What is Dental Floss?

Dental floss is a piece of thin filaments which are used to remove dental plaque or any food between teeth. A tooth brush may not reach everywhere in a person’s mouth. That is when use of dental floss becomes more essential. Dental floss needs to be a part of dental care routine to keep teeth and mouth healthy.

Build-up plaque and gingivitis can be avoided with the use of dental floss. According to the American Dental Association, dental flossing can remove almost 4 out of 5 plaque. When it is added to dental care routine, and done after brushing teeth, dental floss can be extremely beneficial to dental health.

It is also seen the use of dental floss in the wild life. Researchers have observed some animals to use dental floss with feathers or human hair such as long-tailed macaques or Japanese macaques. It can easily be understood that dental floss is an instinct for animals to stay healthy.  

Is Flossing Necessary?

According to the American Dental Association, it is imperial to clean between teeth every day. An internal cleaner such as a dental floss can be used while cleaning. Cleaning between teeth with the use of dental floss is the best way to prevent gum disease and cavities. It also prevents plaque formation.

If a person does not have a dental care routine with the use of dental floss, he may have dental problems such as plaques, gum disease and cavities. Plaques occurs because of leftover food or sugar in the mouth. If there is plaque in the mouth, it can be said that the outer shell of teeth is being eaten away because of the acid that is released from plaque.

What are the Advantages of Using Dental Floss?

Dental flossing is a must to have a heathy teeth and mouth. There are a lot of advantages of dental floss. Here is a list of benefits of dental floss.

• Dental flossing helps a patient to reduce the risk of cavities.
• Dental flossing helps removing bacteria which may lead to bad breath.
• One of the advantages of dental floss is that it can reach where a tooth brush may not. That is how it helps removing plaque and food between teeth and along the gum line.
• Dental flossing helps avoiding gingivitis.
• Dental flossing helps increasing the health of gums.
• Dental flossing helps removing plaque from the gum line.

How often should dental floss be used?

Although teeth are brushed at least twice a day, the frequency of use of dental floss should be once a day. Brushing is for cleaning the visible surface of the teeth. However, dental floss is used to reach place where a tooth brush has difficulty reaching such as between teeth and along the gum line. 

The frequency of use of dental floss needs to be at least once a day. Not rushing the process of brushing teeth or dental flossing can help a person increase his dental health by avoiding plaque, bacteria, sugar and food particles.