Dental floss
Dental floss is a thin, nylon string that is used to remove food and plaque from the teeth. The floss is inserted between the teeth and scrapes along the sides of the teeth, especially close to the gums. Dental floss comes both waxed and unwaxed.
Research has shown the dental floss, in one form or another, was used even by prehistoric humans. Grooves have been found in the teeth of prehistoric humans from dental floss and toothpicks.
The New Orleans dentist, Levi Spear Parmly (1790-1859) is credited with inventing the modern version of dental floss. Parmly had been recommending that people should clean their teeth with silk floss since 1815.
Dental floss was still unavailable to the consumer until the Codman and Shurtleft company started producing human-usable unwaxed silk floss for in 1882.
In 1898, the Johnson & Johnson Corporation were the first to patent dental floss. Some of the brands include Red Cross, Salter Sill Co. and Brunswick.
Floss wasn't used by most people before World War II. It was around this time, however, that nylon floss was developed by Dr. Charles C. Bass. Nylon floss was found to be better than silk because if its greater abrasion resistance and elasticity, which helped prevent the floss from shredding.
After the second world war the importance of flossing in order to thoroughly clean the teeth was highly stressed. Flossing is still the best method of removing plaque from the teeth.
History
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