chewing gum

It's recommended by dentists that you brush your teeth at least twice a day and floss at least once per day for optimum oral hygiene. Maybe you even add an element to your routine by using mouth rinse. Brushing cleans the surfaces of your teeth, which is obviously important. Flossing, on the other hand, is arguably just as important - if not more - as it cleans the gaps between the teeth, clearing out the excess food and plaque buildup that can lead to the likes of cavities, tooth decay and gum disease.

Yes, flossing is important, but one common knock on it is that it's not exactly the most convenient thing to do in the world. For instance, people find it difficult to grip the flossing string, have trouble reaching inside the mouth to get in between teeth way in the back and don't like the splattering it has the tendency to create on the bathroom mirror. However, your local dentist may have a solution to a spool of floss. One is a flossing stick. Another is to purchase an ultrasonic flossing device. What's more is that if you listen to researchers from the University of Groningen in Holland, another solution to standard dental floss is chewing gum.

Chewing gum? Yes, for real

According to researchers, chewing a single stick of gum for 10 minutes has the potential to remove up to 100 million bacteria from the mouth - that's about one tenth of the total bacteria living inside the mouth at any given time, making it an effective practice. Furthermore, researchers tested the effects of chewing gum for various different time periods, measuring results using an electron microscope. They came to the conclusion that 10 minutes - and no more - was the best amount of time to chew gum to make it most effective to oral health. That's because chewing it for longer periods of time has the potential to redeposit the bacteria that it helped remove in the first place.

Oh, and one more thing - always make sure the gum is sugar-free. If it's not, then you're just making matters worse - not better - as standard gum just helps lead to tooth decay in the first place.

While the University of Groningen researchers identify chewing sugar-free gum as a possible alternative to flossing, there are other benefits of chewing gum. For example, chewing gum aids in the production of saliva, which can guard against symptoms such as dry mouth. Dry mouth can help accelerate the erosion of tooth enamel, as saliva plays a big role in washing away bacteria and acids.

So should chewing gum replace flossing altogether in your home dental routine? Probably not, but if you believe the study noted here, as well as some of the other benefits of chewing gum, it can't hurt to incorporate sugar-free chewing gum into your daily routine to give your oral hygiene an extra bit of oomph.

For more information on how to take care of your teeth, contact Kanehl Dental today.