How Often Should You Floss Your Teeth?

How Often Should You Floss Your Teeth?

Your oral health is probably either consciously or unconsciously very important to you. To be honest, most people would agree that makes complete sense! Your oral health directly affects your teeth and by direct correlation, your smile. Your teeth and smile is the cornerstone of your face and these very visible parts of your face are the first things people see when they meet you. Your teeth are critical for your first impression and honestly, for every other impression after that! This is why a person’s dental health is usually so important for their self-esteem and confidence. We also know the more confidence and self-esteem a person has, the better their life can be.

However, even though most people realize the facts above to some level, they still don’t always take proper care of their teeth. Even though people love their teeth, they don’t always have the resolve and discipline to regularly clean their teeth properly. Even the small minority of people who do have the discipline to regularly brush, floss and clean their teeth don’t know the correct technique, length and frequency recommended to do their dental cleaning regimens in the proper fashion.

Most people understand what physical actions they need to perform for the tooth-brushing parts of their dental cleaning sessions. Whether they actually perform these actions or not is a separate question. However, most people know that they should brush at least two times a day for at least two minutes during each tooth-brushing session. Unfortunately, knowledge about flossing seems to be less well-known. It seems that most people have no idea what they are supposed to do for the tooth-flossing part of their dental cleaning regimen. How long should you floss for? How often should you floss your teeth?

 

These are some of the questions about flossing that we will look at below:

How long should you floss for?

The point of flossing is to help you remove bacteria and plaque between your teeth. The plaque between your teeth is very hard to dislodge by simply brushing your teeth and is a primary cause of gingivitis, cavities and other gum diseases. You should floss as long as is needed to carefully, gently and properly remove this plaque from between your gums and each of your teeth. Usually, this process should not take much more than two minutes. This also happens to be exactly the same amount of time that should be dedicated to a tooth-brushing session, so it should be quite easy to remember.

How often should you floss your teeth?

While you may assume that you should floss your teeth as often as you brush your teeth, it turns out that flossing twice a day (which is the same amount of times dentists advise brushing your teeth a day) is unnecessary. It takes close to a full 24 hours for plaque to build up on and between the teeth. As a result of this fact, most dental professionals find the proper practice to be flossing only once a day to have the best removal of bacteria and plaque while also reducing unnecessary damage to the gums. It is usually recommended by the American Dental Association to floss before or after one of your two daily brushing sessions.

By now hopefully, you understand how to keep up and maintain your oral health and beautiful smile to a qualified dental practitioner’s standards. If you are still wondering “How often you should floss your teeth?”, feel like you have more questions about your daily dental cleaning protocol or simply need a more in-depth professional dental cleaning, feel free to contact us at our offices anytime at Gables Sedation and Family Dentistry! We can help you make sure that your teeth are as clean as possible.