Dental professionals recommend that you floss daily, meaning once or twice a day. The American Dental Association (ADA) suggests that the best time to floss is when it comfortably fits into your schedule. Some people prefer to floss in the morning so that they can start their day with a fresh mouth, while others choose to floss at night so that they go to sleep with a clean mouth. To practice healthy oral hygiene, you have the freedom to choose when you want to floss, as long as you’re effectively flossing with the C-Shape at least once-a-day. However, what happens if you choose to not follow these tried-and-true flossing techniques? Below we detail the benefits of flossing and what you might experience if you choose to stop flossing altogether.

How Flossing Benefits Oral Health and Overall Health

Adults typically have a total of 32 teeth, although due to circumstances unique to everyone, there’s vast array of reasons as to why many people may have less teeth than this. A healthy adult’s mouth consists of 8 incisors, 4 canines, 8 premolars, and 12 molar teeth, however poor oral health practices commonly results in many adults to lose teeth throughout their life. According to a study, alarming statistics show that adults between the ages of 20 and 64 have an average of 24.92 teeth, and a whole 3.75% of adults have no remaining teeth. Additionally, the typical adult will lose an average of 12 teeth by the time they reach the age of 50. Then finally, 26% of adults over the age of 65 have 8 or fewer teeth in their mouth, while 17% of these individuals have lost all their teeth completely.

When you eat, drink, or breathe, bacteria and other microorganisms enter your mouth. When these bacteria combine with your saliva, tartar begins to form between your teeth and along the gum line. When tartar isn’t regularly removed, it hardens into a yellow substance called plaque which can build up along your gum line. Poor oral hygiene habits allow the acids produced by dental plaque to eat away at tooth enamel over time, which causes cavities. This slow buildup of sticky tartar eventually leads to gingivitis, resulting in red, swollen, and often bleeding gum tissue. If gingivitis is left untreated, the next step in this bacteria buildup is gum disease. Gum disease causes numerous serious health concerns like a receding gum line, bleeding gums, and even tooth loss. 

It’s been said that the mouth is a mirror of health and disease throughout the body, which means that poor oral health can negatively affect overall health. When your teeth reach a stage of intensive plaque build-up, they began to rot which results in bacteria to enter into your bloodstream and travel throughout the rest of your body, which can lead to serious health conditions such as:

• Heart disease
• Diabetes
• Osteoporosis
• Alzheimer’s Disease
• Pneumonia

To prevent these numerous painful health complications, it’s important to practice affective oral health habitsbeforehand. Flossing is the only way to remove this tartar from between your teeth and keep plaque out of hard-to-reach places.

What Flossing Regularly Can Help You Avoid

Neglecting to floss everyday can lead to an assortment of painful oral health issues, including:

• Gum Disease: Gum disease, also called periodontitis, is the most common and painful result of poor gum health. In early stages, plaque builds up in the mouth causing gums to become inflamed, this process is called gingivitis. Gingivitis can be easily prevented if one simply flosses and brushes it away. Although, if left untreated, the bacteria on your teeth will began releasing enamel-decaying acid that gets entrenched in the gum line. Over time, this plaque begins to harden and infect the gums. At this stage, the gingivitis has evolved to gum disease which leaves irreversible harm to an individual’s oral health.
• Cavities: A cavity forms from oral negligence that eventually turns into tooth decay. Caused by bacteria that lives in the plaque on your teeth and gums, tooth decay leads to gingivitis and, eventually, gum disease. If left unchecked, a small cavity gradually grows larger to eventually become a hole in your tooth.Treating a cavity really depends on how early a dentist detects it. If discovered early, a dentist could potentially reverse the issue with simple fluoride treatments, which ultimately helps repair the tooth enamel. However, cavities commonly require more extensive approaches, such as drilling, to return the tooth back to proper health. In severe cases, the dentist may choose to extract your tooth completely. In situations such as this, your dentist will fill in the open tooth gap with an implant, bridge, or crown.
• Tooth Abscess: A tooth abscess is a painful infection that can occur in your tooth, the surrounding gums, or down in the jawbone. Depending on the stage the abscess is in, it’s symptoms can vary to both ends of the pain spectrum. However, regardless of where it has formed or where your pain level is, tooth abscesses don’t heal on their own and can eventually lead to serious health complications if left untreated. 
• Swollen Gums: Swollen gums is a painful condition when an individual’s gums inflame and become puffy, which can exclusively happen around one singular tooth. While gum inflammation is common, swelling over one tooth is much less common and may be an indicator of a serious oral health problem.
• Bad Breath: Halitosis, more commonly known as “bad breath” is a dental issue that can cause various problems across all aspects of our lives. An estimated 30% of the American population regularly suffers from Halitosis. Given how widespread this is, it’s likely that either you’re personally dealing with bad breath, or you’ve experienced a relative or friend who does. While everyone should floss their teeth and visit their dentist regularly, there are many other ways to prevent the onset of bad breath and improve oral hygiene.

Floss More Effectively with GumChucks

To prevent these numerous painful health complications, it’s important to practice affective oral health habits beforehand. Flossing is the only way to remove this tartar from between your teeth and keep plaque out of hard-to-reach places. Some modern flossing accessories, GumChucks being the prime example, are specifically designed to accomplish C-Shape flossing. Unlike one-piece flossers that hold the floss in a rigid position, GumChucks’ two-handle device gives you better leverage, letting you control the tension of the floss and allowing you to effectively clean the sides of each tooth. The handles make it easier for everyone to floss, especially those with limited dexterity, with the added bonus of never having to stick your fingers in your mouth!

GumChucks’ design ensures a flossing experience that’s faster, easier, and more effective than competing flossers or traditional floss. Our two handles with disposable floss allow you to comfortably reach all your teeth, even those in the back, while wrapping the floss around each tooth. This creates the vital “C-Shape” necessary to get below the gum line and effectively clean each tooth.