When is it best to floss
How to Floss (The Right Way!)
hi I'm dr. Joe Namath I'm a periodontist
in Southfield Michigan so there was a
patient as a matter of fact just
yesterday and we take a microscope slide
on almost all of our patients so when we
took the slide this is what we saw well
initially we see plaque a plaque is not
necessarily harmful in itself what we're
really looking for is moving bacteria
we're looking for parasites and bacteria
that are related to gum disease now this
is a parasite it's a amoeba
it's an amoeba and if you watch it
closely
you see how that's coming out that's
called the pseudopod and that's how
these amoebas move what they do is they
extend these pseudo pods and then they
could use those to embrace and evocative
our other other cells like white blood
cells and that's what they live off
studies have shown that when you have
these parasites not only do you have gum
disease but you have a very increased
risk of Alzheimer's disease heart
disease stroke all cardiovascular
diseases diabetes for sure now certain
cancers like pancreatic cancer
particularly for men lung cancer so in
the treatment we want to make sure that
we eliminate these parasites and
bacteria completely when a patient's
finished I want to take a slidin see
nothing moving around on there no
bleeding no activity one of the things
that we can do that you can do to treat
periodontal disease is maybe very early
stages and help prevent it is a simple
use of dental floss periodontal disease
usually starts between the teeth where
bacteria and food particles Lodge and
aren't or can't be removed completely
with the toothbrush the brush does a
good job of brushing the outer surfaces
or the inner surfaces but not so good
between the teeth so let me give you a
little lesson in how to use dental floss
here when you use dental floss well I'm
going to use a little yarn let's let's
pretend this yarn as the dental floss so
first of all you don't want to use a
wall
one piece of floss you want to use a
short piece because you can control it
much better short piece between thumb
and index finger or two thumbs typically
and you take that floss and you put it
carefully between the teeth kind of like
that and you work it down between the
teeth don't snap it down don't let it
snap down just great this tooth is a
loose tooth by the way you can see it
moving you move it along the side of the
tooth and you kind of polish the side of
the tooth up and down like that then you
wrap it around the tooth adjacent to it
and you polish that up and down go five
or six times up and down the side of
each tooth and go to the next area and
basically do the same thing and by the
way when you are flossing that gum
tissue between the teeth is called a
papilla well you don't want to irritate
the papilla go up and down the side of
one tooth and bring it up over the
papilla to the other tooth so you're not
rubbing it across that tender tissue
between the teeth and irritating it and
then move the floss along so you're not
using the same contaminated worn piece
of floss in each area cloth is a
narrowest of all of the materials that
we use tape is a little bit thicker and
works well now in some areas where the
teeth are really kind of far apart you
can use actually use yarn you want to
use something that will fill that space
and clean it out thoroughly
but generally dental floss or dental
tape will do the job so you've got a
small piece that you can control and
then with that control piece five or six
times down to the gum line and slightly
under the gum line but don't snap it
don't push it down any further then
it'll go comfortably to clean the plaque
and the bacteria and the material out
from around between and the sides of
those teeth so cleaning between the
teeth is really really important dental
floss even yarn are some of the things
that you can use
but that's a critical area to clean so
remember healthy mouth healthy body stay
well restore your smile and your health
with the help of dr. Nemeth and his
associates visit dr. Nemeth calm to
schedule your appointment today
