Cheap Sheets, Tacky Lingerie and Wedding Dresses (Dental Floss in General)

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Dental Floss in General
Date:	08/07/03 (114 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use, Nice mild taste

Disadvantages: A few pennies more than own brands

…a few things I expect to be associated with satin. Dental Floss: something I wouldn’t expect.

Around 40% of the surface area of your teeth doesn’t get touched by brushing alone, which is why flossing is also important as part of your daily dental care routine. After some disasters with cheaper varieties, I decided to try one of the Oral B sorts instead since it was a brand name I recognized from home. There were various types available, and for no particular reason I settled on the-

******** Oral B Satin Floss ********

Most floss comes in dispensers of one sort or another, though with too many brands these days they seem to be heading for the extremes: either the mini-cutters are too sharp and you land yourself a hefty cut on the finger if you get to close, or they’re so blunt that after yanking away for a few minutes it’s a case of going off to find the scissors. Oral B’s was a pleasant surprise – it cuts the floss without much effort, but manages to leave your fingers intact at the same time.

One of my dislikes with regards to cheaper brands – and one of the reasons I went looking for a new one – is the tendency the floss has to peel apart and become stringy when you use it. This doesn’t happen with Oral B, perhaps due to the satiny wax coating on the floss. This has the added bonus that your little pot lasts longer, as one piece is enough for the whole bathroom session and doesn’t need to be replaced part way through.

The width, or rather diameter, of the floss is also important to me. Too thin and you start to wonder whether it’s even doing anything, but too thick and you can still “feel” it for hours afterwards. The Oral B variety strikes a compromise somewhere between the 2. You can certainly feel it at the time (which is reassuring), but the sensation quickly fades so you can get on with your day without being forced to reminisce
about your time spent flossing every few minutes.

Floss, like toothpaste, usually comes with a strong minty flavour, and while I enjoy this taste in my food, I don’t like it in my mouth first thing in the morning. I usually don’t taste the floss at all since I use it after brushing, and it is evidently not as strong as my (mild!) toothpaste. On the odd occasion when I’ve flossed first, I noticed it had only a faint minty taste and was itself rather mild in comparison to others I’ve tried.

The last thing I like about this floss compared to others is that it doesn’t make my gums bleed, and I assure you, I’d just as rough when using this as I am with cheaper brands, so I can only attribute this to the floss itself.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised with the floss. It worked as well as you’d expect it too, but also held together firmly. It was easy to grip even with soggy fingers, and the satin wax coating seemed to eliminate that “eeek eeek” sound you sometimes get. The dispenser was nifty, and the taste nice and mild. I’ve come to the conclusion that floss IS one of those things with which it’s worth paying the extra 10p or so for the brand name, and Oral B is a brand I’d certainly recommend to those who use the substance.

I’ve written this assuming that you know why and how to floss, and already use the stuff. If you don’t, but are considering starting, have a look at their website you can find out more about why flossing is important, and also info on the Satin range.

www.oralb.com

Oral B Satin Floss is available from various chemists and drug stores in the UK and abroad. Expect to pay around £2 for a dispenser which contains 25 m of the stuff. Looking quickly online, I found it at Tesco.com too, for £1.97. Cheap as it stands, and even more so when you think that the little pot will last you quite a few months with normal use.

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