The Flavor of Life

The other day I needed some floss to get some cantaloupe out out of my teeth. I was looking in the cabinet for some floss that was already open and noticed we had two flavors; cinnamon and mint. This gave me occasion to ponder the question, "Why flavor dental floss?"

I can just imagine years ago a conference of the American Dental Association to discuss what could be done to breathe new life in the the dental industry. Many ideas would have been brought to the table. (This may have been when the flex-neck brush, water pic, or tapered head brush were introduced.) These novelties were nice but people were already brushing their teeth.

One of the dentists eventually says, "how can we get people to floss." The response from the bewildered board, "What!? You mean they aren't flossing? Why wouldn't they floss, we always remind them to floss." There was suddenly a eruption of laughter from the hygienists in attendance. But this outburst quickly gave way to an awkward silence when they saw the look of indignation on the faces of the board members. They had apparently forgotten what mouths look like before the hygienists were cleaning and polishing having not examined a mouth since reaching their lofty station...And with that the oddly scenic mental detour is over; back to the original course of the post.

Is flossing so detestable that floss must be flavored? If so why not have more appealing flavors; like...Cheddar cheese, taco, or beef. I know there's nothing that I crave more than re-eating my corn on the cob with a hint of mint. So the next time you're flossing some pesky corn from you teeth think to yourself "I can't believe it's not butter".