.
You see, brushing only scratches the surface (not literally, that wouldn’t do any good at all) but the tiny spaces between your teeth will remain neglected. If the bacteria are allowed to breed here, and they will with a vengeance, you will find yourself with a more difficult problem to solve than plaque, which can still be brushed away in the early stages of its development. Tartar, or calculus, is a hardened form of plaque that can build up when the minerals in your saliva accumulate on pre-existing plaque. Tartar cannot be so easily removed and bacteria thrive in it.
Leave tartar untreated and the bacteria will grow stronger and more destructive, and before you know it you have a nasty case of gingivitis. When the build-up gets this bad, no amount of brushing or flossing will remove it and it will take the help of a dentist. Fortunately this is a painless process, albeit a slightly uncomfortable one but it is not one you should need to have done in the first place.
All this can be avoided if you take a few minutes to floss between your teeth. Whether you choose to floss before or after brushing is entirely up to you but it is both cheap and easy to do, and will save you from a lot of dental problems in the long run.
