Odd Floss Ads from Sweden

The Tepe Company in Malmo, Sweden, sells a variety of oral hygiene products, including dental floss.
They did a series of floss ads in conjunction with a Turkish ad agency, TBWA.



Short review: Love the designs, lose the teeth.
You can weave a pattern with any circle of pins, so take some floss and try this at home.
No need to lay out a wierd set of teeth to hold the floss.

 

"Simply Brilliant"

Note from Dr T:

We received the following email from a very kind reader who shared her agony from having food stuck in her teeth as well as the relief she got from finding a way to deal with her problem. 

It's rewarding to hear that some of the info we're trying to pass along about flossing has been useful. 

Many thanks for your letter Relieved Reader!

Dear Dr. T,

I don't normally find myself writing to online people that I don't know; but I have to send an email of thanks!

I have been battling a flossing issue for YEARS. Yes years!  I have teeth that are tight and some that are wide. I have two food traps that drive me crazy. Food gets stuck in there and it actually hurts. 

One of your answers said to try tying a knot in my floss. That is unbelievable. This has worked so well. It has brought so much relief to my poor teeth.  

I had flossed so hard at one point that within a week I had pulled off 2 crowns. I love to floss but didn't know how to floss for different teeth.

Thank you so much for your information. My teeth feel great!!!

Sincerely yours,

Relieved Reader

National Brush Your Teeth Day is Nov. 1

Hey Kids,
Get that Halloween candy out of your teeth!
Floss and brush on Nov. 1
The Ad Council has some 2 min videos for you.

"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

Hippos Understand Dental Health

Here's a scene from the excellent BBC series, Life, broadcast in 2009.
In the 4th episode, "Fish," David Attenborough explains how hippos submerge themselves and open their mouths so fish can clean their teeth.

If only fish could floss!

Flossing Your Roots?

Dr. Chip Tartaroff, our answerman for all your flossing questions, asked to have this posted on the blog:

Dr. T,

 

I am 45 and recently started daily flossing.  When i floss my front lower teath, I can feel an edge, and assume and I am coming to the end of my enamal , and hitting the root.  It does not hurt, but seems wierd

 

1)do i floss below that lip (so i would be flossing the root?)

2)do i need to have that gum replaced?

Tom  

 

 

Dear Tom,

Thanks for writing!

First of all, I am not a professional dentist and I do not play one on TV.

However, that won’t stop me from offering some common sense comments
in reply to your question, but nothing I say should stop you from discussing your concerns with a dentist.

From what I understand, recession of gum tissue is a fairly common
event and it roughly correlates with age. Complicating the relatively natural amount of recession, gum disease can hasten the process and cause it to endanger the retention of teeth. In your case it sounds
like you have some gum recession on your front lower teeth. One of the primary issues that draws a person’s attention to their gum’s recession is sensitivity of the roots when they’re exposed. This
doesn’t seem to be a problem for you. 

Should you floss those areas?
I’d say yes, based on the scientific principal: If it hurts, don’t do it – and you mentioned flossing didn’t hurt.

As you may know, the normally exposed parts of teeth are covered with enamel. The surface of roots is referred to as “cementum.” Decay can occur in enamel and cementum, so it’s important to keep these tooth surfaces clean, which means using floss.

The second part of your question – Should you have a gum transplant to cover the exposed roots? – Well, a dentist will have to discuss that.
But here are some considerations that might pay to keep in mind:
What is the likelihood that the new gum tissue will survive where your
original gum tissue has retreated?
Some gum recession is attributed to overbrushing. Overbrushing is
something you can change, but it might be best to wait on a painful
transplant procedure to see if changed brushing permits gum regrowth.

Also keep in mind that gums love vitamin C. One of the first signs of
vitamin C deficiency (aka “scurvy”) is loose teeth. Gum tissue grows
rapidly and vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is fundamental for cell growth
and repair. This is a primary reason a shortage of vitamin C shows
itself with bleeding gums and loose teeth. You can’t conclude that all
gum problems and loose teeth are caused by a shortage of vitamin C,
but when these problems occur, a brief period of vitamin C supplements seems reasonable before anything more costly and painful is tried.

By the way, the worst side effect of too much vitamin C is flatulence
(as in “toot-toot”). Sucking on a small amount of vitamin C (30-60 mg)
1 or 2x/day should get your gums all they can use and not cause any
gastric distress. Some cough drops contain vitamin C and make a tasty way of getting a supplement.

Good luck with your gums, Tom!

Floss on!

Dr. T.

Flossing Frequency?

Dr. T.,*

After many years of very average dental hygiene and barely any flossing, something finally "clicked" for me after getting 6 fillings recently. I have finally changed my ways and become fairly fanatical about tooth cleanliness. I keep a toothbrush and floss in my desk drawer at work, and I find that after every meal, I feel an urgent need to floss and brush, in order to remove all debris and have a clean mouth again. it's kind of like the instinct to wash your hands after digging in the dirt.

I have now got a routine in which I brush and floss at 10am (to clear breakfast debris), then again at 2pm (to clear lunch debris) and after dinner (8pm). My question is do you feel this is too much flossing? I have gaps between my teeth that are just large enough to keep debris between them, so I know you are supposed to floss once a day. But I have this huge urge to get that debris out soon after eating. What do you suggest?

Best wishes,

3x a day flosser in NC

Dear 3XADFINC,

Thanks for your question!

I have to start off by saying that I am also a 3x a day flosser, so you have an idea where this is going.

Here’s the the basic question that we need to consider: Will flossing 3x a day harm your teeth and what problems could it cause?

All those readers with tight teeth could probably go read elsewhere at this point, since they have no idea how annoying it is to have a substantial part of a meal stuck between your teeth after eating. Of course, as you’ve described, they also don’t understand how satisfying it is to get that jammed food out from between teeth with floss. As I’ve said before, tight teeth don’t catch much food and they don’t have much room for floss. Those “tight” teeth still need a periodic cleaning with a non-shredding floss, since bacteria and plaque buildup can happen even in the small spaces between the tightest teeth.

Let’s keep this brief – too much flossing really isn’t a problem, but “improper” flossing can erode enamel.

What is “improper” flossing?

Well, floss can serve two useful roles:

1. Removing large pieces of food stuck between teeth, and

2. Cleaning food residues from spaces between teeth where brushing won’t reach.

“Improper” flossing involves pointless rubbing floss against the enamel. This is why you’ll hear warnings about “don’t saw back and forth” with floss.

How do we know that “sawing” with floss will hurt enamel? Well, you can check these links for two examples (and there are others) of prisoners using floss to saw through metal bars to escape (1,2). Let’s face it, if sawing with floss can cut metal, the enamel on your teeth can get “groovy” with too much sawing. The grooves you can cause with floss might be a cosmetic problem, but more important is the damage they do to surface enamel and the spaces they make for decay-producing bacteria.

You might also be interested to learn that there are a few anthropology studies that report finding grooves on the teeth of ancient skeletons that suggest damage from repeated rubbing with fibers (ie. floss). One report is based on skeletons from Pakistan (3) and the other from the prehistoric natives in the western US (4) – so this isn’t a rare or localized misuse of floss.

What to do? Clean the big pellets of food from between your teeth when they bother you. A short forward or back motion may be needed to dislodge debris – but no sawing! To clean the spaces between teeth, pull the floss up and down along the teeth. This up and down cleaning between all your teeth isn’t the type of flossing you need to do very often. Once a day for this type of thorough flossing will be fine to keep your teeth really clean.

Thanks again for your question!

Floss on!

Chip T.*

(Dr. Chip Tartaroff answers flossing questions for the National Flossing Council. See his past replys on www.flossing.org.)

Citations:

Jailbreaks

1. Inmate used dental floss to escape cell

Associated Press, Tuesday, 21 March 2000

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/inmate-used-dental-floss-to-escape-cell-721919.html

2. Inmate uses dental floss, toothpaste to escape prison

By Associated Press, 04/25/02

http://www.boston.com/news/daily/25/escape.htm

Ancient floss damage

3. Activity-induced patterns of dental abrasion in prehistoric Pakistan: Evidence from Mehrgarh and Harappa

John R. Lukacs, Robert F. Pastor

American Journal of Physical Anthropology

Volume 76 , Issue 3 , Pages 377 - 398, 1988.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/110482906/abstract?

4. Task activity and anterior tooth grooving in prehistoric California Indians

Peter D. Schulz

Division of Resource Management and Protection, California Department of Parks and Recreation, P.O. Box 2390, Sacramento, California 95811

American Journal of Physical Anthropology

Volume 46 Issue 1, Pages 87 – 91, 1977.

Published Online: 29 Apr 2005

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/110485802/abstract