Poor oral hygiene and particularly increased tooth loss are important indicators of your risk. The fewer teeth you have, the greater your risk of gum infections.

Flossing effectively removes plaque and food debris from between the teeth and the gentle massage action increases blood circulation, which helps the gums become resilient to disease.

Daily Flossing Can Add 6.4 Years To Your Life

World studies show that the presence of periodontal diseases, diseases most common in people with tooth loss, actually affects longevity. The best of these studies done at Emory University with the Centers for Disease Control, indicated that people with gingivitis and periodontitis have a mortality rate that is 23 percent to 46 percent higher than those who don’t… why? They are linked to increased rates of cardiovascular disease and stroke, as well as to an increase in mortality from other causes, such as infections. ‘

Flossing your teeth daily can make your arteries younger. The probable reason: Flossing helps keep your immune system young… the same bacteria that cause periodontal disease also trigger an immune response, inflammation, that causes the arteries to swell. The swelling of the arterial walls results in a constriction of blood flow that can lead to a higher incidence of cardiovascular disease. Other studies have shown that periodontal disease leads to a higher white blood cell count, which is an indicator that the immune system is under increased stress…. Poor oral hygiene and particularly increased tooth loss are important indicators of your risk. The fewer teeth you have, the greater your risk of gum infections.

Watch what you put in your mouth

Remember, it pretty much doesn’t matter what you have with breakfast lunch and dinner from a tooth point of view. It’s the snacking between meals that does all the damage. Of course from a health point of view it is very important, but we’re just talking teeth here.

Lets look at common in-between meal snacks and rate them:

Really Bad Foods

• Soft drinks… They’re all bad
• Sports Drinks… Bad
• Fruit Juice… Juice is sugar water.
• Sweets… Very Bad
• Dried Fruit… All the sugar is concentrated
• Sugared Coffee And tea.
• I cringe when I see kids going to school in the morning sucking on a sweet lolly and drinking  pop giving  their teeth a nice sugary coating.

Fairly Bad Foods

• Fruit: Yes I know fruit is good for you but  fruit is a poor in-between meal snack. That includes apples (I have no idea why people think apples are good for your teeth)
• Bread… The better it tastes, the worse it is.

Good Foods (Things you can have between meals)

• Water -Water is good.
• Milk -Plain, not flavored or shakes.
• Cheese -Cheese is the best snack
• Yogurt -The plain stuff, not the ones with fruit
• Vegetables -All veggies are great snacks

Flossing

Flossing effectively removes plaque and food debris from between the teeth and the gentle massage action increases blood circulation, which helps the gums become resilient to disease.

Use Dental Brushes to clean in between the teeth. This is far easier than conventional flossing. Dental brushes look like mini bottle brushes and come in a range of sizes from 0.4 mm to 1.5mm, ask your dentist to recommend the size for your particular teeth.