By Oriana Biela Lieu, RDH

Sometimes floss is the perfect thing when “tied up” in a tricky situation. Many of these uses are tried and tested by our own Blue Apple Dental Group staff. Many of these work great when traveling or camping.
1. Dental floss can be used to cut many food items from cheese to boiled eggs to fruit – no need to carry a knife!
2. Keep your drinks and beers cool while traveling down a river or boating in the heat of the day when you are in a small boat without refrigeration). Tie your bottle of Budweiser securely to the boat and let it trail in the water to keep cool.
3. Use the floss as a makeshift clothes line or emergency fishing line. Refugees near the sea could benefit from that use during tough times.
4. Once you have all your washing hanging on the dental floss, you can use it as a badminton net. You can use your shoes as bats and make a ball out of floss. Bet you can’t find that at Dick’s Sporting goods!
5. Ladies and designers at New York Fashion Week know to use the dental floss as sewing thread to sew up any holes in your bag or rucksack, sew a button back on OR to repair a hole in your mosquito net. You can use the floss cutter on the container to cut of bits of stray threads from clothes and bags – therefore there is no need to carry scissors!
6. Use it as a replacement for a broken shoelace – Ok, it is not going to look so cool but if you are REALLY worried about the look, you could temporarily replace the lace in the other shoe as well!
7. Traveling with kids? Use the dental floss as a lead to tie yourself to your kids so that you don’t lose them!
8. Use it as a replacement hair band to tie up or tie back your hair if it’s hot or windy or your hair is just annoying you and getting in your face. Not as stretchy as a Goody hairband, but will work.
9. Get creative and use the floss to create jewelry or garlands (string a few beads, seeds, pods or flowers … use your imagination… and create a pretty anklet, bracelet, necklace and so forth – to add a bit of color or fit in with the locals or to even give to someone as a gift!)
10. Of course the most obvious use for dental floss .. you can actually use it for what it was intended, to clean out the bits that get stuck between your teeth! Goodness knows Donald Trump, Barack Obama and Miss Tennesee all use floss before they are on TV. We have lots of great flossing recommendations on our Facebook page.

We have tested most of these! Floss is really quite useful to have around the house or when traveling. By acting as a temporary or emergency replacement for many things, you can cut down on the amount of luggage you take with you …especially if you are backpacking or hiking and you are prone to taking everything but the kitchen sink when you go away!
Let us know if you have any other great innovative ways to use dental floss while traveling!

Oriana