The F Word No not that word FLOSS I call it the F word because most people don’t want to hear it or cringe when you ask if they do it. It may seem like a daunting task especially if you are struggling just to get brushing done. The goal of brushing and flossing is to remove plaque buildup. Plaque consists of active colonies of destructive bacteria, which basically eat and then excrete acids on our teeth. Brushing only removes plaque from the front and back surfaces of your teeth. Flossing, on the other hand, allows you to remove plaque from between your teeth. These hard-to-reach spots are where the most destructive microbes live. Failure to remove plaque from these areas can cause gingivitis and gum disease. My favorite Floss I am a BURST ambassador www.burstoralcare.com Promo code 5ZMZBR Activity
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Sheree [00:00:05] Good oral health. It's about more than just brushing and flossing your teeth. Dental disease is 100 percent preventable. And it starts at home. Yep, you heard me right. Cavities are disease and not something our children should just get. Your mouth is a window in your body and it has an effect on your speech, breathing, chewing so much more. And we're not listening to it on this podcast. We'll bring you a mixture of professionals, experts in the field that will give you advice and action steps you can take with your kids in different situations. We're also going to help moms, dads, caregivers, just like you, having the same struggles that you are. Because together we can make a difference and help keep our kids healthy. I had high fevers as a child who was given medicine. Steve, my team kids bullied me, made fun of me. Ask me if I knew how to brush my teeth. It made me self-conscious about my smile. I did not want to smile as a kid. People were always asking me what was wrong with me. I just didn't want to open my mouth because I didn't want to be made fun of.
Sheree [00:00:59] And I don't want another kid to feel the same way I did growing up. This is the Healthy Mouth podcast. My name is Sheree Wertz. I'm a dental hygienist and I've been in the dental field for over 30 years.
Sheree [00:01:13] Welcome back to the Healthy Mouth movement. In today's episode, we're going to talk about the F word. No, not what you're thinking. Floss. Floss is an F word that a lot of people don't like. They don't want to use it. They don't want to hear about it. Other people love to use it because they know the benefits. But it's not for everyone. When you're brushing your teeth, you're only getting about 50 percent of the bacteria off there unless you're very intentional about your doing. With the tools that you use, Floss gets in between the teeth where your toothbrush can't get and that everyone does it and not everyone needs to do it. If you have a small child that has spaces between their teeth and their teeth are not touching, you aren't going to need floss. What Floss does is get in between the teeth where the teeth touch and where the toothbrush can't get. If you have disease, the gum tissue is puppy and inflamed and when you floss, it gets in between the teeth and gets out where your tooth first can't reach. But like I said, if you're bleeding, you're not going to want to do it. But if you don't do it consistently, you will be bleeding. So it's kind of like a catch 22.
Sheree [00:02:20] Your teeth first Brussels can get in between your teeth, then you're not going to need to floss. So you need the plastic getting between your especially if you're getting stuck, stuck in between there. And what you want to do is make sure that the floss goes down below the gum line before you come up and over to the next tooth. So you don't cut your gum tissue. Most people are not consistent with their flossing, which is why they get bleeding. And bleeding is not normal in any part of your mouth. So if you're getting bleeding, it means you have some type of disease or gingivitis or something else is going on with your body. If you have bleeding gums again, it is not normal. It's a sign that something's either wrong in your mouth or in your body, or you're not spending enough time in there with your toothbrush. You're not being intentional and you're not getting your surfaces clean and you're leaving bacteria in there or you have something stuck in there or something is going on in your body that you need to get checked out. If you've gone to your dentist, you've been brushing, you've been flossing, you're going to the dentist, you're still going in bleeding. That's a sign that something could be wrong. You have diabetes, thyroid problem, cancer. I'm not sure what it is.
Sheree [00:03:23] You just have to see your doctor if you or your desk cannot get control of your bleeding. You need to be your own health care advocate and figure out what's going on with your mouth and your body. If you have gingivitis, you can actually make the bleeding go away in three to seven days, depending on the severity of the gingivitis. By brushing and flossing. So I like the burst floss because I'm a burse ambassador. I'm a Berson ambassador because I love their products. They make quality products and they came out with this black floss. What I love about that is when you're flossing with it, you can actually see what's coming out. And it's refillable. So it's great for your environment. You don't need a whole new plastic container. They just send you a spool if you sign up for the subscription every three months or whatever you sign up for. If you use the string floss, you're going to wrap more around one finger than you do around the other. And then you're going to. I always start when I start any routine of oral care on my upper right. And I just use it to go in between the teeth. I use my thumbs to do the uppers and I use my index fingers to do the floss.
Sheree [00:04:24] So with the burse black floss, you can see anything that's coming out. And I like to wrap and unwrap. And when you actually go below the gum line with a burst glass, it expands so it gets more surface area. When you're using it in between the teeth. So you're just going to take and kind of make a C shape, which means so hard to floss against the side of the tooth and go up and down gently under the gum. Lanza, you don't cut it and cause bleeding. Then you're gonna come down to move over to the next side and go up and down around the side of the tube. You kind of have to play around with it to see what works for you if string floss does not work for you. You can use a pick. Or you can use a floss pick or a water flosser, whatever works best for you. It's a personal preference. Everybody's different. And what they like, one product is not right for one person. And what works for one is not going to work for another. So it's OK if string floss is not something that you want to do. If you've been following me, you know that I have bonding on my front teeth and I don't like my front teeth, but flossing has been very helpful for me. And I do like this burse floss, but mostly I use the waterpik.
Sheree [00:05:29] So I use the burst electric toothbrush and then I water pick because I love what the water pick does and it gets in between the teeth and it blows things out. So because I had the bonding my papilla meaning my gum tissue doesn't necessarily come in between and fill that spot. So I feel like the water pick does really well for me. So I still floss, but I use the waterpik every day and I probably floss only like three times a week as a dental hygienist. Yes, I said it. So again, flossing is not for everyone and not right for everyone. It depends on what you have going in your mouth. If your teeth don't touch floss, I'm going to do much good. You just need to use your toothbrush a little longer. So when I floss, I like to get a different thing. So I'm not putting it back in. When I go in between each tooth. So if I'm using one of those floss picks, I will wipe it or I'll get a new one for each tooth, which can be really costly. But you just keep going from tooth to tooth. In between each one to get everything out between the teeth when you're flossing. And if you don't like floss, you're going to use the waterpik.
Sheree [00:06:30] And water pick has three different versions. It has a cordless version, a countertop version and travel version. So the core, this version, the plugged is magnetic and just sticks to the front. You can plug it in overnight and it works a lot like the first person. You can just put the plug away. You fill it with water. I use it until the water runs out. And then I know that I'm done. Usually I can get everything done, but sometimes if I feel like there's more in between my teeth are eating popcorn, I will fill it up twice. And you just want to make sure again, start where you know where you've started. I always started on the upper right and on the top you do little M'S and you follow the gum around and pause in between each teeth and you just followed around a pause, follow around a pause. Then when you do, the lower you make W's and you go opposite. You follow along the gums and pausing between each two so the water has time to blasted out, similar to pausing when you are using an electric toothbrush. So you just want to give the tools that you're using time to get out of the plac biofilm and bacteria out of the spots that you're using.
Sheree [00:07:31] So to me, a water pick and electric toothbrush are a good combination to get everything out because one tool doesn't work for everyone. Think of it like cleaning your house. You don't just use the vacuum in the house or you don't just use the mop. It takes several tools to clean your house. You need something to clean the toilets and something to clean the mirrors and something to clean the floors. So think of your teeth just like that. You might need an electric toothbrush or floss or a floss thread or a floss pick or a water floss or a specialty toothbrush that smaller to get in the back, especially if you have wisdom teeth. So it's going to depend what you have going on in your mouth, which tool you want to use. But flossing is something that definitely I recommend, no matter which kind of is because your toothbrush alone can't get all the surfaces and get everything clean. You guys know that I love Burst and there's plenty of other products you don't have to use Burse, but I will put the link below. In case you want to try their products. And I like that they come on a subscription, so I don't have to think about getting more. You don't have to go to the store and get more. Just arrives to my house, right, in a time when it's ready to get there. So my daughter, I like the cordless version because I can use it in the bathtub or the shower without making a huge mess and I have to close my lips around it. Otherwise I sprayed all over the place. My daughter likes the countertop version because you can turn it up. And it was better for getting out from in between her braces. And then when we traveled. We brought the travel water pick. So again, I own all of them. I'm a dental professionals, so I own a lot of things just so I can try them out and make these videos for you. And again, I usually use it till the water runs out. And if I don't use all the water on the countertop version, I will dump it out. And then the trailer version, obviously, I dump all the water out because I'm traveling and I don't want water in there. So if you're using the traveling version, you want to make sure if you dump all the water out, you turn it back on to make sure all the water is out of the court.
Sheree [00:09:20] Otherwise, when you travel, that water will go all over that are the three different versions of water pack. You can again use regular stream flasks plus Picts flusters. There's all kinds of things available and then you can use a little inter dental brushes to get in between two. I consider that flossing as well because you're getting in between the teeth. You can go to Water PIC's Web site to w w w dot water picked mud to see what options are available for you when it comes to water pick. And you can go to w w w dot dental hygiene dot com if you'd like to connect with me or see more ways to reach me. You guys know that if you've been listening to me, your mouth health is connected to your body and what you do at home is really important because you're only going to see a dental professional wants to maybe four times a year. Some people don't go to the dentist at all. So this Healthy Mouth Movement podcast is to help people know what to do. So you can be your own health care advocate and your family's health care advocate in order to have a healthy mouth and a healthy body. The health of your mouth is totally connected to the rest of your body. It's really important that you take care of your mouth. You watch what you eat. And if you're looking for more mouth healthy tips, check out the link below and join the healthy mouth movement tocome. Be sure to subscribe because I'm going to be sharing tips, tricks, interviewing other professionals about things that they recommend and sharing case studies of moms, dads and kids where you can see how caring for your mouth has made a difference in their life because a healthy mouth is a healthy body and healthy. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
Sheree [00:10:56] Thanks for taking the time to listen to the Healthy Mouth Movement podcast. If you'd like more information, you can always get a hold of me at www.dentalhygiene411.com You can click the link and schedule a 15 minute free consultation. I also have a Facebook group, Dental Hygiene for one one and an Instagram page. Dental underscore. Hygiene underscore for one one. I'm here to help in any way. If there's something that you would like to know, please get a hold of me and I will find a way to help you because a healthy mouth is a healthy body and a healthy life.