Time-Waster Or Time-Saver? Here's Why You're Losing Time When You Don't Floss
One of the most common excuses that people have when it comes to why they don't floss is that it takes too much time. It's true; brushing your teeth is typically considerably faster than flossing. However, it might surprise you to learn that if you don't floss on a regular basis in order to save time, you may actually end up wasting more of your time in the long run. Here's how.
Effort Wasted
If you brush your teeth as often as your dentist recommends - typically twice a day - you might feel like you're doing a good enough job with your oral hygiene. Unfortunately, there's another way to think about it: you're wasting some of your effort.
When you have plaque, food debris, or tartar stuck between your teeth, the bristles of your toothbrush can't do anything. While a toothbrush doesn't do a great job of getting in between teeth anyway, if this area is blocked off, you're effectively gliding over it without cleaning any of that gunk out. In other words, you're not getting all of the benefits out of brushing your teeth that you should be, and some of your effort is being wasted due to that.
More Time in Pain
As you've probably heard at least once, if you want to keep all of your teeth, you need to floss every day. But there's a lot more to this claim than simply keeping a mouthful of teeth.
If you don't floss, chances are that you're going to have a lot more dental pain as a result. Gum disease can be very painful, especially in the later stages. Likewise, tooth infections, abscesses, cavities, enamel loss, and yes, tooth loss are painful as well. You could start having all of these symptoms simply from not flossing. So the real question you need to ask yourself here is, would you rather spend a couple of extra minutes flossing, or hours, days, and potentially even weeks in pain while awaiting treatment for problems that arose from not flossing?
More Time in the Dentist's Chair
Of course, if you get a dental disease, you're going to need treatment for it. People who don't floss are far more likely to spend more time at the dentist's office than those who do.
While everyone needs regular cleaning of their teeth and examinations, it's entirely possible for people who take good care of their oral health to leave it at that. However, with neglect comes the risk of needing additional therapies, treatments, and procedures performed. That's more time that you're spending to see a dentist for help rather than preventing the condition in the first place with a few minutes of investment per day.
Flossing is good for your health, your teeth, your gums, and your limited time. Don't waste unnecessary time and energy cleaning up after the problems that were created by not flossing. Start flossing, visit your dentist - such as Bradley Piotrowski, DDS, MSD, LLC - and take back your time.
Share