So last month I wrote a piece on toxic ‘big brand’ dental floss. You can read it here.
I’ve since been road testing, much to my dentist’s delight, natural dental floss brands using silk and beeswax and natural flavouring oils. They were all purchased from health food stores near Sydney CBD, and all around $5-7 dollars. All 3 brands come from the USA, so for you guys up north in the world, no problems finding them I’m sure.
Here they are from left to right…
Radius – An organic silk floss with a very light Beeswax coating and no flavouring at all, this one’s fab if your teeth are quite close together, as it’s very fine. The downside to that of course, is that the big burly blokes out there might snap it occasionally, but I found once I got in tune with the fact that it was a little more fragile, it was fine – great, even!
Dr Tung’s A little thicker than the radius brand with a mild and lovely Cardamom taste and beeswax coating, this one is really cushiony and soft and doesn’t break (or hasn’t once since I’ve tried it). A great floss. It’s pack is even biodegradable. Bonus points! This is now available online locally through Nourished Life or in Sydney at Wholefoods House.
Eco Dent This eco dent one is perfect for Vegans, as it’s ‘vegan wax’ coated. It is nice and fine and gets in between the teeth easily, cinnamon flavoured which I love, but its downside is the fact that it frays easily, and while I’m trying to get bits out of my teeth, I don’t want bits of floss then to be stuck in there… A big plus though for this one is that it’s 100yds – triple the length of the Dr Tung’s and nearly double that of radius, for just $1 more! Another downside is that once investigated to the point of having to call, because I could never find out exactly what the actual floss was made of, it’s nylon. So while it might be non toxic in terms of the coating being natural, the wax itself isn’t sustainable – Still miles better than teflon coated wax however, it has to be said!
Whatever you choose, when you switch to a natural floss, you’re not only protecting yourself from petroleum & teflon getting into your blood stream via your gums, but you’re also supporting a product that is biodegradable in the case of the first 2 – win win!
Low Tox. Happy Bodies. Happy Planet.
Comments 9
Alexx,
Thanks so much for this. I hate to confess that I’ve only just begun to floss regularly. At least now when I go to the dentist (soon) I can quite honestly answer yes when asked do I floss!
Looks like the radius one will be the one for me so I’ll have to look for it. Definitely no health food stores where I live in the country!
Claire
Author
Hi Claire,
I’d be happy to post it to you if you like – you’ve been such a supporter & it would be a pleasure! Send me an email 🙂
I recently went through the same process but only found a product called AloeDent in Melbourne, which is basically a waxed nylon coated with Aloe Vera. I found VeganFloss online via a helpful dentist in Sydney. Both products are OK but do to tend to fray as my teeth are pretty close together.
Alexx, I’d love to try Radius and Dr Tungs but can’t find anywhere in Melbourne (or online) that stocks them. Any ideas?
David
Author
Hi David,
How frustrating – Sydney clearly winning on the eco floss stakes. Happy to send it to you, however not hugely economical, given postage charge of additional couple of dollars. Probably $10 per reel all inclusive. Feel free to email me from the contact page if you’re keen / desperate and in the mean time I’ll have a hunt for the distributor here. The Radius one is great 🙂
The Radius floss appeals to me. So I checked out 2 health food shops in Sydney’s CBD and 2 in Bondi Junction. No such luck. They only sell the AloeDent floss as commented by David. After reading the contents of it’s packaging, I wasn’t very keen on buying it. Alexx, could you let me know where you bought Radius floss in Sydney? It doesn’t seem to be selling online either.
Author
Robert, hello! I bought at Double Bay Bayside Health in the Eastern Suburbs. Have been using Dr Tungs lately which I get from WHolefoods house woollahra, but Nourishedlife.com.au is just about to stock a couple so keep an eye out there too for an online option 🙂
Thank you for this…..I’m in the uk and have found Radius tooth floss at Natural Spa supplies online.
x3 £11
or
x1 £4
plain silk or a cranberry
(postage 2.99)
x
Many thanks again for this info on here…saved hours of google work
Author
You’re welcome Mary. Glad it helped! alexx
Great post! Something worth mention about: Silk needs to be exposed into high temperature in order to kill the eggs.