Can flossing actually make your gums worse? Does sugar really cause cavities? There are plenty of myths out there about the do’s and don’ts to keep your smile healthy and beautiful. Sometimes it can be hard to tell good dental advice from social media rumors. At Lake Baldwin Dental, we’re committed to helping you make fully informed decisions about your oral health. Let’s look at a few common dental myths so you can make the best choices for your smile!

Myth #1: Flossing Is Actually Bad for Your Gums.

This one comes and goes every few years. The idea is that, despite everything your dentist tells you, flossing actually makes gum disease worse because it pushes bacteria further below the gumline. Sometimes this is coupled with claims that the area between your teeth and gums is a self-cleaning environment, and flossing disrupts your body’s natural ability to keep your teeth and gums healthy.

Sounds compelling, but these claims are false. Mostly.

The facts about flossing:

Flossing isn’t about removing every single bacterial cell from the tooth surface. It’s about removing most of them and disrupting the plaque to expose those bacteria to oxygen, which kills the most damaging types. Disrupting plaque also prevents it from absorbing minerals from your saliva and calcifying (hardening into tartar, which can’t be removed without a professional dental cleaning).

However, these myths are convincing because they do have kernels of truth to them. For example, flossing the wrong way could make food impactions worse. If you have an area where food gets firmly packed between your teeth, flossing could potentially push the food further under your gums. This only happens in very rare cases, but it may be necessary to gently remove most of the stuck food with a toothpick first and then floss to get anything left behind.

And yes, the sulcus (the space between the gums and the tooth surface) is somewhat self-cleansing, but flossing will help that process, not hurt it. The gum cells in the sulcus produce a very small amount of fluid (called gingival crevicular fluid or GCF) that can flush out bacteria and protect the gums. However, GCF is only present in very small amounts in healthy gums and increases when the gums become irritated and inflamed. It’s not produced in enough volume to remove all bacteria from under your gums or prevent gum disease.

Myth #2: Brushing Harder Cleans Your Teeth Better.

Many people use hard toothbrushes, abrasive toothpaste, and lots of elbow grease when they brush. Aggressive brushing can certainly feel more effective, like giving your skin a good hard scrub with an exfoliating cloth. Soft toothbrushes barely feel like they’re doing anything!

Brushing harder might seem like a good way to remove more plaque, but it will do more harm than good.

Why hard toothbrushes are worse at cleaning your teeth:

While brushing harder might feel satisfying, long “scrubbing” strokes with a stiff-bristled toothbrush will leave more plaque behind while putting your teeth and gums at risk for damage. Using too much pressure when you brush can abrade your gums, wear away your enamel, and even make gum recession worse. Plus, aggressive scrubbing is more likely to skip many areas.

Gentle pressure with short, circular strokes ensures each surface of each tooth gets full attention without risking your oral health. Focus on “massaging” rather that scrubbing.

What about choosing the right toothbrush? A toothbrush’s rating as “hard” or “soft” depends mostly on how thick the individual bristles are. Soft brushes have thinner bristles that can reach deeper into the narrow grooves in your teeth and even get slightly between your teeth and under the edge of your gums. Harder toothbrushes can be more efficient at scraping away semi-hardened deposits but can’t reach all areas of the teeth.

Soft toothbrush bristles bend slightly as you brush, putting more of the bristle in contact with the tooth surface. Think about wiping a sticky film off of a tabletop with a microfiber cloth, rather than trying to sweep it with a stiff broom.

Myth #3: Sugar Gives You Cavities.

Weren’t expecting us to say this is a myth, were you? We hear it all the time: sugar gives you cavities. So cutting sugar out of your diet means you’ll never get another cavity again, right?

Not exactly.

The reality: sugar is just one part of the puzzle.

Can eating sugary foods frequently increase your risk for cavities? Absolutely. But it’s not actually the sugar itself that’s the problem. On its own, sugar can’t cause cavities. So what’s the connection? Bacteria.

Just like us, bacteria eat food, digest it, and then produce waste. The types of bacteria that thrive on high-sugar foods produce acid as their waste products. This acid breaks down the minerals in your enamel, weakening its structure. If your teeth are exposed to acid frequently, more and more mineral will break down until the structure of the enamel itself caves in (that is, cavitates or becomes a cavity).

Some of this breakdown can be reversed by minerals in your saliva and supplements like the fluoride in your toothpaste, which is why it’s critical to brush with enamel-strengthening toothpaste at least twice per day. However, each time you eat sugary or starchy foods, it takes about 20 minutes for the increased acidity to return to baseline before that remineralization can start.

There are two main things you can do to decrease your cavity risk: decrease the bacteria in your mouth, and decrease the foods and drinks (sugars and starches) they eat.

That being said, other sources of acid can also harm your enamel. So even if you never eat sugar again, acids in foods like tomato or citrus and drinks like coffee can also damage your enamel. Some people naturally have more acidic saliva, making them more susceptible to tooth decay regardless of their diet. Medical issues like diabetes can also increase sugars in your saliva, making it essential to keep up great oral health habits to counteract these increased risks.

We’re Here to Help You Enjoy Better Health with a Higher Dental IQ!

Our mission at Lake Baldwin Dental is to empower you to make fully informed decisions about your oral healthcare and giving you the right information about taking care of your teeth is one way we do that.

These are just a few of the most common myths about taking care of your teeth. There are many more out there! If you ever have questions about why we recommend certain products or treatments, or you don’t feel confident that you know how to address oral health concerns, we’re here for you! We believe in providing 100% judgement-free dental care, and that includes answering any questions you have.

Many of our patients even make a list of questions to bring to their routine dental check-ups so they don’t miss anything! We’re here to give you everything you need to keep smiling, Orlando!