Take Your Oral Health Seriously & Get Flossing

“Love The Gums You’re WithOral Health Flossing” is the 2015 campaign for flossing. Initiated by the American Academy of Periodontology (AAP) with the goal of reinforcing to people that the gums they have need to be taken care of because they are there for the entirety of their life. One in three adults have gum disease at some point in their lives, flossing daily needs to be re-emphasized in order to promote good gum health.

What Gum Disease Looks Like

Gum disease has physical symptoms like, bleeding gums, receding gums, bone problems, and lost teeth. If this disease continues to go unchecked, patients may have to undergo surgeries and procedures to replace or remove teeth and underlying bone. These aren’t painful symptoms that just appear overnight. They build-up slowly over time, so you have plenty of notice in advance.

Floss Daily

It only takes a once daily routine to prevent the destruction of your mouth, flossing. You may be thinking brushing your teeth alone is all you need, but no, you need to add flossing to your regiment of smile maintenance. The amount of time it takes flossing is worth the potential amount of time you will spend for oral surgery in the event of gum disease.

Making Excuses

Most Americans would rather do anything else, other than floss. A recent survey conducted by the AAP showed that one-third of those polled would rather wash dirty dishes or wait in long lines at the supermarket. This survey further discovered that people will lie to their dentist about their flossing frequency or lack thereof. Yet, flat-out, nearly 60 percent of Americans don’t lie about flossing, they just don’t floss daily.

The Psychology of Why We Don’t Floss Enough

Flossing is easy and a lot less painful than having teeth pulled, but we still don’t do it. Psychologist have boiled it down to the fact that we need to see results in order to validate an action. Because we don’t instantly feel the benefits of flossing we cannot be bothered to do it. They also found out that the people that don’t floss regularly feel like failures, and as a result, build up an anxiety towards flossing.

Some Flossing is Better Than No Flossing

Just because people skip their required daily flossing doesn’t mean all hope is lost. The silver lining is, irregular flossing is still better than no flossing at all. It should be everyone’s intent to floss from one day to the next, specially if your family is predisposed to gum disease factors like diabetes. There will still be benefits to flossing even if it doesn’t occur on a frequent basis.

Flossing Is Worth the Inconvenience

There is a small amount of dexterity required when flossing correctly with approved dental floss. If you’re unable to do this with a string, consider using the plastic handle flossers that come prepackaged for one-time use. Consider adding some personal value to the act of flossing in order to entice you to do it more frequently. Every little bit helps when it comes to oral health and the prevention of gum disease.

Call Central Florida Periodontics to get your oral health reviewed by one of our doctors today!