11 minute read

Dr. Tim Pruett feels flosstastic!s

PHOTOGRAPHER: FRED LOPEZ

Since beginning his career in dentistry almost a decade ago, Dr. Tim Pruett has heard every reason imaginable as to why patients fail to floss.

“Flossing hurts.”

“Flossing takes too long.”

“Flossing makes my gums bleed.”

“I am not coordinated enough to floss.”

“I don’t like putting my fingers in my mouth.”

“The floss gets stuck between my teeth and it breaks.”

Fortunately, the 35-year-old dentist has invented a wonderful new product that renders every excuse null and void. Flossolution is an innovative dental flossing device he knows will become a game changer for not only his dental patients, but for people around the world. This amazing product uses sonic energy to effortlessly glide the floss between teeth and features Flossguard Technology to protect the gums from being irritated or damaged by the floss. And, for those who are time-conscious, flossing takes less than two minutes.

Thanks to Dr. Pruett, flossing has now become quick, easy, and painless.

Conception of an idea

Many people neglect to floss. Either they subscribe to one or more of the reasons listed previously, or they mistakenly assume brushing their teeth several times a day is enough to maintain proper dental health.

“You can clean the chewing surfaces of your teeth thoroughly with a toothbrush; however, the difficulty lies in cleaning the spaces between your teeth,” Dr. Pruett says. “Almost every time you eat, there are little pieces of food that get stuck between your teeth where your toothbrush cannot reach. This is where bacterial plaque and tartar often build up and cause damage to your teeth and gums, leading to costly and time-consuming oral health problems such as tooth decay, gingivitis, and advanced gum disease.”

A big believer in preventive dentistry, Dr. Pruett and his staff always stress the importance of flossing to their patients. Unfortunately, he finds that even though patients understand the importance of flossing, many have a difficult time making it a priority in their regular hygiene routine.

“In our profession, we work hard to make patient education a priority,” Dr. Pruett says. “I go as far as taking pictures of ’flossing fillings’ after the decay has been removed to show patients how much tooth structure can be lost due to decay and what the fillings look like when we are done. Most of the time, it is easy to get patients motivated to floss for a week or two after their dental visit. The hard part is getting them to incorporate flossing into their hygiene routine on a long-term basis.

“As a dentist, it is difficult when you see patients at what should be considered a routine hygiene exam and you have to tell them about decay or gum disease occurring between their teeth. These patients entrust you with their oral health care, and at some level, you feel you have failed them by not building enough value or effectively motivating them to floss on a daily basis.”

This feeling is what led Dr. Pruett to take matters into his own hands. He knew it was time to move beyond the limits of education and motivation. He searched extensively for a product on the market that could effectively solve the issues people have with flossing, but he was unable to find the solution.

“I understand and agree with the reasons our patients don’t like to floss,” he says. “If you floss using regular methods, flossing can hurt sometimes; it can take too long if you are not good the have unable to find the e stand and are at it; you can traumatize healthy gum tissue with bad technique; no one likes to stick their fingers down their throat to reach those molars; and it does take a little coordination to do it properly. When you hear the same reasons over and over from people from all walks of life, you know without a doubt there is a real problem.”

Two-and-a-half years ago, Dr. Pruett spent the majority of a ‘stay-cation’ in the laboratory at his office. “We always take time off between Christmas and New Year’s Day. It’s a great time to reflect on the previous year and how you can improve as a practice,” he explains. “I spent a lot of that time at my office and in the lab, determined to create a new solution to flossing.”

He focused his knowledge and experience on creating a unique product that would make flossing simple and easy. “I started experimenting with different ideas and applying some basic principles to what we already use in our office for dental hygiene. I became focused on ultrasonic and sonic energy, floss diameter, and the average distance between proximal contact points of teeth and gum tissue,” he says. “It was a really cool moment when the primary concepts for what is now Flossolution hit me like a ton of bricks. I remember how exciting it was when I brought home a really rough version of the first prototype and showed it to my wife.”

Making the decision to produce a real product from a prototype can be daunting, but Dr. Pruett found support from others who have done just that. “My parents taught me the value in finding mentors in life. This began back in high school when I started spending time with Dr. Ray Smith, who helped open my eyes to the profession of dentistry,” he says. “I knew how important it would be to find guidance on this project from others who have gone down the same path. I found it from Mike Reischmann and Steve Henrikson, and I thank them for giving me the confidence to begin this journey over two years ago.” m Mike d I thank nce fast lot energy

Since developing the first prototype, the product has undergone significant testing and numerous revisions to get to the launch point it is at today. “The last few years have been filled with a lot of hard work, fun, and excitement. It is truly amazing how fast time has gone. It takes a lot of energy and effort to develop a new product, and I am thankful for the great support and the awesome team we have developed along the way,” he says.

You don’t need to talk with Dr. Pruett about Flossolution very long to hear about ‘Team Flossolution.’ “It really helps when you are surrounded by highly talented partners that work together as a team. My wife, Heather, has amazing creative skills and has led the effort in making Flossolution a fun and exciting product, which, to be honest, is a difficult thing to do in the dental hygiene market,” he says. “Tina Valbh, with a background in launching new products for major pharmaceutical companies and consulting for the Food and Drug Administration, is able to organize our business systems such that Flossolution customers can expect a quality buying experience from start to finish. Tina’s husband, Sandy Valbh, who is dually licensed in accounting and corporate law, provides the oversight necessary to help manage the many contractual and legal obligations we face as we build. We all share in the common goal of creating an exceptional product with real purpose without taking ourselves so seriously that we don’t have fun with each other and our customers along the way.” That was proven by their decision to film a Flossolution version of the ‘Harlem Shake’ at their launch party! Curious? Check it out at www.Flossolution.com!

Hello Flossolution, goodbye excuses

Dr. Pruett designed Flossolution with the sole purpose of solving every reason why patients fail to floss. I asked him to address the most common.

Flossing hurts!

“Flossolution is designed with patent pending Flossguard technology to eliminate the pain associated with flossing. The Flossguard is a compressible rubber guard that is centered between the tips of the flosser with four fins extending from its base. The key is that the tips of the fins are positioned to touch the chewing surfaces of the teeth just before the floss touches the gums. As the Flossguard touches the tooth’s surface, it gently stops the floss before it has the opportunity to abruptly hit and traumatize the gum tissue. The Flossguard can then be compressed, protecting your gums by controlling the depth at which the floss can travel!

gy to eliminate the pa ru w t touc before it has t gums

Flossing takes too long!

“The Flossengine that drives Flossolution, produces sonic energy that is transferred through the Flossarm to the flosser tips, creating enough power to produce up to 30,000 vibrations a minute. By energizing the floss, it becomes very easy to move it back and forth through the contacts points between teeth. This allows you to floss much faster and with one hand!”

Flossing makes my gums bleed!

“Gums generally bleed for two reasons when flossing. 1) You have gum disease and when the floss touches the inflamed tissues it stimulates bleeding, almost like rubbing an open wound, or 2) You create wounds by flossing with improper technique. I see it every day when I ask patients to show me how they floss, and they start sawing side to side, instead of working it up and down each tooth surface. To solve #1, you need to see your dentist and address the disease, as well as improve your home hygiene by flossing nightly with good technique, after which the inflammation and bleeding will most likely stop. To solve #2, I designed Flossolution to take technique out of the equation. In addition to the benefits of the Flossguard, the floss is designed to be relaxed between the flosser tips, not under tension, which eliminates the paper cut effect that occurs with other flossers or when holding regular floss too tight. The Flossolution approach also eliminates the sawing effect because you floss with one hand and even if you tried, the flosser isn’t wide enough to make sawing movements.”

I’m not coordinated enough to floss!

“Coordination is generally an issue of working effectively with two hands in a tight space. Honestly, I floss people’s teeth everyday and on occasion, I still get tripped up. Flossolution takes one hand out of the equation, making it much easier to do. All you have to do is keep the Flossguard centered over the chewing surfaces of the teeth and let the sonic energy do the work moving the floss up and down each tooth surface!”

I don’t like putting my fingers in my mouth!

“With Flossolution, this answer is pretty self explanatory. You never have to put your fingers in your mouth agian because you can easily control the floss while holding the handle. Also, the Flossarm is designed to allow easy access to the spaces between your teeth, especially those hard to reach molars!”

The floss gets stuck between my teeth and it breaks!

“This happens all the time, especially in cases where a patient has crowded teeth or lots of crowns and fillings. If you have a contact that is repeatedly shredding or breaking floss, I encourage you to see your dentist because that generally indicates a problem and needs to be addressed. Don’t worry, dentists have lots of cool tools to correct it. With Flossolution, we eliminate the potential for shredding and breaking floss by letting the sonic energy move the floss between teeth, keeping the floss from having tensional stress applied to it as it moves through the contact. Even with the tightest contacts, it may take a bit longer for the floss to move through, but the floss will work its way through without breaking. If you have a contact that takes too long with Flossolution, it’s definitely too tight and I would recommend that you see your dentist and have it corrected!”

Another key component to Flossolution’s approach is adding a Brusharm to their system. “It was a no brainer when putting together the components for the system,” Dr. Pruett. “It was great to have control over the type of bristles we selected for our Brusharm accessory. As dentists, we continually fight against problems with toothbrush abrasion. This is the process of traumatizing the teeth and gums through improper technique and stiff bristles to the point that it causes significant gum recession and loss of tooth structure. Everyday my staff and I recommend to patients that they use a soft bristle brush, move it in slow circular motions, and change it out at least every three months. With our system, the Brusharm only comes with soft bristles and you don’t brush with it at all, you just place the bristles on each tooth surface and let the sonic energy do the work. Again, we’ve taken technique out of the equation.”

The way the components of this system are packaged and fit together makes it easy to operate. “After one glimpse at my head, it’s pretty obvious that I use my fair share of shaving razors. They were the inspiration for the design on how to package and replace the flossers in our system,” he says “I love being able to easily change out razors and didn’t see why that couldn’t be done with the flossers in our system. The design for the ‘magazine’ of ten flossers provides for the proper alignment and retention to allow you to easily connect and disconnect flossers to the Flossarm as needed. The Flossarm and Brusharm are also designed to be easily exchanged on the Flossengine. This was mandatory since part of making flossing easy is making it convenient!”

Flossing Made Easy

FLOSSGUARD

Safely protects your gums from flossing trauma and controls the depth at which the floss can travel.

FLOSSARM

Designed to allow easy access to the spaces between your teeth, especially those hard to reach molars.

FLOSSENGINE

Generates the sonic energy that allows the floss to glide effortlessly between your teeth.

Time to launch

Reaching the point of launch has been no quick or easy task for the Flossolution Team. Family and friends, as well as staff members at Dr. Pruett’s office, have played an integral role in this exciting endeavor. “Our family, friends, and co-workers have offered invaluable feedback,” says Dr. Pruett. “By utilizing their opinions and suggestions, we’ve been able to produce a product and image that we’re proud of and feel confident will be well received by our customers.”

“One of the things about dental devices is that they can be considered boring. Most products that you see in the store have an expected look and feel. We have completely moved towards a look with Flossolution that is fun, exciting, and hip. Our belief is that if flossing is fun, flossing is solved,” says Dr. Pruett. With a tagline like “Be a Smart Mouth,” it sounds like their cleverly on their way.

The Flossolution Team launched this innovative product on April 1st through their website, online marketplaces, and social media. It is available to purchase for a very affordable introductory offer of $89 at www.flossolution. com, as well as at Lakeview Comprehensive Dentistry and participating dental offices.

What the future holds

While the device certainly has interesting and unique features, what excites Dr. Pruett the most is having an opportunity to make a far-reaching, positive impact on the oral health of countless people. His eyes light as he excitedly explains how this product can potentially change lives. “This is more than simply eliminating or preventing disease,” he says. “Oral health also plays a significant role in how confident you feel about yourself. If we can help prevent disease and improve self-esteem, then all of our hard work will be completely worth it.”

Although Dr. Pruett can now add inventor to his list of achievements, his faithful patients need not worry; Dr. Pruett is passionate about his practice and dentistry in general. He plans on continuing his hard work and dedication toward the oral healthcare of the residents in Central Florida for many years to come.

“There are few things in life I’m more passionate about than practicing dentistry,” he says. “I’ve developed many wonderful relationships with my patients throughout the years and look forward to continuing those relationships while developing new ones. Now with Flossolution, I have the opportunity to improve the oral health care of people beyond Central Florida, and I couldn’t be happier!”

For more information, visit www.flossolution.com.

Flossolution not only provides a revolutionary way to floss, the brush attachment allows you to clean every tooth’s surface with sonic power, gently, yet effectively, cleaning your teeth and gums.

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