Maintaining that healthy smile...

Last week my colleague Patricia (who doesn’t read my blog - but really should!) was demonstrating how her key-card holder had many different purposes. It is one of those keycard holders that is on a retractable holder that you can clip to your belt. One of the purposes for the retractable chord of the holder was to use it as dental floss. Strange – I know. But then I read this in the newspaper that made me think that maybe Patricia is not that strange afterall…

U.S. dentists and periodontists have been horrified to learn that poker decks do double duty as floss, that a seamstress turns to her sewing thread, or needle, to remove the midday snack, and that office workers turn to their pencils, paper clips or car keys for it'll-do-for-now floss. It's just not good dental practice, reports The Albany (N.Y.) Times Union. "People actually chew off their fingernails and use them as floss," says Dr. Gregg Liberatore, a dentist in Clifton Park, N.Y., adding that improper tools can harm the gums. Some dentists have heard of -- or even seen -- people, who have coarse hair, plucking a strand from their heads to use for floss. Restaurant diners have used envelopes of sweetener to floss; some shoppers use grocery coupons.