At Rolling Hills Dental, we’re all about advocating for better health through the little ways that have big impact.
Our mission for 2019 is to believe and act on our ability to create change. Here at Rolling Hills Dental – we’re equipped to help you do just that. In just a few visits, you can have an entirely new smile – and feel like a whole new you. Click here to fill out our Smile Concierge Questionnaire and get your free consultation.
Together we’re always working to improve as a practice, and as medical professionals. That’s why we’re so inspired by dentist and cofounder, Chrystle Cu took an everyday problem she was witnessing in her practice, and created a resolution that became one of the hottest new products on the wellness and oral hygiene markets in 2018.
“Flossing is always associated with dread, neglect, or guilt,” says Chrystle Cu. For the past decade as a general dentist Chrystle Cu pedaled the same message, over and over again, to her patients: Flossing will save your teeth. It nearly always fell on deaf ears.“Anytime you mention flossing to a patient, their eyes start to roll back in their head,” she explains. “There is nothing new to say–they already know. Most of the time, they walk in and say, ‘I haven’t been flossing, go ahead and lecture me about it,’ like they’re ready. Their behavior never changes.”
After filling more than 200 cavities flossing would have prevented, back in 2013; while most dentists outsource cleanings to dental hygienists, she did it herself to get a good understanding of why patients hated doing what they should. And then, it hit her. Maybe it was the floss itself: bland, flavorless, and mostly inefficient.
“People didn’t care about floss–part of it was just no one had spent any time thinking about the design at all,” she says. The more popular floss brands use nylon or Teflon, strong materials that won’t shred. But at the same time, they’re also quite slippery and unable to fully grasp plaque, says Chrystle Cu. Her sister Catherine compares it to attempting to clean a dirty dish with a plastic bag.
“How do I convince patients to floss when what was available for them wasn’t very effective? I knew I wanted to create something better.”
And that’s how Chrystle Cu and her sister, Catherine, came to create Cocofloss:
crème de la crème
Why is Cocofloss different? It’s made of 500 loosely woven polyester filaments coated with microcrystalline wax, coconut oil, essential oils, and aromas. The texture gives it scrubbing power, yet because the materials are woven together, it’s also quite like elastic. The fibers are colored bright turquoise blue so that consumers can see their contrasting yellowed plaque (Chrystle Cu refers to it as “immediate feedback”). The coconut oil helps the threads better fit between tight spaces, and then the fibrous threads expand to wash the surfaces clean. It almost works like a net that traps plaque.
“What we learned is that flossing is really an acquired taste–the feeling of having clean gums and clean teeth is something that people don’t know how to appreciate until they know what it feels like.”
“For the generations before us, it was not expected to have your teeth for your whole life,” says Chrystle Cu, noting statistics such that over 50% of Americans aged 65 and up have dentures.
We’re so glad they decided to do something about it.
If you’d like to learn more, check out their #teethforlife campaign – a wonderful reminder that if you want to keep your teeth for life… #floss.
Every one of us encounters a host of small ways we can make a big change, every day. We’re so inspired by Chrystle and Catherine’s attitude towards their ability to #createchange. Where do you want to start?
In just a few visits, you can have an entirely new smile – and feel like a whole new you. Click here to fill out our Smile Concierge Questionnaire and get your free consultation.