--- title: Dental Floss: How Flossing Became a Thing description: In 1819, Levi Spear Parmly wrote of "the waxed silken thread, which, though simple, is the most important" device in cleaning teeth canonical: https://time.com/4435267/dental-floss-history/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-02T17:01:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:43:31.458Z article:section: History og:title: How Dental Floss Became a Thing in the First Place og:description: Get the history behind flossing og:url: https://time.com/4435267/dental-floss-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt14e3ad38d9480160/6988a0ce8e06017585467042/floss.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Dental Hygiene og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Dental Floss Became a Thing in the First Place twitter:description: Get the history behind flossing twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt14e3ad38d9480160/6988a0ce8e06017585467042/floss.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Dental Floss Became a Thing in the First Place > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Aug 2, 2016 5:01 PM UTC  A young woman flossing her teeth in the bathroom mirror, Sept. 1985. A young woman flossing her teeth in the bathroom mirror, Sept. 1985. Barbara Alper / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Aug 2, 2016 5:01 PM UTC Those regularly chided by their dentists got good news on Tuesday, as the U.S. government [acknowledged](http://time.com/4434863/dental-flossing-benefits-evidence/) something to which TIME had [brought attention](http://time.com/4089057/dental-floss-flossing/) last year: there is little scientific evidence that flossing your teeth really makes a difference when it comes to cavities and gum disease. But if we’ve all just been [wasting minutes a day](http://time.com/4435007/dental-floss-time-research/) on flossing—which, let’s be honest, few people actually want to do—why did we start doing that in the first place? Humans have surely been using string (among other tools) to dislodge food for as long as string has been around, but the modern idea of dental floss is only two centuries old. In 1819, Levi Spear Parmly of New Orleans published his book [_A Practical Guide to the Management of the Teeth_](https://archive.org/details/practicalguidet00parm), and in it he described an invention he is often [credited](http://oralb.com/en-us/oral-care-topics/the-history-of-dental-floss) with thinking up just a few years earlier: --- > “” --- Furthermore, Parmly specified, “particular care \[should be\] taken to pass the waxed silk in the interstices, and round the necks of the teeth.” [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) Within a century, Parmly’s idea had become dental common practice, with inventors working on [improvements](https://www.google.com/patents/US213997?dq=silk+teeth&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjH%5FbfCkaPOAhWGdR4KHV2bAKkQ6AEIMTAD). When [World War II hit American silk supplies hard](http://time.com/3534564/nylon-stockings/), a new invention—nylon—stepped in, [thanks](https://books.google.com/books?id=%5FKUKCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT2237&dq=nylon+dental+floss+invented&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjn-Pe3lqPOAhXIqh4KHagmDMoQ6AEIRzAG#v=onepage&q=nylon%20dental%20floss%20invented&f=false) in particular to a[ pioneering dentist ](http://www.aai.org/about/History/Articles/AAI%5FHistory%5F017.pdf)names Charles C. Bass. In June of 1910, a New York business had [this](https://books.google.com/books?id=sz9AAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA479&dq=johnson+and+johnson+1898+dental+silk+patent&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjX5ISf%5FaLOAhWINx4KHdQ9DkA4ChDoAQgkMAA#v=onepage&q=johnson%20and%20johnson%201898%20dental%20silk%20patent&f=false) to say to the readers of _Practical Druggist and Pharmaceutical Review of Reviews:_ “You know the value of dental floss. No one realizes better than you that the constant use of it would save lots of tooth trouble.” Today, however, “the value of dental floss” is not so certain. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4435267/dental-floss-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4435267/dental-floss-history/"},"headline":"How Dental Floss Became a Thing in the First Place","datePublished":"2016-08-02T17:01:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:43:31.458Z","description":"In 1819, Levi Spear Parmly wrote of \"the waxed silken thread, which, though simple, is the most important\" device in cleaning teeth","url":"https://time.com/4435267/dental-floss-history/","keywords":["health"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt14e3ad38d9480160/6988a0ce8e06017585467042/floss.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt14e3ad38d9480160/6988a0ce8e06017585467042/floss.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Dental Hygiene","caption":"Dental Hygiene","creditText":"Barbara Alper / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/health/","name":"health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4435267/dental-floss-history/","name":"How Dental Floss Became a Thing in the First Place"}}]}] ```