A variety of substances pass over people's teeth every day, some healthier than others. Whether you're crunching on apples and sipping on water, or sucking hard candy and drinking sugary soda, keeping your teeth clean with twice-daily home cleanings and periodic visits to the dentist is an essential part of good health.
Keeping Teeth Healthy
Using a toothbrush and fluoride toothpaste twice a day, as the ADA recommends, keeps plaque off the surfaces of the teeth before it hardens into tartar or calculus. Flossing once a day complements this twice-a-day brushing, by lifting plaque off the enamel between adjacent teeth. If not removed, acids released by the bacteria in plaque will eventually erode tooth enamel and cause cavities to form in the teeth.
Keeping Gums Healthy
Brushing and flossing benefit your gums for much the same reason they benefit your teeth: These actions remove plaque and the bacteria it produces. As the ADA explains, bacteria can make gums swollen and irritated. They can change gums from a healthy pink to a bright red. Eventually, openings between the teeth and gums may form, bacteria may accumulate in these holes and the bone near the teeth may wear away.
Shorter-Term Benefits
The short-term benefits of keeping your teeth clean are numerous. Brushing and flossing make teeth look better and brighter. They also help ensure that your mouth is pain-free, without tooth decay, swollen gums and other problems. Cleaning your teeth and brushing your tongue can also help make breath fresher and more neutral-smelling, since, as KidsHealth explains, bacteria in the mouth can be one cause of bad breath.
Longer-Term Benefits
People who clean their teeth regularly at home and have periodic professional cleanings are investing time and money into having healthy, strong teeth into old age. In addition, periodic visits to dental professionals for teeth cleanings can enable dental hygienists or dentists to check for larger, long-term problems, such as cavities or periodontal disease.
Technique
For best results, the ADA recommends choosing a toothbrush with soft bristles, holding the brush at a 45-degree angle to the teeth, moving it back and forth horizontally and remembering to brush all tooth surfaces. The ADA also recommends using an 18-inch strand of floss every day, flossing up and down while curving the floss tightly around the side of each tooth and remembering to clean the rear surface of the very last teeth in each of the four corners of the mouth.
