Why floss? Isn’t brushing your teeth enough?

No! Brushing alone will not keep your mouth as clean is it needs to be. 

Your toothbrush will not clean in between your teeth and under your gums, which is essential for preventing cavities and gum disease. 

Cavity prevention: 

A significant amount of cavities are in the contact points of our teeth -right where two teeth are touching. This happens when we don’t keep that interproximal area clean. The only thing that will physically remove plauque, food particles, and bacteria from the contact points between our teeth is floss! Floss gets in-between the teeth and physically wipes clean that area. No toothbrush can physically separate the teeth and get that area clean. Only floss! 

Gum disease prevention: 

The story is similar here too - keeping the gums clean in the interproximal area between our teeth. A toothbrush alone will effectively remove plaque and germs that have accumulated along the gums on the outer surface (think - cheek side and tongue side) But your gums are also in between your teeth - an area where toothbrush bristles can effectively reach! We need floss to access that area and to get down under the gums to scoop out all the gunk that as gathered there. Without floss, we won’t keep the gums clean and develop gum inflammation - your bodies reaction to all the bacteria that gather under your gums. Gum inflammation is can be classified as gingivitis (reversible) or periodontitis (chronic and with irreversible damage). If gum disease goes uncontrolled we lose the bone keeping our teeth in place - it gets permanently damaged from the chronic inflammation! 

TLDR: 

Cavities in the contact areas between your teeth are prevented by flossing. 

Gum disease is inflammation caused by plaque and bacteria that are under your gums which must be removed by floss.