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Christopher Sleboda SKIN DEEP Miles of Floss for...

Published in: Internet News Search: dentist April 22nd, 2005

Christopher Sleboda SKIN DEEP Miles of Floss for...

Christopher Sleboda

SKIN DEEP
Miles of Floss for Whitened Teeth: Spinach Specks Beware
By ELIZABETH HAYT

SINCE last summer, when Brian Rothschild spent several thousand dollars on cosmetic dentistry to replace old fillings, cover a crooked front tooth with a veneer, and bleach his teeth, he started flossing twice daily: more than twice as much as he had before. His new regimen requires three pieces of equipment: mint-flavored string floss, tiny brushes to excavate debris from the wider spaces and a rubber-tipped gum stimulator to finish the job.

"Sometimes I get a little obsessive," he admitted.

Sherry Bauman also flosses frequently to protect her cosmetically enhanced teeth. Six years ago Ms. Bauman - a homemaker from Sands Point, N.Y., whose picture-perfect smile once landed her a job as a toothpaste model - got veneers to lighten up lower teeth that had darkened with age, and since then she has flossed two or more times a day.

"You spend so much on your teeth and want to keep them for the rest of your life," Ms. Bauman said. To skip flossing, she added, would be "like spending $100,000 for a car and driving around with it dirty."

Apparently the rage for tooth-whitening - a $600 million industry that grows 15 to 20 percent a year, according to the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry - may accomplish what decades of admonitions from dentists have not been able to do: make people enthusiastic about flossing. After fiddling with whitening strips twice a day for a week, spending a good part of a paycheck on bleaching or emptying a savings account to pay for veneers, flossing suddenly seems like a great way to protect the investment.

The number of people who floss is rising only moderately - in 2003, 50 percent of the population flossed, up from 45 percent in 1997, according to the American Dental Association - but the number who do so more than once a day has tripled to 9.5 percent, from 3.2 percent. And dentists say most of these new enthusiasts have had bleaching or cosmetic dentistry.

Some may even be going overboard with frequent, strenuous flossing that digs too deeply into the gums, dentists say.

Floss makers have responded by expanding their offerings. No longer limited to waxed or unwaxed, today's choices verge on the exotic: flavored flosses in spearmint, cinnamon and peppermint; anti-plaque, antibacterial and fluoride-coated flosses; shred-resistant flosses; ribbon floss, with a wider surface; threader floss to get under braces; floss picks; whitening flosses; and flosses coated with zinc, eucalyptus and thymol, ingredients said to fight bad breath.

A new generation of gadgets has also come along, including handheld floss holders and battery-operated "power" flossers.

In an apparent attempt to cash in on the trend, Listerine recently claimed in advertisements to be "as effective as floss." Listerine does kill the bacteria that cause plaque and gingivitis, but apparently, nothing works as well as flossing.

In January a federal judge ruled the ads misleading and instructed Pfizer, which makes Listerine, to stop using them.

Although flossing may not make teeth whiter, it can help keep white teeth from yellowing by getting rid of food particles and preventing the buildup of plaque, said Dr. Matt Messina, a dentist in Cleveland who is the consumer adviser for the American Dental Association. "When you vacuum the carpet of your house, it doesn't change the color of the carpet, but by taking the dust out, it makes the carpet look brighter," Dr. Messina said.

Whitening floss is designed not to bleach tooth enamel but rather to do a better job than regular floss of cleaning between teeth. Reach Whitening Floss by Johnson & Johnson is coated in silica, a fine abrasive. And Supersmile floss is treated with calcium peroxide, which dissolves pellicle, a protein deposited on the teeth by saliva. The pellicle can attract stains, said Dr. Irwin Smigel, the New York dentist who created Supersmile.

But many dentists say flossing's greatest virtue is that it keeps teeth and gums healthy. Even the most dazzling teeth will not look pretty if the gums are inflamed by gingivitis, which daily flossing prevents.

Yet too much flossing may also harm perfect smiles. "If you destroy the gumline by incorrect or over-flossing, you can make a tooth look longer, and that's not aesthetically appealing," said Lawrence Addleson, a San Diego dentist who is president of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry.

Periodontists warn that excessive flossing can leave lasting damage. "If you saw back and forth with the floss, you can actually notch the tooth on the root surface," said Dr. Susan Karabin, a periodontist in New York.

Fanatics are not shy about unrolling their floss in front of others. "If I'm in a restaurant or the movies, I'll go to the restroom and floss without shame," said Ilona Price, a Manhattan magazine editor who has been flossing two or three times a day since Dr. Marc Lowenberg, a cosmetic dentist in New York, bleached her teeth and covered some with veneers five years ago.

And this public flossing may be contagious. Encouraged by the sight of an officemate flossing after lunch, Francois Mobasser, 36, a Los Angeles entertainment lawyer, upped his own flossing from once to three times a day.

"I don't ever want to be the guy with a green leaf blanketing his teeth," he said. "If I didn't floss, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night."



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AAASC Updates State ASC Chapter Lobbyists on Legislative Efforts

Published in: Internet News Search: dentist December 14th, 2005

AAASC Updates State ASC Chapter Lobbyists on Legislative Efforts

Today's SurgiCenter
SB 434 applies to “office-based settings ” defined as settings where medical services are performed but that are not a dentist’s office, hospital or an

National News

Published in: Internet News Search: dentist January 27th, 2006

National News

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