There's a new floss - Knotty-floss -
which has knots at 1 inch intervals.
It costs about 50 cents per piece and
comes individually wrapped for use once a day.
Looking at the web site, Elizabeth
Martens, the dental hygienist who created the product, makes some good
points.
Here are two of the most important:
1. For some people having knots in the
floss will stop them from sawing and encourage them to use an up and
down motion when flossing.
2. When teeth have some space between
them a knot can be a useful way to dislodge food that a smooth piece
of floss can miss. (See our recent blog entry from Relieved Reader.)
Those are good points that are made on
different pages of the web site.
What we wonder about is how some naive
user, handed knotty floss, might wind up using it.
Dr. Jay Friedman, a West Coast Dentist
and Educator, tells this story in his excellent book*:
“...there
was a young man who never had a cavity. His gums were healthy, but
the tissue between the teeth was “punched out.” He had been
advised to use dental floss. Figuring if a little floss was good, a
lot was better, he tied knots in the string and pulled them through
the teeth, destroying the interdental papilla, the triangular-shaped
gum tissue that normally fills the space between teeth. On cessation
of this destructive flossing, the gum tissue gradually grew back to
its normal shape.” (excerpt from Chapter 7)
Knotty-floss may prove useful for some
flossers, but not everyone needs knots!
The website doesn't show the actual
floss or what instructions come with the product.
Without those details, we can only hope
that the manufacturer does include some brief instructions with their
knotty-floss to assure that it is less likely to be misused.
If you have any experience with
knotty-floss, please leave a comment!
Floss on!
Dr. T.
