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	Courtesy of Karlen Williams Graybill Advertising This little pick is a big stick in DenTek’s competition with heavyweights like Proctor & Gamble

DenTek Oral Care has become the dentist’s new best friend. The top distributor of disposable floss picks launched a national television advertising campaign last month sending the message that flossing is fun.

The Maryville-based company had advertised in the past and currently dominates the tiny floss pick niche, reporting about $15 million in retail sales and $45 million of total sales, including all its dental-related products, as of July.

This quiet product line has become more popular, pitting the DenTek brand against heavyweights Proctor & Gamble, makers of the Crest Glide brand floss pick, and Johnson & Johnson’s Reach Access Daily Flosser.

“People were buying floss picks; they just didn’t know they were buying our brand,” says Lex Shankle, DenTek’s director of marketing.

Shankle didn’t attach specific goals to the national launch—only that he expects sales to continue to grow in 2006. DenTek will spend $1 million during the nine-week run.
The company retained Karlen Williams Graybill Advertising of New York to develop the television spots, which target people willing to try a disposable flosser and will be shown during syndicated and cable programming such as Oprah and HGTV.

The 10- and 15-second ads featuring men and women employing the “floss, toss, go” convenience of DenTek brand flossers ran in three test markets during an eight-week trial in February, resulting in a 22% sales increase and a lasting impact.

“After the test was over, there still was a decent margin between the markets where the advertising had run versus the markets where it hadn’t,” says Jeff Graybill, active partner with the firm DenTek retained in 2004.

DenTek sells its flossers in the United States and Canada in most retail outlets where traditional consumer dental products are sold, including Wal-Mart.

John Jansheski, president and CEO of DenTek, founded the company in 1983 in San Francisco with his father, Dr. John Jansheski, a dentist who invented a pick with a mirror for consumer use.

The younger Jansheski, who is the company’s sole owner, says he moved DenTek to Blount County in 2000 because “it’s an excellent distribution hub.” His company has grown to 80 employees without taking any outside capital.

And, if this fall’s national push goes as planned, he probably never will need to.

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