Floss

  I understand dental floss was invented in the late 1800's, but I don't think I ever heard of it until at least the 1950's.  I knew of Mary Ann Evan's novel, "The Mill on the Floss," where Floss was the name of the river, but I never made the connection that perhaps the river was so named because it wound like a silky thread, or floss.  My aunt had a dog named Flossie long ago, maybe because its coat was silky.  Who knows?
   It seems strange now, but back in the days of my childhood, it was rare for anyone to receive any kind of dental care, and especially not of the prophylactic sort.  I think that may have been different in the city, but in rural areas, there were few if any dentists, and the father of the family  worked full time; there was little thought to dental care, except in cases of painful toothache, and even then home remedies were the order of the day.  Most adults of all economic straits were resigned to wearing dentures as they got older.  Children were fortunate if their teeth came in straight  and if they were not overly prone to decay, especially as involving the front teeth.
My first dental visit was at about age 11, because of a severe toothache in a molar;  my father drove me to a dentist in Schaghticoke who had hours on Saturday.  He was an elderly dentist and he allowed his pet green parakeet to sit on his shoulder while he inspected your mouth.  He tried to pull my tooth, struggled, broke off the tooth at the roots and said I had soft teeth, and when I got older and the tooth hardened, the extraction would probably be easier.  My father ended up later driving me to another dentist in Mechanicville, who was horrified, but must have helped in some way I can't remember.
    Back to flossing:  While my mother always had us brush our teeth when we were little, I don't think we had dental floss in our house until probably the 1960's, when it was beginning to be promoted.  I used to floss occasionally, then regularly, and now I must say I floss at least 5 or 6 times a day.  With the availability of Floss Picks, I can't understand why anyone would use the spool variety;  that takes 2 hands, a lot of grimacing and, Heaven help us, the expulsion of a certain amount of debris into the atmosphere, or onto  the bathroom mirror.  A floss pick requires only one hand, a mostly closed mouth, and no outwardly expelled effluvia.  The cost is only about $3.00 for a hundred.  Well worth it, say I.