Dental tape and process for its manufacturing

A process of making a unitary dental floss tape, having a thickness of about 0.02-0.1 mm, a width of about 0.25-6 mm and a predetermined degree of fibrillation during use, which process comprises;

• exposing an ultra-high molar mass polyethylene multi-filament strand precursor to a temperature within the melting point range of the polyethylene for a time sufficient to at least partly fuse adjacent filaments while simultaneously stretching the precursor, and
• varying the temperature and time of exposure of the ultra-high molar mass polyethylene multi-filament strand precursor to achieve a desired degree of fusion between adjacent filaments thereof and thereby in turn controllably obtain a predetermined degree of fibrillation of the unitary tape during use.

A dental floss product comprising a unitary tape of ultra-high molar mass polyethylene having an intrinsic viscosity of at least 5 dl/g, as measured in decalin at 135° C., the tape having a thickness of about 0.02-0.1 mm, a width of about 0.25-6 mm and a predetermined degree of fibrillation during use, wherein the tape has a tensile strength of at least 1.8 GPa, wherein the tape is obtained by a process comprising:

• exposing a ultra-high molar mass polyethylene multi-filament strand precursor to a temperature within the melting point range of the polyethylene for a time sufficient to at least partly fuse adjacent filaments while simultaneously stretching the precursor, and
• varying the temperature and time of exposure of the ultra-high molar mass polyethylene multi-filament strand precursor to achieve a desired degree of fusion between adjacent filaments thereof and thereby in turn controllably obtain a predetermined degree of fibrillation of the unitary tape during use.