If you don’t floss your teeth, you’re about to find out from your El Paso dentist why you should start.

How you care for your smile between professional cleanings is one way to ensure that you get a clean bill of health from our El Paso, TX, dentist, Dr. Steve Yi. While maintaining a healthy diet and avoiding smoking are two great ways to keep teeth and gums healthy, brushing and flossing are also crucial for good oral health; however, if you don’t floss you probably should start right away.

Why is flossing so important?

While brushing your teeth is a great way to clean food and plaque from the front and back surfaces of your teeth, it’s rather difficult for your toothbrush to clean in those tight crevices between teeth. Brushing alone will actually leave quite a bit behind if that’s the only way you clean between teeth.

Flossing, on the other hand, is the only way to thoroughly clean between teeth. By flossing the teeth and gumline, you can remove plaque before it hardens into tartar (the leading cause of gum disease). Flossing will always be the most effective way to prevent decay and gum disease.

How often should you floss your teeth?

Since most people hate having to change up their daily habits, you’ll be happy to hear that you only need to floss once a day. That’s it! How easy is that? And it really doesn’t matter when you floss, just as long as you take your time and do a thorough job.

Of course, it’s never a bad idea to floss in the evening before bed, so that plaque and food doesn’t sit on your teeth overnight. Also, flossing before you brush is a great way to dislodge food and clean between teeth so that the toothpaste is able to clean more areas of the tooth.

Also, remember that being vigorous or aggressive with flossing won’t give you a better clean, but it could damage the gums or your teeth. Take your time and be gentle when you floss. If you don’t floss regularly you may notice that your gums may bleed a bit. This is normal if you are getting back into the habit of flossing, but your gums will toughen up as you start flossing more regularly, so don’t worry!

Whether it’s time to schedule your six-month cleaning or you have questions about how to floss your teeth, the experts at El Paso Viva Dental are here to help. Call us today to learn more.