December 22, 2008
I know what you’re probably thinking… Shouldn’t we all be doing this already? Isn’t that what they told us time and time again in school when we were little kids?
“Floss everyday to keep the cavities away.”
We’ll according to the American Dental Association, only 12% of Americans floss daily, 39% floss less than daily, and 49% do not floss at all.
So, half the people out there don’t it and of the people who do it, only 12% actually do it everyday.
I always thought flossing was important to keep our teeth clean. I’ve fallin off the flossing wagon several years ago and stop doing it because I have one of those bridges in my lower jaw left over from when I had braces. Flossing for me always required a floss threader to get under that bridge so I decided it a lot easier to just leave it out of my routine. But before you brush off the importance of flossing, you should think again.
It could save your life.
Recent studies have found that daily flossing is important in preventing diabetes, low birth weight babies and heart disease. So that annoying little habit that we’d all like to avoid is actually more important than most of realize. Flossing could literally save your life!
If you think about it, it makes sense. Flossing is designed to remove the bacteria that causes gum disease from the teeth. Gum diease has now been linked to many other dieases including ones mentioned above.
The gums, just like the lungs, provide a direct path to our cardiovascular system and removing as much bacteria from this region is vital in maintaining optimal health. I would even say that more frequent flossing would mean you get sick less often, because there’s less bad bateria and your mouth and maybe a little bit fresher breath on top of that. So here’s my prediction…
Procedure:
The focus on this experiment is flossing but I decided that it’s really about overal oral health so I’ll be trying out some other steps to make my teeth healthier as well. Here are a few things I’m going to be doing during this 30 day trial…
- Flossing twice a day. This means after breakfast and dinner. I was thinking about flossing after lunch, but I work in an office building, so it’s a little strange for me to stand in a public bathroom or at my desk and floss my teeth. Most dentists recommend flossing twice a day. I’ll testing out Oral B’s SuperFloss to floss underneath my bridge and using flossers which are convenivent little picks that eliminate the need to wrap the floss around your fingers.
- Rinsing my mouth with water after eating. I won’t always have easy access to a tooth brush and floss, especially the one mentioned above, but a good gargle of some water right after eating will go a long way in remove excess food particles from the mouth.
- Use mouth wash twice a day. I’ve done this occasionally in the past, but one of the most interesting discoveries I found in doing research for this trial is to only use non-alcoholic mouth wash. The alcohol from mouth wash drys out the mouth making the environment worst for bacteria growth. I went ahead and purchased Therabreath Mouth Wash after reading some really good reviews on Amazon.com.
- Brushing my teeth twice a day. This is a no brainer. I’m already doing this now. I went ahead and purchased Therabreath toothpaste to go along with the mouthwash I got.
- Going in for a teeth cleaning. I have to confess that I haven’t been to the dentist in three years. I don’t have a dental plan at my job, but apparently its not that expensive to go in for a cleaning and I can’t put this off any longer.
- Cleaning my tongue everyday. This is sort of a funny habit, but many people who are hardcore about their dental habit live by this routine. You can can even buy a seperate toungue scraper to use. I’ll just be use my toothbrush to give the old tongue a little scrub.
- Whitening my teeth. I’m opting to use a home remedy for this one verus some of the pre-made kits, which are over-priced and can contain a lot of harsh chemicals. I found a lot of recipes on the Internet that use a combination of strawberries and baking soda. Here’s the recipe I’ll be using. Most likely I’ll wait to near the end of the trial to see what effects that other habits have on the color of my teeth.
Reader Comments
I’m interested in hearing the effects of the whitening process through your recipe. Did it work well?
I’m so doing this task.
I just stumbled across your site. Great idea! I had a similar idea recently where I am making one change a week (http://www.weeklychange.com), and the second one I made is to start flossing everyday. I just subscribed to your feed to keep track of your Life Experiment. Best wishes!