I don’t floss, but I use mouth rinse
Can anything replace the good old flossing? The answer is NO!
Often when we ask our patient’s about their flossing habit we hear this answer, “I don’t floss but I use mouth rinse instead.” I would like to make it clear to everyone who reads this post, nothing but nothing can take the place of flossing. Although the dental product companies like to make you believe that mouth rinse will go in between your teeth and cleans the food residue, this is false.
Yes, mouth rinse is good in that it freshens your breath and in conjunction with brushing and flossing it helps in keeping your mouth clean by killing some of the bacteria (this is only true for the ones that have disinfectant component, some mouth rinses are simply breath fresheners!)
I wish if there was an easier way to scrape off all those food that got stuck in between the teeth through out the day! Just think about it, would you call your dirty dishes clean simply by running water over them, I am hoping your answer is NO! Same thing applies to your teeth and the space between them. In order to get your gums clean at the end of the day, you must use your muscles and scrape off the gunk!
Like everything else in life, there are no short cuts here either. As we (dentist) say among ourselves jokingly, “Just floss the teeth you like to keep.”
Hopefully you are planning to keep all your teeth!
