Spending an additional minute cleaning and flossing your teeth may appear to you as a waste of time because you are cleaning and flossing your teeth regularly as recommended by your dentist. However, are you doing it correctly? Are you ensuring all the plaque on your teeth is removed, leaving you with no harmful bacteria in your mouth? If your answer to these questions is not yes, it is time for you to prepare yourselves to spend an extra minute to care for your oral health.
You may think you are doing everything possible to maintain excellent oral health. However, your mouth is a breeding ground for harmful bacteria that are always feasting on the sugars and starches from the foods you have. You may brush your teeth diligently in the morning and before going to bed. In between, the bacteria enjoy themselves on the leftovers on your teeth, and you won’t like this excrete toxins on your teeth to erode the enamel. Getting over this challenge is difficult unless you schedule an appointment with your dentist for exams and cleanings.
Dental exams and cleanings are vital for maintaining your oral health in excellent condition. The exams shouldn’t be feared because you experience occasional jaw discomfort, hear some strange noises, and feel the hygienist prodding around your teeth. However, it is a painless procedure to ensure everything is alright in your mouth.
Dental exams and cleanings are performed by dental hygienists who will begin by examining your entire mouth using a tiny mirror to look for gingivitis signs around your teeth and gums. If any concerns are detected, the hygienist calls the dentist over to make sure the cleaning can proceed.
The leftover plaque on your teeth would have hardened into calculus, which is challenging to remove merely by brushing and flossing. The hygienist uses a scaler to rid your teeth from the accumulated plaque and calculus. This is the time when you hear scraping sounds depending on how much calculus has accumulated on your teeth. Brushing and flossing can prevent plaque buildup. It is why you must spend an extra minute for the flossing to ensure you remove all plaque from your teeth before it hardens into calculus.
After the hygienist has eliminated all the plaque and tartar, they will use a high-powered electric toothbrush to scrub your teeth with a gritty toothpaste. The sounds of the scrubbing are undoubtedly scary but will remove any leftover calculus by the scaler.
You may be an expert flosser, but nothing can beat a professional flossing lesson. The dental hygienist gets deep between your teeth to locate potential trouble areas where bleeding may occur from the gums. The professional flossing lesson will teach you why you must spend an extra minute with this tool to remove plaque or toothpaste leftover from the cleaning process you use at home.
The cleaning and exam are not concluded without a rinse to remove any debris leftover in your mouth.
The final step of the cleaning process is providing you a fluoride treatment. Fluoride helps protect your teeth in their battle against cavities for several months. The fluoride treatment requires a few minutes but helps to protect your teeth for longer.
Most importantly, brushing and flossing correctly is incredibly essential to maintain your oral health in excellent condition. Visiting your dentist once every six months is also a requirement you cannot overlook. If you are prone to dental caries, you can discuss applying dental sealants to your teeth as an additional barrier against this problem. However, at no time can you neglect your routine oral hygiene practices because they are a stepping stone to appropriately maintaining your dental hygiene.
It will help you understand plaque removal with care is essential because any leftover plaque continues to develop without wasting time. Plaque is an issue that is continuously growing on your teeth, and the only way it can be removed is by flossing. Spending an additional minute after you brush your teeth dedicated to flossing correctly can help your life significantly.
Flossing correctly eliminates the most harmful bacteria from your mouth, and doing so, preferably before brushing your teeth, helps loosen food particles between them. Loosened food particles are quickly removed when brushing to leave you with plaque-free teeth and an infection-free mouth and body. If the harmful bacteria from plaque invade your teeth, they can also enter your bloodstream to cause severe health complications. Why make yourself vulnerable to unnecessary issues when you can conveniently remove plaque from your teeth using the tool effectively and correctly?