Flossing
👩🏼⚕️Facts
- Brushing only cleans 60% of your teeth
- Flossing makes up for the other 40%
👩🏼⚕️ Recommendation
- Floss 1x/day
- in addition to standard Brush 2x/day
👩🏼⚕️ Benefits
- Improves oral hygience
- Improves overall health
👩🏼⚕️ Why
Brushing+flossing
- Not only prevents bad breath, cavities, & possible gum disease
- It also prevents/reduces risk of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, & dementia
- Improves symptoms of leaky gut and general gut health
👩🏼⚕️ Tips to Get Started
- Put the floss right near your toothbrush
- Write it down on a post-it and put that near your toothbrush
- Do it first thing in the AM when brushing your teeth, that way it's over and done with first thing
- The first few times will be cumbersome and your gums might be sore, but after a few days you will get faster and more efficient at flossing, and your gums will adjust.
Additional Mouth Hygiene...
👩🏼⚕️ For the adventurous type - Oil Pulling
- Oil Pulling = Oil pulling is another option to explore adding to your mouth health arsenal used in Ayurvedic medicine. *It acts as an alternative/replacement for mouthwash.
- Benefits = In addition to the benefits you gain above with flossing. One of the biggest differences people note is that their teeth whiten dramatically after 30 days of this method.
- Directions = You take 1Tbsp of organic extra virgin coconut oil, and swirl it around your mouth like you would your mouthwash for 10-20 minutes, then after this amount of time you spit it out. *Do not swallow, as you will have extracted all the bad bacteria from your mouth into the oil.
- Tips = Do this practice in the AM before you brush your teeth or have a drink of water. Then once complete, brush your teeth as normal.
👩🏼⚕️ Tongue Scraping?
- Tongue Scraper =This is another tool that is a game changer for dental health.
- Why = While you sleep, a layer of bacteria forms on the surface of your tongue.
- Benefit = Scraping off this layer first thing in the morning jumps you 5 steps ahead on effective bacteria removal from your mouth. What might normally take a good 1-2 minutes of brushing is instead accomplished in 3/4 scrapes of the tongue/10 seconds and is a more effective method.
- Directions = Before you start any of the above methods in your morning routine, just grab your spoon and scrape that furry layer on your tongue and spit out. Do this 3-4x times.
- Product = There are lots of fancy products on the market but I go old school and use a good ol' spoon.
👩🏼⚕️ Products
- Toothpaste = Tom's of Maine has a natural line *I use "Tom's of Maine Simply White Cool Mint"
- Mouthwash = Tom's of Maine also has a natural fluoride free non-alcoholic line *I use "Tom's of Maine Wicked Fresh Cool Mountain Mint"
- Oil Pulling = organic extra virgin coconut oil is a good option
- Floss = There are a few non-toxic and environmentally friendly options on the market now. I have not found one I use regularly/am comfortable recommending, but I will update this page if/when I do. For now, I use the standard floss you get most times at the dentist for free.
- Toothbrush = Same goes for toothbrush
- Tongue Scraper = As stated above, a good ol' spoon
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