Your smile has to be your best asset, not something that pulls down your confidence. But have you ever wondered if brushing your teeth alone can help you get your brightest, healthiest smile?
While regularly brushing is essential, it does not suffice alone. The spaces between your teeth may develop plaque and bacteria in areas where the toothbrush can’t reach.
In this blog, we’ll understand why interdental cleaning is important and how flossing and interdental cleaning can improve your oral health. We will also look at some tips and tricks to keep your smile as radiant as ever!
Is Brushing Enough for a Healthy Smile? Here’s What You Need to Know
When you say oral health, everyone instantly thinks about brushing their teeth. However, dental care involves more than just brushing.
A simple habit of cleaning between teeth or interdental cleaning can go a long way to transform your oral hygiene journey and make your smile even brighter.
Healthy Smiles and Dental Care
National Smile Month is a global campaign initiated to raise awareness, promote oral health and encourage everyone to embrace the power of a smile.
To promote oral health, Ridge Oral Surgery at Basking Ridge provides a range of services from dental implants to wisdom tooth removal.
Our teeth play a crucial role in how we present ourselves. A healthy smile can significantly impact our confidence, making you feel more comfortable in your skin. For this reason, oral care should be on your priority list. You should not settle for anything less than the best possible oral healthcare to avail yourself of the life-changing benefits it will offer.
Understanding why cleaning between teeth is essential is the first step toward proper oral health.
Let’s explore a few effective tips you can easily incorporate into your everyday life to achieve and maintain that healthy smile.
The Importance of Cleaning Between Teeth
Interdental cleaning, or in simpler terms, cleaning the spaces between the teeth that your toothbrush usually misses is important. It’s common for regular brushing to miss several areas in your mouth. These tiny missed spaces then go on to become breeding grounds for plaque, bacteria, and germs, leading to cavities, gum problems, and more serious dental issues.
To avoid these problems from affecting your healthy smile, it is necessary to adopt some habits that include cleaning between your teeth, such as flossing, interdental cleaning, and using interdental brushes, etc.
Benefits of Flossing for a Healthy Smile
A big game changer in the dental care space is the technique of flossing. Whether it be removing the bits of delicious food stuck between your teeth, or plaque, flossing proves to be the most effective way of getting rid of things between your teeth that shouldn’t be there.
The benefits of flossing for a healthy smile include :
- No stinky breath – Removing leftover food, debris, and bacteria from your mouth can significantly help with your mouth breath. What better way to greet people with fresh breath and a healthy smile? Don’t skip this important step if you want to maintain fresh breath.
- No gum problems – You can avoid swollen gums simply by regular flossing. It reduces the risk of gum diseases and inflammation by keeping your gums healthy. You can prevent yourself from the risk of developing gingivitis and periodontal diseases. Gum diseases are also found to be linked to potential heart disease and diabetes. You would want to be on the lookout for those.
- No cavities – A majority of cavities occur due to the residue of food left in your mouth and plaque formation. By eliminating plaque build-up, you can protect your teeth from cavities in hard-to-reach areas.
The benefits of flossing are numerous. But if flossing isn’t for you, interdental brushes, or special dental picks are a great alternative to maintaining a healthy smile.
Interdental Cleaning For A Healthy Smile
It might sound complicated, but as mentioned, interdental cleaning is simply cleaning in between teeth. An interdental brush is a tiny, flexible brush used for multiple purposes. The most common usage is for cleansing between teeth, but it is also used as an orthodontic appliance during teeth implants for dental implant gap cleaning, orthodontic braces cleaning, and cleaning between missing teeth.
Interdental brushes can be used separately depending upon the requirement to clean between posterior teeth and incisor teeth. The brush has a flexible neck which allows the perfect angle to get in those grooves and brush out what is unnecessary.
Many people are making the switch from flossing to interdental brushes for more effective cleaning. However, we recommend that you consult your dentist before trying on anything new. An expert’s opinion will help you choose the right technique and correct brush size for optimal results.
Here is a guide on how to use an interdental brush correctly. Don’t worry if your gums bleed a little at first—this is common, especially if you’re new to interdental cleaning. Over time, as your gums become healthier, the bleeding should stop. You can change out your interdental brush using the same yardstick you used to judge when you need to replace your toothbrush. When the bristles get overly bendy, you can let it go.
Here is a small video to help you understand the best way to clean your teeth.
Tips for a Healthier Smile
Following these basic thumb rules will help you maintain healthy smiles for all occasions.
These small habits go a long way to provide substantial results.
- Flossing – You ought to incorporate flossing into your routine. Studies have shown that flossing before brushing has proven to be more effective since flossing already loosens all the food particles stuck between your teeth and brushing further helps remove them completely.
- Regular dentist visits – Just like a regular body check-up, a scheduled dentist visit will help you see any possible problems well in advance. You can take steps accordingly to minimize damage or even prevent the problem from occurring. Your dentist’s tailored advice will be your guiding light in maintaining that healthy smile.
- Sugar control – Striking a balance of your sugar intake is key to avoiding unnecessary cavities and plaque. Regulating your diet by adding in fibrous foods will improve your oral health and help keep your teeth clean naturally.
- Water intake – Research shows how drinking water post meals help in keeping teeth healthy. Timing your water intake after meals will help wash down the food particles in your mouth, keeping your teeth clean.
- Mouthwash – Using an antimicrobial mouthwash can help kill bacteria that cause bad breath and gum disease, especially in areas you may have missed.
Maintaining a Healthy Smile at Home
Your dental care journey for a healthy smile doesn’t stop with professional care or at the dentist’s office –it continues at home. Lifestyle changes and consistent flossing and brushing along with adherence to the above-mentioned tips create a lifestyle of oral hygiene for healthy smiles.
We’ve laid out the importance of adopting a dental care routine for a radiant smile, but it won’t work unless you are consistent in your routine. By incorporating these habits into your routine, you’re on your way to preserving your smile for a lifetime. Dedicated dental care is the key.
You might feel that going to the dentist is a daunting experience. Convincing you with words might not help, so here are a few of our patient reviews. These real-life experiences are sure to calm your pre-visit dental anxiety.
A healthy smile isn’t just about how your teeth look. It is also about your overall well-being—so why not make it the healthiest it can be?
For personalized advice or to schedule a consultation, contact Ridge Oral Surgery today and take the first step toward a healthy smile!
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