WARNING: This Is The Real Reason You Need To Floss Every Day

Flossing: not fun, I sometimes bleed, and more trouble than it’s worth. Okay, only two of those are true, and it’s not the “more trouble” one.

You see, when you don’t floss every day you leave your mouth (and therefore your whole body) open to infection, decay, and disease. No matter how much you exercise and eat well, without brushing and flossing you’re more likely to contract mouth diseases and much worse.

Doctors and dentists alike know what poor mouth health leads to. From our dentists we learn that flossing gets rid of plaque that builds up daily. Plaque is a small film of saliva and bacteria that when left unflossed turns into tartar – a harder deposit that leads to decay and inflammation.

Our doctors tell us that inflammation has more problems than just the obvious. In this case, the obvious is red, puffy gums that are itchy and/or tender. If the tartar problem leads to periodontal disease (when the tooth gets a hole and becomes infected) the bone and tissue that holds the teeth in place can get destroyed. Which, of course, leads to more problems.

It leads to more tooth decay, tooth loss, and gum disease. Gum disease is treatable, but most people find having their teeth worked on an unpleasant, painful ordeal.

Don’t wait until you get gum disease, start preventing it now by:

Brushing and flossing two times every day.

Find out if you’re genetically disposed to inflammation, disease, or dental problems.
Quit smoking.

Gum disease is now being linked to a lot more. Heart disease, mouth cancers, HPV infection, diabetes, and kidney failure are the ailments now being associated with not flossing. And for most, it’s mostly because of inflammation.

Periodontal disease causes extreme inflammation in the tissue in your mouth, including your gums. Diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and kidney diseases are all disease associated with inflammation, and are now being associated with periodontal disease. None of the studies showed that gum disease causes these other diseases, the connection has just been made and merits further study.

And while studies show that a potential link exists between gum disease and heart disease, the correlation still hasn’t been figured out. Still, there’s a lot of evidence linking the two diseases and it’s safe to say that poor mouth health and inflammation cause the body undue stress, leaving it open to more infection and disease.

Maybe isn’t right to say “if you don’t floss you’ll die” but I still strongly advise against getting gum disease, and flossing seems to be the key. Not all periodontists agree that gum disease is linked in any causal way to any other diseases, but they’ll all agree that it’s bad and one of the best ways to protect is flossing.