Once, at the dentist, I told my dental hygienist, "I don't floss all the time, but I brush my teeth regularly." I wasn't expecting a pat on the back or anything, but I thought, "At the very least, that's not so bad, right?" Unfortunately, while dentists agree that brushing your teeth regularly is imperative to good dental hygiene, flossing is just, if not more, important — even to prevent something as simple as bad breath.
"Yes, you can still get bad breath if you do not floss," says Dr. Gary Glassman, dentist and world-renowned Oral Fitness expert. "Not flossing your teeth is like only washing the outside of a mug and not the inside." He told me that flossing can leave leftover food and drink around your teeth. Once they begin to harden, it creates a feeding ground for bacteria, and "the longer the bacteria are in your mouth, the more likely it is to cause inflammation and produce a sulfur-like odor."
Dr. Jeffrey Rappaport, general dentist and co-founder of Afora in New York City, agrees. "People don't really know this, but flossing does most of the heavy lifting as far as your dental hygiene routine is concerned. It gets rid of a lot more of the odor-causing bacteria than brushing your teeth does," he tells me.
