The Oral Hygiene Routine First to Fall off the List

Note: the following is not intended as professional dental advice. Always consult your dental professional before undertaking oral hygiene routines.

It’s after 10pm. You’ve washed the supper dishes, fed the cat (again), checked your doors and windows are secure, closed down your devices and put them on to charge, taken your medication, brushed your teeth, and you’re finally ready for bed. That’s when you remember you haven’t attended to your interdental hygiene. But surely it can wait another day – or can it?

Interdental care (flossing, or brushing between teeth using small interdental brushes) is a seriously important aspect of personal dental hygiene which can easily slip off our nightly routine. That’s because we usually attend to it at the very time our energy levels are at their lowest. This, coupled with the fact our bathrooms are not always the warmest place in the house, standing for extended periods can be more difficult as we age, and aching limbs or stiff fingers can be a problem, means interdental care can soon start to feel like an add-on rather than a necessity. If this sounds like you, let’s take a look at details to inspire you to attend to this essential task, and also check out some tips to help ensure it happens on a daily basis:

Each tooth in our mouth has 5 exposed surfaces, but in the case of almost all of our teeth, our toothbrush reaches only 3 of these (the front, back, and upper surfaces). The surfaces between teeth aren’t reachable by the bristles on our toothbrush, so it’s here pesky oral bacteria in our mouth like to hide out. When they first set up home, clinging to the surface of teeth via a clear film of salivary substances, these bacteria aren’t so difficult to remove. In fact, we can oust them by brushing, and by cleaning between our teeth with floss or interdental brushes. However, after only 24-72 hours (or less in some cases), this salivery film (referred to as ‘plaque’) begins to harden. This is when it really gets difficult to remove without the assistance of a dental professional.

When plaque does harden, it creates a surface which makes it easy for even more bacteria to cling to. Before you know it, you have colonies of bacteria chomping down on what you like to chomp on – and the acids they produce as they feed, are the very substances that attack your tooth enamel, leading to decay and causing gum disease and inflammation. Plaque can also build up on a range of dental work (such as bridges and denture implant supports; your dentists is the best person to advise on how to clean plaque off such dental work).

Even though we know dental plaque spells big problems for our oral health, it doesn’t necessarily mean (especially as we age) we’re going to get round to removing it in a timely fashion – not without some cunning tricks to help us. If cleaning between your teeth is something you put off, here are some tips to make it more achievable:

• Although interdental cleaning is important to do at night, it can be attended to during the day, as well. Keep floss, or a set of interdental brushes and a small bottle of water (for washing the brushes between tooth cleaning), in convenient places such as in the car, or beside your armchair, where you know you’ll have time on your hands and can clean at your leisure (be sure to check with your dentist about how often in a day they recommend you interdental clean).
• Dental hygiene routines take time. Keep a chair in your bathroom so you can sit down, if necessary, as your brush and floss.
• Warm your bathroom for a few minutes before bed time so the space is a more welcoming room to be in.
• If you have painful conditions (such as arthritis) which make oral care tricky, consider using interdental brushes instead of floss (many people find them easier to use).
• Interdental brushes come in a range of ‘grips.’ Experiment to find the grip that best suits your fingers.
• Talk to your dental hygienist about water flossers and whether they would be a useful adjunct to interdental care (depending on your personal medical conditions, they may not be suitable for you to use).
• Ask your dental hygienist about the best way to use floss or interdental sticks. Their advice will inform and inspire you to keep up the good work!

Interdental care may be the last chore you feel like attending to at the end of a long day. But it is an important one. Be sure to look for ways to make the task easier to carry out.