Flossing – No Plaque Left Behind…NOT!

You’re such a good dental patient.  Your dentist and hygienist instructed you on how to remove the plaque from your teeth so you could avoid cavities and gum disease.  Since you didn’t want either of those, you decided to take good care of your teeth.  Even though it wasn’t easy, you brushed and flossed every day.  You took the time and made the effort.  The brushing was easier.   Brush a little longer than you normally did, and angle the bristles toward the gum.  No problem.

Flossing was a little more challenging.  You had to stick your fingers way in your mouth.  The gums hurt when you snapped in between your teeth, and the floss cut the corners of your mouth when you had to reach for the back teeth, but you did it faithfully.  The tips of your fingers sometimes turned blue because the floss was so tight around them.  When you unwrapped the floss from your fingertips the color came back, so you were okay.

Then you rinsed your mouth and spit out in the sink.  You did your duty and finished the job.  Right?  Wrong!  You thought you cleaned out the bacteria and toxins with brushing and flossing, but really just rearranged much of it.  Just because it’s loose from your teeth doesn’t mean it disappears.  It’s still there.  Only now it’s just floating around, waiting to stick on another surface of your tooth, your gums, or your tongue.  You moved the bacteria around in your mouth, like rearranging furniture, instead of moving the bacteria and toxins out of your mouth.

Rinsing isn’t enough.  Swish as hard as you can and you still will leave hundreds of thousands of bacteria hiding under your gums, even after you brushed and flossed.  Many people can’t understand why they develop plaque so quickly.  One answer is that they never cleaned it out of their mouth in the first place.  They just rearranged it.  If the bacteria are still there, within hours they cling to teeth and begin forming colonies.

It’s like planting a garden.  It takes much longer to grow a plant from a seed than it does from a seedling.  The seedling has a jump start on the seed; just like the bacteria left behind has a jump start on any new bacteria.  By giving bacteria this jump start, we’ve drastically decreased the effectiveness of our brushing and flossing.

Here’s how to finish the job of cleaning your teeth.  Brush and floss like you did, only this time complete the job with directed water irrigation.  This is a very simple technique that directs a warm water stream in between your teeth for a minimum of five full seconds.  There are several directed water irrigation devices on the market.  Pick the one that you will actually use.

Follow these simple five steps:  1. Use as warm of water as you can comfortably tolerate.  2.  Put the pressure all the way on high.  3.  Direct the water jet in between your teeth, not at the gums.  4.  Hold it still for a minimum of five full seconds.  5.  Move on to the next space.  You only need to go one direction, from the cheek side to the tongue side.  Don’t forget the back of the last tooth or both sides of a tooth standing alone.

Using directed water irrigation you’ve cleaned out the bacteria and toxins, not just rearranged them.  Your gums will be healthier, your breath fresher, you’ll have fewer cavities, and your expenses at the dentist will be cut dramatically.

You’re almost there.  Use directed water irrigation and Finish The Job!