Brush your teeth every day, brush your teeth twice a day, this concept can now be said to have been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, no matter whether you can do it at ordinary times, but at least everyone agrees with brushing your teeth.
But when it comes to dental floss, everyone should have heard of it, but I always feel that it seems that Miss Capitalist will only use it and has nothing to do with our ordinary people.
In fact, dental floss has already flown into ordinary people’s homes. In Julia Roberts’ famous work Pretty Woman, there is a quite classic scene in which Julia plays a call girl who wants to go along with the dental floss provided by the hotel as soon as she enters a high-end hotel…
The teeth are a breeding ground for bacteria.
So the question we have to answer about floss is: Is it necessary to floss?
Let’s look at the following picture first:
This is the situation of the adjacent surfaces between teeth, which are usually invisible. If one tooth is pulled out, this face will be exposed.
This side is actually what we usually call the [gap] between teeth. Plug teeth occur here and floss enters from here.
The areas shown by green, yellow and red patches in the figure are the areas where teeth are in real contact with each other. Different colors represent the strength of contact, with the red part contacting the tightest and the green part contacting the looser.
This is how teeth and teeth generally depend on each other. The lower part of the contact area is suspended, which is the location where gums grow and where bacteria and food debris are located.
Toothbrushes do not clean the teeth, but floss can
In order to make the text easier to explain, I have simplified this picture.
The gray-white tooth part in the picture is basically the position we can clean when brushing our teeth at ordinary times, that is to say, no matter you use what toothbrush, there is nothing you can do about this part between teeth.
In the blue part of the picture, this position is the boundary area between teeth and gums, which is the main growth and stationing position of bacteria at ordinary times. If it is not cleaned in time, bacteria will slowly corrode teeth.
Many friends brush their teeth very carefully every day. As a result, worm teeth still emerge in endlessly. They are mainly bad in this position. At first it turned black, then they began to feel plug teeth. The development of worm teeth in this position is very hidden. In the early days, don’t say it was yourself, even dentists may not find it, so they mainly rely on prevention at ordinary times.
In addition, bacteria become dental calculus here, which leads to periodontitis, bleeding from brushing teeth and gum atrophy. Therefore, this position can be said to be a very important but often neglected [dead angle] in oral hygiene.
All-round cleaning and dental floss should be teamed up.
Some friends have the habit of using toothpicks, so they may be able to clean part of the blue area, but it will not be very thorough, and the red tooth contact area, toothpicks cannot reach in. In addition, hard and sharp toothpicks often hurt gums, causing additional gum damage.
Floss can clean up both the blue crevice area and the red contact area, but floss can do nothing about the outer surface of teeth, it is only good at crevice.
Therefore, all-round cleaning of teeth requires toothbrush + floss, and brushing teeth alone is not enough. There is research evidence that brushing teeth + floss can effectively reduce gingival inflammation compared with brushing teeth alone.
If you still doubt the necessity of dental floss, try your best to clean your toothbrush, and then floss once to see the soft dirt on the floss that comes out of your teeth.
If these soft dirt are not removed without dental floss, bacteria will easily breed. Over time, these bacteria will form plaque, which will eventually become dental calculus and cause gingival diseases and even dental caries.
For the sake of your oral health and that of your family, understand and use floss correctly.
Editor: Katherine
Author: Xu Tongkai