Your teeth will thank you
Rich Bailey invented “Billy Bob Teeth” while he was attending dental school. The gag dentures can transform even the brightest and whitest smiles into a gap-toothed, crooked mess.
During a Las Vegas promotion, Bailey donned the teeth, approached a woman and asked in his best “redneck” voice if he could interest her “in a new set of pearly whites.”
“She asked me, had I done anything to help the people my product had made fun of,” the Moscow dentist said Friday during a visit to Classical Christian Academy in Post Falls. The more Bailey thought about the woman’s words, the guiltier he felt.
To clear his conscience, the dentist has launched a national campaign to make flossing as much a daily lesson in America’s schools as reading and history. “Floss Across America” is being piloted in a handful of Idaho schools, including the Post Falls school.
Bailey, dressed in a white lab coat, visited Classical Christian Academy to see how students have done since the flossing regimen began two weeks ago. Students reported that the flossing was getting easier and their gums were getting tougher and bleeding less.
Most said they didn’t floss daily until it became part of the class routine. Teachers said it only takes about five minutes to pass out supplies, floss and then clean up.
“If we can take five minutes a day to do something that’s going to help them the rest of their lives, it’s worth it,” said teacher Matt Beever.
Fourth-grader Haley Lundeby said that before the school emphasis, she didn’t floss unless her mom made her. Without a reminder, Lundeby said, she’d forget.
Bailey said he hopes to make flossing a habit children will carry into adulthood. He said he’s actually had a patient in his office who proudly professed that he had never flossed his teeth.
That man – who was getting a bad tooth extracted – is appearing in a promotional video Bailey’s using to solicit sponsors for his campaign.
Bailey wants to get floss manufacturers involved and have the effort endorsed by the American Dental Association.
He’s planning a cross-country tour, bringing more schools on board every year.
Bailey envisions a time when restaurants will hand out dental floss alongside the toothpick dispensers, and when soda pop and candy companies will “attach a two-cent piece of floss” to the sugary and enamel-destroying products they market to kids.
He said he won’t hesitate going to great lengths – literally – to promote the cause. Bailey has thought about tying a piece of floss to the Golden Gate Bridge and stringing it all the way to the East Coast.
Flossing can be fun, insists Bailey, who has made up songs about the subject.
On Friday, freshly flossed students sang along to the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” as the dentist – wearing ridiculously large, fake buck teeth – played the guitar.
“Floss, floss, floss your teeth,” they sang. “Floss them every day. Slide the floss between your teeth to keep your smile OK.”