Tips For Helping You Remember To Floss
Flossing your teeth is one important oral hygiene step that is often forgotten, although you are reminded each dental visit to floss your teeth. Here are some simple things you can do to make sure you do floss once a day.
- Give yourself some variety. Gone are the days when floss was just a waxy tasteless string, today we have floss picks, water picks, strings, ribbons, unflavoured and flavoured floss, try them all until you find the one you like.
- In the bathroom make sure your floss is visible, keep it next to your toothbrush or toothpaste.
- Keep your floss *handy*. If you are constantly *on the go* spending time flossing can sound like a chore. So, keep some floss, or your picks in a convenient place – car glove box, in your desk drawer, hand bag or gym bag, this way you’ll have easy access to it after lunch, or before a meeting.
- Make flossing a set part of your routine. Where ever you decide to store your floss, make flossing a part of your daily routine. Floss every day after you eat lunch or floss just before you get into bed.
- Give yourself a reminder. If these tips aren’t helping and you are still not flossing to a regular schedule leave a sticky note on your bathroom mirror or set a reminder alarm on your mobile phone.
- Ask your husband, wife or family member to remind you to floss, that way if you do forget there is someone to remind you.
Flossing not only can extend your life expectancy as it keeps your mouth clear of bacterial infections, but it can help prevent gum disease. One way of telling if you have a bacterial infection is to see if you have inflamed gums. Bacteria can find its way into your arteries and it stays there for a while causing plaque, this inflammation can also trigger a clot to form. Clot formations will decrease blood flow to the heart, and when your heart has a hard time doing the job it’s designed to do it can lead to heart disease or heart attacks.
Are you sure you don’t have time for flossing?
Remember if you keep flossing properly after a few weeks of constant flossing it will become habit, just a part of your daily routine.
To Floss Properly
Take a piece of floss about 45cm long. Leave about 5cm between your hands and wrap the floss around the index and middle fingers of both hands. Slide the floss between two teeth and wrap it around one of the teeth into a *C* shape at the base, wipe the tooth two to three times from base to the tip. Floss the sides of both teeth and use a new section of floss for the next tooth so you aren’t spreading the plaque you just removed. Once you have finished flossing, brush your teeth to remove any loose bacteria released from flossing.
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