The Hidden Benefits Of Flossing: Beyond Dental Health

Flossing your teeth is the missing piece of the dental hygiene puzzle. Dental floss can be a game-changing step towards adding that extra touch to your oral health. We aren’t here to educate you more, on the dos and don’ts of brushing and flossing; we’re sure that you already know enough about that from your dentist and the internet. Today we shall unlock a few hidden benefits of flossing that can revolutionize your overall health landscape. Stay tuned as we chat about this hidden gem of your oral hygiene routine.

Basics Of Your Oral Health Routine

It all starts with brushing your teeth diligently, twice a day, especially at bedtime. The question that remains is, should you floss before or after brushing? Well, both schools of thought exist, each with its own logic.

Flossing before brushing can dislodge the snugly lodged fibers and minute food particles that can be easily swept away with brushing. On the flip side, brushing cleans the teeth and the mouth completely, and flossing thereafter is like deep cleaning it. Come to think of it, there may be some benefits of flossing before brushing.

Wondering whether to floss or brush first? Fret not! Do it either way, but don’t skip any—that’s what’s crucial. Apart from this, professional teeth cleaning by your dentist can keep your mouth squeaky clean.

The Unknown Importance of Flossing

Brushing and flossing can go a long way towards keeping you fit. In fact, dental floss is the real protagonist in your oral hygiene routine. Let us see how:

• Cures Bad Breath: “I brush two times a day, but I still have bad breath”! It’s a common complaint for many, isn’t it? We’ll tell you why.
  The toothbrush cleans the teeth on the face of it—that means what’s visible only. Flossing before brushing can remove the tightly stuck, invisible food residues in the nooks and crannies, cleaning your mouth from the inside out. When there is zero plaque to rot inside the oral cavity—there is NO bad breath!
• Prevents Hidden Proximal Decay: The dental floss helps clean the contact surfaces of the front and back teeth. These tight areas can hold on to sticky and fibrous food residues for a long time. They are inaccessible and difficult to detect, resulting in undetected proximal cavities that are extremely painful. This is where flossing comes in handy.
  The floss can swish past these tight contact points of the teeth, sweeping all the plaque and debris out of them.
• Keeps the Dental Crowns and Bridges Healthy: The benefits of flossing before brushing can be truly acknowledged by those with fixed dental prostheses—dental crowns, bridges, implant crowns, and aligners.
  The junction between natural teeth and a crown is a single-point contact that tends to attract plaque. When ignored, it snowballs over the years into a gum infection and proximal decay. Remember that crowns and bridges require more meticulous cleaning in comparison to natural enamel, as they are not self-cleansable. Flossing before brushing and professional teeth cleaning is a must.
• Maintains Heart Health: Scientific studies have already found oral bacteria in cardiac infections. Dangerous bacterial colonies can easily move from the mouth into the bloodstream and find their way down to the heart muscles and blood vessels, causing potential life threats of endocarditis and cardiac arrest.
  So, irrespective of whether you have a cardiac history or not, make brushing and flossing a routine.
• Is Essential for Diabetics: A dirty mouth is a bacterial haven that produces an array of toxins. Toxins can cause inflammation in the body; namely soggy, bleeding gums and diabetic ulcers. These inflammatory states cause blood sugar spikes to help the body combat the stress. Keeping the mouth plaque-free with no infections is essential to controlling diabetes.
• Reduces The Risk of Lung Infections: Research shows that bacteria in the bloodstream and direct inhalation of oral bacteria are both capable of affecting the lungs. This can result in lung infections like pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
  For those of you with asthma or other lung related irritability, ensure that your oral health routine is top-notch.
• Helps With a Safer Pregnancy : We rarely talk about the oral health complications of pregnancy. Scientists have found links between dirty, unhealthy, and infected mouths and pregnancy-related complications. These could be low-birth weight babies or pre-term term babies.
  If you are pregnant, add brushing your teeth, rinsing your mouth, flossing twice a day, and professional teeth cleaning to your self-care routine.

Conclusion

The hidden benefits of flossing can go beyond conventional oral health. Poor dental health can affect any organ system in the body. You must follow all the instructions as suggested by your best dentist in Dundas and stay updated with the latest additions to the oral hygiene routine.