For those who have yet to become familiar with the charms of the dental dam, it is a thin latex square that can be used as a barrier between mouth and vulva or mouth and anus during oral sex to prevent the transmission of STIs. While it’s currently the only STI prevention measure available specifically for these oral sex acts, it seems that the humble dental dam has yet to achieve popularity.
One factor limiting the use of dental dams is their scarcity. They are not always readily available in pharmacies and sex shops, so it may require a visit to a safe sex clinic or GP to hunt them down in your area (although they are available at the WA AIDS Council in West Perth and the Sexual and Reproductive Health Centre in Northbridge). As any LGBTI person who’s had to have a pap-smear will know, discussions about sexuality with your doctor can be awkward at best.
Many safe sex resources (including the government of Western Australia’s ‘Get the Facts’ website) suggests that an alternative to purchasing a ready-made dental dam is to fashion one by getting a condom open into a square, but it can be a bit of a mood killer to interrupt proceedings for a quick arts and crafts session.
So why can’t dental dams be made more readily available? According to an investigation on the subject by Arielle Duhaime-Ross for The Verge, a number of retailers cite a lack of customer interest. Could it be that the dental dam is caught in a vicious cycle? Perhaps it is not well-known enough to become commercially viable, and its consequent scarcity contributes to its obscurity. Curtin University Associate Professor Sam Winter said that there is “relatively little research” regarding the dental dam and its prevalence in the queer community, but that there may be a number of factors preventing their widespread use including people not knowing they exist or being too embarrassed to purchase them.
Another possibility is that these friendly and occasionally fruity latex squares just aren’t sexy enough. Krista Burton, author of the popular lesbian blog ‘Effing Dykes’ wrote the following evocative statement about performing oral sex with the use of a dental dam: “You may as well put Saran wrap on an ice cream cone.” (Saran wrap is the American answer to Glad wrap, which you should definitely, definitely not use as a substitute for a dental dam).
But honestly, if people can get used to the idea of rolling a weird plastic sleeve over their respective members like some sort of bizarre genital turtleneck, then is the use of dental dams really that much of a stretch? Perhaps the need for protection just doesn’t seem as urgent when there’s no penetration or risk of pregnancy involved. Sadly, a large number of modern sex-havers only received sex education pertaining to the recreational union of penis and vagina.
However, sex is a lot more complicated and varied than simply Tab A being inserted into Slot B, and we really should be aiming to protect ourselves in as many situations as possible. While you can’t get someone pregnant through oral sex no matter how hard you try, it still carries a number of risks.
Cunnilingus can transmit a number of STIs including herpes and genital warts, and analingus carries these same risks with the possibility of other infections such as hepatitis. Both carry risks of HIV infection, and the chance of transmission is higher without protection, especially if menstrual blood or any open wounds are involved.
And really, aren’t most things in life sexier than STIs? Maybe it’s time to give it a dam chance. As the website for the SHEER Glyde Dam cheerfully states, condoms don’t cover it all!
Sophie Joske
