The importance of dental hygiene
It can seem like a real drag to have to stand at the bathroom basin cleaning your teeth for 2 minutes, morning and night. It’s tempting to rush. In the morning you’ve got to get to work, college or school, or you’ve got to get someone else out the door. In the evening, you just want to hop into bed and go to sleep.
But those 2 minutes twice a day are what will allow you to keep your teeth well into your later years, if not for life. So, if you have not already got into a disciplined habit of brushing and flossing, now is the time to start. Why not make it your New Year resolution for 2019?
If you’re not sure what you are actually doing when you brush and floss, let us explain:
It’s all about plaque
When you brush your teeth, you are removing the build-up of dental plaque from the surface of your teeth and around your gum line. It’s also a good idea to give your tongue a good brush too, or you can even buy a tongue scraper to clean it.
Plaque is a film of bacteria that deliberately cling to the surfaces of the mouth to stop themselves being swallowed in our saliva. They feed on the sugars in our mouth (so rinse after eating sugary foods or drinking juice or fizzy drinks) and give off acids.
The acids eat into our tooth enamel, creating holes for decay-causing bacteria to get in through. The acids also irritate and inflame our gums, and then can get under them to eat away at our jawbone and tooth roots, causing infection and loose teeth.
The end result of decay and gum disease is tooth loss.
Trapped food
Brushing and flossing are also important for removing food that has got trapped between our teeth. As you get older, and your gums recede a little, the gaps between the teeth get bigger and offer more places for food to get caught. There it can start to rot and cause infection.
So, make proper dental hygiene a priority in 2019, and don’t forget to come in for your check-ups at Forest Dental in Loughton.