The Food and Drug Administration has greenlit the first-ever lingerie offering oral sex protection, and not only does it seem to be shielding partners from infections; it also adds some extra flavour to the play.
The pioneering underwear, titled Lorals, was developed by Melanie Cristol, who came up with the idea during her honeymoon with her then-wife in Mexico; the latter discovered that she had a sexually-transmittable infection.
When it comes to two female partners, the only means of protection in such instances was a dental dam - a device also used by dentists to isolate lips from teeth.
However, people have almost unilaterally agreed that hardly anything could be less erotic than a dental dam.
“I wanted to feel sexy and confident and use something that was made with my body and actual sex in mind,” said Cristol.
So she came up with single-use latex lingerie, which was described on the product's website as "feather-light" and providing "full sensation". Additionally, the underwear is also vanilla-flavoured.
The innovation appears to be a much hotter alternative for both same-sex and opposite-sex couples, who either use them to spice things up in the bedroom or establish better boundaries.
For some, Lorals turned out to literally be just what the doctor ordered, with the New York Times telling the story of two customers, Shelly and her fiance Ashton, who used the underwear to bring back oral sex into their lives after Ashton battled oral cancer.
The couple was happy to have their favourite part of intimacy return into their life after Ashton experienced problems with his tongue's mobility and sense of taste, but Lorals helped to overcome the problem.
According to Shelly's fiance, the structure of the panties resembled skin, and vanilla taste made it feel “like you’re eating a cookie", while Shelly said she could barely feel the underwear.
So, thanks to the creative invention by Cristol, your Netflix and chill can be both protected (until you get things further than oral) and flavoured.