Flossophy Music VIdeo!

You may have enjoyed the song - Flossophy 101, by the Van Oodles

Now there's a VIDEO.

Produced and Directed by Casandre Cohn and a legion of assistants (as you'll see listed in the last 1 1/2 mins), the song has been brought to life for your entertainment pleasure.

As you'll read in an upcoming blog entry, the value of videos like this as teaching tools is something that deserves more attention.

With all the clowning and odd characters, what you'll see and hear in this video is a fun summary of how and why to floss.
Here's a still that shows how using floss in the letter "C" is emphasized.

Great work, Van Oodles!

Happy Flossing from Santa!

Hey, Santa doesn't want to have such bad breath that he'll scare away his reindeer!
Mrs. Claus appreciates it too.
Santa flosses and you should too!
Happy Holidays from everyone at the National Flossing Council!
And a very Happy New Year!

National Flossing Day Linocut

It's National Flossing Day!
To provide a reminder about flossing, here's an original linocut made at the Corcoran Gallery of Art for you to download and print.

If you hang it behind you in your bathroom when you're facing your mirror, it will speak to you and say "Floss."

 

(For PC users: right click, view image, click to enlarge to full size.)

If backwards doesn't work for you, here's another version

 Floss on!

National Flossing Day Proclamation

President Obama will "proclaim" Thanksgiving later this week.

In a similar way, National Flossing Day has been proclaimed for the day after Thanksgiving, Nov. 23.

Here's a copy.  You can also find it in printable form at www.flossing.org.

National Flossing Day Video!

To encourage all Earthlings to floss and celebrate National Flossing Day on Nov. 23, we've created a video that imagines the accidental discovery of dental floss on Mars by the Mars Curiosity Rover.

Click here to watch the video!

As you may have noticed, the video also speculates what flossing Martians might have looked like.

More about National Flossing Day soon!

A Monumental Flossing Reminder?

Perhaps you've seen or visited Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It's hard to miss the Kingdom Tower, which has been a major landmark in the city since 2002. 

The Kingdom Tower is owned by Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, a prince of the Saudi royal family. It is also the headquarters of his holding company: Kingdom Holding Company.

The traditional Adhan (azan), the call to prayer, is done from minarets throughout Muslim countries 5 times a day.

I wonder if it occurred to the Prince that his building might serve as a modern reminder to the people of the city that they should floss?

Let Inmates Floss!

You may have heard about the $500 million lawsuit filed by Santiago Gomez (shown), an inmate and future lawyer, in NY State. He is fighting for fellow inmate's inability to get floss. Right on, Senor Gomez!

How has it come to this?  Keeping people incarcerated is tough.  Of course it is!  I believe the US has the highest per capita rate of incarceration, so we should at least get good at it (and stop wasting so much jailing people).

Prisoners rights is an important issue, and here we have one tiny part of it - they can't get dental floss.

Let's hope this floss issue opens up a wider discussion of what prisoners are being offered to maintain their health. (If inmates can no longer make toothbrushs into shanks, we should be able to offer floss.)

The question also needs to be applied to the inmates of public and corporate contracted prisons.

Dental Floss Guitar Strings

With the support of a company that makes rings to hold floss (so you don't hunt your fingers wrapped in floss), Ewan Dobson figured out how to twist dental floss into usable guitar strings.
He plays them for 3min 16 sec and could probably play them even longer.

Here's the video link:
Ewan Dobson playing a dental floss guitar

Score another use for dental floss!

NFC Single Floss Packet to the Rescue!

Here's a note and photo that arrived today from Leanne, the NFC's Chief Australian Correspondent.  Leanne is currently visiting Bermuda.

Bermuda: 0800 hrs. A desperate call from the bathroom.
 
'Argh!  I left my floss in Melbourne'
 
'don't worry, I'm carrying a small emergency supply. 
 
'thanks NFC!'

"Teach Me How to Brushy"

A great video from Oregon.
The mix of cool and uncool makes it explosive fun!

"Teach Me How to Brushy"

Frank Zappa's Dental Floss Ad

Frank Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) had a big hit in 1973 with his typically wacky song "Montana," about moving to Montana to become a dental floss tycoon. 

By 1981, the song was so popular the American Dental Association had Zappa do a group of 3 radio spots promoting dental health. 

Here's the 30 sec spot where he promotes dental floss.

"Montana" was probably the best flossing song of the 20th Century!
Thanks, Frank!  We'll floss with you in mind.

Tie Floss in a Loop for Easier Flossing!

This idea was posted on Lifehacker by Thorin Klosowski.

Our resident flossing expert, Dr. Chip Tartaroff, tried it and finds it a perfectly good way to floss.

But, by the way, unless you have terrifically tight teeth, Dr. T points out that you don't often need to wrap floss around your fingers to work with it.

For those with tight teeth, however, this may make flossing a bit easier.

Floss on!

Matthew McConaughey's Flossing Exposed!

Doing publicity for his new movie Mud (a Huckleberry Finn rip off) at the Cannes film festival, Matthew McConaughey revealed how tied up he is in flossing.

Close inspection of Matthew's left shoe reveals a piece of dental floss caught on his laces.

Here at the NFC, we're proud to have evidence that this often bare-chested hunk apparently wades in dental floss!

Keep flossing Matthew!

"I Don't Floss"

Dr. Chip Tartaroff, DDF (Doctor of Dental Flossing) answers flossing questions for readers of this blog and the NFC website, www.flossing.org.  Here's a recent question from Moon M:

Dr T,
Okay, so I don't floss.
At all.
Now don't be disgusted just yet!
The reason I don't floss is because I feel like I don't need to.
There are spaces/gaps between ALL my teeth - I'm not kidding.
I don't see how food could get stuck there, I would feel it as the spaces are quite large.
Am I right in my reasoning?
Moon
ps. I wish I could afford braces :(
pps. what's the verdict on adult braces? I'm 23.

Hi Moon,

So you don't floss. Based on how you describe your teeth, you may not need to.

Even though you're not a flosser, I'm glad you decided to write and ask about it.

You probably hear about flossing a lot, and it's made you "flossing curious."

There is a simple way you can figure out if not flossing "at all" is right for you.

Honestly, as I've mentioned elsewhere, for me, the food stuck between my teeth is probably the prime reason I got to be such a floss sympathizer.

Not you, however.

But there are other reasons to floss, and for you, I'd suggest a simple test.

Take a piece of floss and gently run it along the edges of your teeth - especially your back teeth.

Check for two things -

First, does the floss smell?

If you answer yes, it's a sign your brushing isn't cleaning enough around the base of some teeth. The smell is from the bacteria and food debris in your mouth that can cause bad breath and cavities.

The second thing is whether there is blood on the floss.

Since you're not a flosser, and regular flossing does toughen up your gums, even if you're gentle, a little bleeding might happen. But regularly seeing blood on floss or your tooth brush is a sign of sickly gums. Sucking on some vitamin C might be helpful (see "Floss Your Roots," below), but more brushing and flossing will certainly help. Some people have great teeth with few if any cavities but get over confident about their mouth and develop big problems with gum disease.

Gum problems are what I'd suggest you watch out for and use floss to check your gum health from time to time.

Quick note regarding braces -  they work, but they take about 2 years and cost $.

Wiki has a good piece on them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_braces

I've heard about people in their 50s using the new clear braces. By the time you're 25, your braces could be off. If you're lucky, the braces will also be paid off by then.

Thanks again for writing!

Cheers,

Dr. T

Use Floss to Open a Chain Locked Door!

Did MacGyver ever do this?
Say your Grandpa has fallen down in his room and needs help - but his door is locked with a chain lock.  How can you get in to help him?
Floss to the rescue.
Here's a video that shows how you can open a chain locked door using a (long) piece of floss.
Floss - My Hero!

Video: Open-a-chain-lock-with-a-piece-of-floss

The Floscar - The Oscar for Flossing in Cinema!

It's that time of year again to recall some of the greatest flossing moments in the history of cinema.

The Floscar is the award that was given to honor the use of floss in motion pictures of the past.

Here's a link to the video from the presentation of the Floscar by Arnold Schwarzenegger:
Arnold Presents the Floscar for the Best Use of Floss in a Major Motion Picture

Floss Floss Dance & Toss - The Video Game

In honor of the millionth run thru of this game (it's obviously "no flash in the pan"), here's a link to the flossing version of Dance Dance Revolution, Floss Floss Dance & Toss.

If you like online video games this might be fun for you.
The force behind getting this game going was a young dentist, Dr. Jamie Johnson, The Dental Diva, from Pueblo, CO.
It all started about 6 years ago when she got some video game designers to devise a Dance Dance Revolution type game with a wacky guy, Brad Swanson, dancing up a storm with floss in the background while you play.
If you aren't one to learn and play video games, you might enjoy just watching Brad goof off in this "outtake reel" from the making of the game.

Congratulations to Jamie, Brad and the production crew!  We at the National Flossing Council like all sorts of media that get people thinking and talking about floss and your game is certainly doing that!