Flossing Your Teeth: A Comprehensive Guide

Making Flossing a Priority

Flossing may be low on your list of priorities, but when it comes to the long-term health and durability of your teeth, it’s an important consideration if you’re living in the Lonestar State, with its plethora of qualified dental professionals. When you last visited the dentist, was the hygienist impressed with your flossing prowess, or did they give you a verbal dressing down regarding what should be a daily habit? If you received a less-than-positive review, it may be time to review your knowledge of flossing and adjust your habits according to what you find.

When and How

First, determine when you will floss. If you’re finding that you have food stuck in your teeth after dinner, go ahead and bump up your regiment from once in the morning to twice with the second time occurring just before bed. This way, you won’t have potentially harmful food particles sitting between your teeth overnight.

Second, consider your technique. Have you ever gotten to your back molars and found that it was too hard to keep the floss from slipping from your fingers, leading you to just give up? If so, you’re not setting yourself up the right way. You can make the flossing process easier on yourself if you spend a few extra seconds securing the floss correctly. Here’s how: First, use your middle fingers to anchor the floss. Wind several inches of it around your middle fingers so that you can give yourself the strongest anchor possible.

Third, give yourself a little leeway when inserting the floss between teeth. If it’s not going in easily, don’t force it. Instead make little motions that allow you to ease it in between the teeth so you don’t create injury to your gums. This extra attention and self care will also make you readier to floss next time instead of anticipating pain.

Special Considerations

Finally, make sure to take special consideration of unusual dental structures. These include implants and braces. When you’re flossing an implant, make sure to arrange the floss around tooth in such a way that you get under the gum on each side. You may be able to wrap the floss around the tooth to do this, but make sure you don’t get it too tight and cause damage to the gum in the process of flossing. With braces, make sure you’re inserting the floss under the main wire of the braces and gently moving it between the teeth.

Establishing a Routine

Choosing a flossing routine you can maintain is essential for your oral health, especially when looking into cosmetic dentistry in Houston, TX. It’s an important part of protecting your investment, and you need to take the process seriously for the long term. When you’re looking to up the ante in your tooth flossing routine, make sure to make changes you can sustain over time. After all, the only way to ensure you’re protecting your pearly whites is to consistently floss. After establishing your routine, you’ll find that it gets easier to maintain as it becomes an ingrained habit.