Lets Talk About Flossing Your Teeth – What you need to know

Flossing is essential for reducing the risk of cavities and gum disease. It’s also important for helping your teeth look and feel healthy and for keeping bad breath at bay.

Proper flossing and the use of interdental brushes, removes plaque and food particles in places where a toothbrush cannot easily reach — under the gumline and in-between your teeth, which helps to reduce the risk of interdental cavities. We will do a separate blog on the use of interdental brushes.

For these reasons, it’s important to ensure that you’re flossing correctly so you can maintain and improve your oral hygiene.

Here are five simple ways to improve your flossing routine:

There is much debate in the dentistry community regarding this question. Should you floss before or after brushing?

We would recommend and encourage our patients to floss before brushing so that any released particles can be removed from the mouth. If the tooth surfaces have first been cleaned by floss, it also allows the fluoride in your toothpaste to better coat and protect those surfaces. However, if you choose to floss after brushing, the key message and the most important point, is that you do floss 😊

Sometimes it can be easy to underestimate how much floss you actually need. Ideally, break off about 18 to 24 inches of dental floss.

To hold the floss correctly, wind most of it around your middle fingers, leaving 1 to 2 inches of floss for your teeth. If you have too short a piece of floss, it will make it more difficult to reach all your teeth.

There are many brands and types of floss available on the market. Your dental hygienist will be able to recommend which product will suit your dental needs, along with interdental brushes.

In order to effectively remove bacteria, floss must reach 2-3 millimetres below the gumline. Try gently sliding the floss up and down the tooth surface and under the gumline to loosen food particles.

It’s also very important to be gentle when flossing, avoid a “sawing” motion up and down the gumline, as this can cause damage and fails to address food particles and other debris that may be caught on the sides of the teeth.

We should be flossing every day as part of our oral hygiene routine. The most important point is that you do floss, so by all means floss when you are able to but we do encourage our patients to floss before bed.

This helps remove any bacteria and food particles that may have collected on the teeth throughout the day. Our Saliva production decreases when we sleep, so we are less likely to wash away leftover food particles overnight.

When we floss there can sometimes be blood and a patients first thought can be to stop flossing when this occurs. However, bleeding can be a sign that your gums are unhealthy and that you should be flossing more often or with a better technique. If bleeding persists, it’s important to consult your dentist or dental hygienist for advice.

We hope you find our flossing tips helpful and a gentle reminder it’s never to late to start taking care of your oral health. Our team are always happy to help answer any questions you may have and we offer a welcoming and non-judgemental service to our patients.

To book in for an appointment please contact us on (01) 454 2022, email us on info@portobellodental.com or alternatively if you would like to book an appointment online, you can book  here.