Fun Floss Facts, Part 5.

NUCLEARIZE your “easy on the eyes” smile with the help of the weekly "The Hollywood Smiles Report: Where Dentistry Meets the Red Carpet!”  

Floss helps to remove plaque between the teeth and under the gums before it gets a chance to harden over time into calculus.

The silk floss tree, found in South America's tropical forests, yields seeds that are covered with fine fibers that resemble dental floss.

Radius Cranberry Floss uses cranberry essence from Ocean Spray to coat its floss, because a substance in cranberries has been found to help break up interdental plaque.

Synthetic floss is made from one of three polymers: nylon, polyethylene, or Teflon.

Butler-Weave, a dental tape floss is produced by the John O. Butler Company.

Synthetic or plastic floss is a byproduct derived from crude oil.

OralB makes UltraFloss and SuperFloss. Both have an alternating spongy then firm make up along the string. The spongy part of the floss expands when no tension is placed on it. In its expanded or stretched state, it can, when passed through the teeth, engage and extract more interdental plaque, when pulled out from the side.

The American Dental Association recommends flossing at least once a day.

Yucca-leaf fibers were used as floss by some Native Americans.

Some prehistoric human teeth, found during archeological digs, had grooves notched in them. Those markings may have come from attempts by the early humans from whom it came, to remove stubborn meat or other items from between the teeth. Maybe sharp stones were used interdentally back then.

The average person in the U.S. uses 18 yards of dental floss annually.

Dental floss was used by a character in the novel, "Ulysses," written by James Joyce in 1918.

The Teflon in dental floss is made from the polymer polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE).

Nylon floss first starts out as a nylon salt that is polymerized, then melted, and poured out as a ribbon. It is then cut up, melted again, and then pumped through a spinning machine into filaments. The cooled nylon filaments are then combined to make a floss strand, which is then twisted to give it strength.

May you have many…red (gums)-and-white (teeth)...flossing is more important than brushing...I was out of thread so I used floss to emergency fix my low-cut-short-skirt dress… smiles!