The Problem With Floss

You ever have it where you’re flossing, and the floss just will not go between the teeth?

You are standing there, doing your routine, nothing unusual. Then suddenly the floss hits a wall.

Just stops.

Like your teeth held a quick emergency meeting and voted to become one unified tooth.

The Escalation

So now you are forcing it.

Slight adjustment. Different angle. Other side. Back to the first side. Maybe if you approach it with more confidence. Maybe if you pretend you do not care.

Nothing.

It is not even about personal hygiene anymore.

It is about principle.

There is an overwhelming feeling of something wedged permanently between your teeth, and you are not going to let your own mouth win the argument.

The Phantom Problem

It is an awful feeling.

Not pain, exactly.

Just wrong.

A strange pressure that somehow radiates regret.

And now you are desperate to fix it. That imaginary wedge that is not there but absolutely feels there. That phantom problem drilling straight through the jaw into your brain.

It must be extracted at all costs.

Then suddenly, it happens.

The floss slides in.

Clean. Smooth. No resistance.

Like nothing was ever there.

And now you are standing there with proof that the problem was both real and apparently not real, which is a deeply irritating category of problem.