Flossing is an integral component of your at-home oral hygiene routine. Cleaning the spaces between your teeth removes food particles and plaque your toothbrush bristles can’t reach, which helps to reduce your risk of gum disease and cavities.
For those with misaligned teeth, the risks of gum and dental health problems are higher. Invisalign provides a convenient and discreet solution for correcting crooked, crowded, and gap teeth, helping to improve your smile and the health of your mouth. And flossing is an essential part of ensuring you get the best results from your treatment.
How Important Is Flossing With Las Vegas Invisalign?
As essential as daily flossing is, it becomes even more critical when you have Invisalign. That’s because your clear thermoplastic aligners cover your tooth surfaces for 20 to 22 hours a day, only coming out when you eat, drink, and take care of your mouth. While they’re actively working to straighten your teeth, they also create an ideal environment for bacterial growth.
The Risks of Not Flossing
If you don’t floss your teeth regularly with Invisalign, you run the risk of accumulating more plaque, a sticky, bacteria-laden film, on the surfaces of your teeth. Plaque produces harmful acids that erode your tooth enamel and irritate your gum tissue. That irritation triggers inflammation, leading to the earliest stage of gum disease — gingivitis.
If plaque sits undisturbed long enough, it eventually hardens into tartar, which no amount of at-home brushing or flossing can remove. Tartar makes it more challenging to clean your teeth thoroughly. It also continues to irritate your gums, which, over time, can lead to more advanced stages of gum disease.
Given enough time, gum disease can contribute to loose and missing teeth (among other issues), which kind of defeats the purpose of improving your smile with Las Vegas Invisalign. That’s where flossing comes in.
Taking the time to floss allows you to loosen and remove any plaque and debris that have accumulated between your teeth during the day. In conjunction with brushing, you can reduce buildup on your teeth, helping to protect the health of your mouth while you actively improve the quality of your smile.
Flossing Tips
Are you ready to up your flossing game while using Invisalign? Here are a few tips for success:
- Floss after each meal. The general recommendation for flossing is once a day. When you have Invisalign, you should floss after each meal before you put your aligners back in.
- Floss properly. Wrap a long piece of dental floss around your fingers, leaving a few inches between them. Glide the floss between your teeth and carefully clean the sides of each tooth. Use a clean section of floss for each space.
- Clean your aligners before putting them back in. Plaque can accumulate in your aligners, too. After brushing and flossing your teeth, make sure to clean your Invisalign aligners before putting them back in your mouth.
- Don’t skip routine cleanings. While you might attend regular orthodontic appointments, you shouldn’t skip your routine cleanings and exams. Your dentist can help keep the spaces between your teeth clean, reducing your cavities and gum disease risk while you correct your smile.
Flossing and Invisalign: Maintain Your Oral Health While Improving Your Smile
To get the best results from your Las Vegas Invisalign treatment, you should also take steps to maintain your oral health. That means brushing and flossing regularly. These habits help reduce plaque buildup on all surfaces of your teeth, reducing your risk of cavities and gum disease while you improve the quality of your smile.