Material Monday: from the sublime to the not so much...GUM Soft Picks

You'll recall my last 'Material Monday' entry was about the Daily Bible Email. Our local kid who questions everything wondered how this post met the 'MM' qualifications and I had a ready answer: 'MM' is about anything material or technological that makes our life here on earth better. Daily Bible Email (sponsored by the National Bible Reading Union) certainly does that for me. I look forward to each day's offering and can sense a deepening appreciation for God's Word.

So there, Mr. Skeptic.

Today's 'MM' winner, GUM Soft Picks, is a more obvious fit and solves another vexing problem for me.

We all know we should floss at least once per day, having been taught this stern lesson in grammar school via the talking toothbrush film strip and the pills that made the spots you missed while brushing turn a sad shade of pink. One hitch: I hate flossing and simply can't bring myself to do it except in the 4 days leading up to a dental appointment. My hat is off to you if you do it regularly.

Since the BWCA trip, when we brushed with baking soda rather than minty bear attracting toothpaste, I have developed a new toothbrushing routine. I noticed that the baking soda treatment seemed to leave my teeth feeling cleaner and my mouth fresher for longer. So I've thrown the Crest away and have continued brushing with baking soda.

I was searching around in the dental care aisle at Wal-mart for other products that would fit my new regime. I found this expensive but dragon-breath-defeating mouthwash there and the GUM Soft Picks. What attracted me at first, was the neat little travel case that's included in each package and how much they didn't look like dental floss.

At $2.40 for 40 picks, this verges on being a luxury item, and you have aim carefully because if you hit your tooth instead of the interstices, you'll bend the pick beyond usefulness. But besides that, they're just about perfect and remove one more item from my list of things to feel guilty about not doing.