It has taken you years to perfect your bedtime routine, to whittle it down from an hour-long marathon of product application and mirror-gazing to an efficient clean up and wind down before bed. You’ve already cut out all of the unessential steps (maybe it’s just not crucial to achieve the perfect brow before your 8am breakfast meeting)—but did you forget the importance of flossing and relegate it to that pile of tasks that you’ve designated for weekends only?
We all occasionally fall into the trap of relying on brushing as a comprehensive dental hygiene routine. Brushing makes your mouth feel better. It gets to a lot of the plaque on the larger, flat surfaces of teeth, so everything feels smoother and cleaner to the tongue. But is it really enough? Periodontist, Eric Browning, says, “That flossing is probably your single most important weapon against plaque, the clingy bacterial biofilm that sticks to the surfaces of your teeth.” Despite our best efforts with the brush, there will always be plaque left behind and the removal of plaque affects our dental and overall health. Here are just a few reasons to recognize the importance of flossing every day.
1. In & Out
It only takes a couple of minutes and you only have to do it once a day. Even 60 seconds of daily flossing has been shown to be more effective at removing plaque than just using the brush.
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