Survival Uses for Dental Floss

We usually use dental floss for hygienic purposes, but did you know that this simple everyday item has other potential uses especially in a survival scenario?

There are a lot of survival uses for dental floss so it can be a good thing to have especially when you go for a trip in the wild.

Here are the various survival uses for dental floss.

Sealing supplies in a bag

Dental floss can be used to tie your food supply and hung it up on a tree where animals cannot reach it. Bears have a strong sense of smell and they can smell toothpaste from miles away so you have to put them in bag. You also need to bag your soap, cosmetics and beauty products if you brought them with you.

Cutting food

Dental floss can be used to cut food i.e. fruits, cheese, hard boiled eggs, and fish.

Catching Fish

Dental floss can be used as a fishing line. Use dangling earring or safety pin as a hook and then tie it with dental floss to catch fish. You can also make a fish net out of dental floss; all you have to do is weave it into a fish net – but you’ll be needing a lot of dental floss for this.

Lashing a knife

Hunting for food is sometimes needed when you are out there in the wild. You can make a spear which you can use to hunt and it can also give you a good distance between the wild animal that you are hunting. You can lash a knife or a pair of scissors into a stick to make a spear.

Medicinal purposes

Use dental floss to make a tourniquet to stop the bleeding of a wound. You can also use dental floss to close your wounds.

Starting fire

Waxed floss can be used to start a fire; you can tie it around a dry stick or bundle of kindling and then light it like a candle.

Sewing

Sewing is a helpful skill for repairing rip clothes, tents, etc. 

Shelter rigging         

Use dental floss to tie a tarp into a tree to make a simple tent. You can also use dental floss to tie bundles of woods or any materials in building a shelter.

Tie up meat, poultry and fish

Use waxed dental floss to tie your foods to sticks while cooking in an open fire.

Other survival uses of dental floss:

• Affixing gears or tools
• Making a snare or a trap
• Hair tie
• Hand cuffs (if needed)
• Fixing eye glasses
• Seal leaky pipes
• Repair your shoes

It is really good to have a single item that has a lot of uses in a survival scenario and dental floss is one of them.