How to clean your teeth? Part 2 Video 1: Floss!

It's easy to forget about flossing! It's an extra step that takes time, can be tricky, and is a bit fiddly! This video explains why it's helpful to floss your teeth and how floss is a great tool for keeping your mouth healthy!

Do you floss regularly?

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Transcript:
Hi guys, Welcome to part 2 of the how to keep your teeth clean series. This one is on floss.

Intro
So if you haven't check out the first one, go and check it out, its about the toothbrush. So you might be thinking, what's the big deal.. why do I need to bother flossing? I brush my teeth, everything is fine but I'm still getting hounded by the dentist to floss. So, the reason, and the same with brushing, why we want to floss our teeth is to remove that plaque. Plaque is very sneaky.. it gets in absolutely everywhere. It doesn't just get on the fronts and the biting surfaces of the teeth, it gets between the teeth and actually under the gums as well.

Unfortunately, the toothbrush bristles, can not get into that little tiny narrow space between your teeth, and it definitely can't get into the gum space between your teeth either. So that is where dental floss comes in. It's very thin, and that's why it can get between your teeth and it can get under the gum.

Now what does plaque do? Why is it so bad? Why do we try and get rid of it? The two things that plaque can do is that it can give you cavities. Flossing between your teeth helps you prevent getting cavities between your teeth. So if you are someone who's had fillings that have gone between your teeth, then flossing can actually help those fillings that you have last longer and it can help protect your teeth from getting new cavities. So that's one thing that the plaque does.

The other main thing that plaque does between your teeth is cause gum disease or bleeding gums. The same is when if you are brushing between your teeth or if you are brushing and the bristles can't get between the teeth unfortunately. What you can have is some inflammation or swelling between the gums. That may present as bleeding. If you do try and floss and you go 'oh my god, gosh there is blood everywhere', that is because the gums are a bit inflamed.

The other thing that plaque does, is that... plaque is soft. When it is in it's soft state you can clean it off easily. Once the plaque has been there for some time on your teeth.. it actually mineralises and turns into something called tartar or you may know it as scale or calculus.

Once it forms that hard tartar, scale or calculus... you can't clean it off at home anymore with your brush or your floss okay. The idea is that you want to clean as much plaque off as you can before it turns into that hard tartar.

What's so bad about tartar?

The tartar is very irritating to your gums and it can make them quite inflamed. If you get gum disease, this tartar is one of the main culprits of the gum disease not improving.