Two minutes with Danny Katz: Am I an eco-warrior for reusing dental floss?

I’ve been using the same piece of dental floss for a week. Does that make me a tight-arse or environmental champion?
S.V., Kanahooka, NSW

A: Dental floss has actually been on my mind lately. I just went to the dentist and she asked if I’d been flossing and I said, “Of course! In the morning, for a whole three minutes,” without mentioning that it was just that morning, half an hour before my appointment. She told me I needed to floss more and charged me a whopping $310 for a clean – so now I’m flossing a lot more, several times a day, garrotting my gums like a Mafia assassin with piano wire. And, at first, I was flossing like you: in a floss-reusing, eco-conscious, tight-arse way.

I figured it was better for the environment: floss is, after all, made from non-biodegradable, ocean-polluting nylon (just further proof that dentists hate sea turtles).

And I figured it would save money: sure, floss only costs three bucks for 100 metres, but I was going through about 25 metres a day (I told you I was flossing hard). But after three days, the floss started losing its minty-fresh flavour – it tasted more like takeaway pad thai, which is weird, because I hadn’t eaten any. And my bathroom looked disgusting, with bits of used shredded floss hanging over the towel rack, over the sink, over the tap, as if the room had been sprayed by a very old and very feeble Spider-Man.

So yes, reusing floss for at least a week may be cheaper and better for the planet but, dentally, it sort of defeats the whole purpose of flossing in the first place.

You’re pretty much just moving Monday’s meal around your mouth, from tooth to tooth, so by Sunday you’re right back where you started.

guru@goodweekend.com.au

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