When it comes to proper oral care, Dr. William Boyer and his helpful staff at Spring Valley Dental Care know the importance of keeping your teeth clean and plaque free. A thorough dental hygiene routine goes a long way in fighting cavities, tooth decay, gum disease, and more. Within every dental hygiene routine should brushing and flossing daily. Unfortunately, many patients avoid flossing because it can be painful or because it’s not always a simple task. It’s easy to skip flossing and leave all the work for your toothbrush, but a toothbrush can’t do an effective job alone.
Simply put, flossing is just as important as brushing is. To protect the enamel of your teeth from being worn down by harmful acids and bacteria, you should floss at least once a day—especially before going to bed at night. When your tooth’s enamel is compromised, it can lead to a number dental problems, starting with tooth decay.
What Your Toothbrush Misses
Of course, brushing your teeth is essential to maintaining a clean mouth and healthy teeth. However, brushing really only cleans the surfaces of your teeth, which is great, but not enough. A toothbrush can’t reach the areas in between your teeth, leaving those gaps susceptible to cavities. When plaque and sugars remain in the gaps of our teeth, the bacteria that resides in our mouths feeds off those sugars, creating harmful acids that wear down tooth enamel. This is why it’s so important to floss.
Flossing Isn’t Always Difficult
One of the main reasons patients often avoid flossing is because it can be such a difficult, time-consuming, and even painful task. For patients with braces or retainers, floss threaders are a great way to get underneath wires and appliances to get those hard-to-reach areas. Though, for many patients, this isn’t enough.
As an alternative to using regular dental floss, water flossers are just as effective and eliminate the difficulty of flossing. Using a pressurized stream of water, water flossers can clean the aforementioned gaps between your teeth, removing plaque and food debris. Water flossers are quite simple to use too. You can adjust the pressure of the stream, as well as choose the temperature of water you use.
Add Professional Cleanings to the Mix
In addition to brushing and flossing every day, we recommend our patients visit our offices in Spring Valley at least twice a year for professional cleanings from Dr. Boyer. He’ll thoroughly clean your teeth, check for cavities, and look for any other oral health problems.
Contact us today to schedule an appointment and view our variety of services here.