Manually held dental flossers

Details Manually held dental flossers Manually held dental flossers

2006-08-01

2006-08-01

Wilson, John J. (Department: 3732)

Toilet

Toothpick

Having thread holder

C132S326000

Reexamination Certificate

active

07082950

ABSTRACT:
A dental flossing device is characterized by a flossing circuit comprised of a flossing supply spool and a take-up spool mounted to a housing. The floss feeds from the supply spool along a pair of prongs forming a fork extension of the handle and is stretched across the prongs and appropriately tensioned to be inserted into a users mouth for flossing. To maintain tension, a pair of ratchet pawls are jointly engageable with a ratchet mounted for co-rotation with the take-up spool. The pawls are offset relative to the ratchet teeth to ensure appropriate tension. Tension on the supply spool side of the flosser is achieved with a tension arm in constant engagement with tension teeth co-rotatably mounted with the spool. When a floss advancing trigger is not depressed, a brake pawl formed at one end of the trigger is spring biased into locking engagement with these teeth while the tension arm assures proper tension on the supply side. In an alternative preferred embodiment, only one tensioning ratchet pawl engages the ratchet mounted for co-rotation with the take-up spool. A different ratchet pawl, mounted to one end of a ratchet arm pivotally secured to the flosser housing beneath the ratchet, is engaged by the trigger to drivingly contact the ratchet to rotate the take-up spool. In this latter embodiment, the brake pawl is replaced with a projection formed on the trigger that is adapted to engage the supply spool tensioning ratchet to lock the ratchet in the released position of the trigger to prevent supply spool rotation and maintain the floss circuit in a tight condition.

REFERENCES:
patent: 1700550 (1929-01-01), Stafford
patent: 3106216 (1963-10-01), Kirby
patent: 3340881 (1967-09-01), Cowan
patent: 3472247 (1969-10-01), Borsum et al.
patent: 3534745 (1970-10-01), Waters
patent: 3667483 (1972-06-01), McCabe
patent: 3734107 (1973-05-01), Thierman
patent: 3746017 (1973-07-01), Casselman
patent: 3759274 (1973-09-01), Warner
patent: 3908677 (1975-09-01), Beach
patent: 3927687 (1975-12-01), Thierman
patent: 4031908 (1977-06-01), Ting
patent: D251859 (1979-05-01), Kent
patent: 4235253 (1980-11-01), Moore
patent: 4245658 (1981-01-01), Lecourturier
patent: 4319595 (1982-03-01), Ulrich
patent: 4326549 (1982-04-01), Hinding
patent: 4458702 (1984-07-01), Grollimund
patent: 4518000 (1985-05-01), Leverette
patent: 4586521 (1986-05-01), Urso
patent: 4605025 (1986-08-01), McSpadden
patent: 4706695 (1987-11-01), Urso
patent: 4756202 (1988-07-01), Kawamoto
patent: 4830032 (1989-05-01), Jousson
patent: 4883080 (1989-11-01), Lang
patent: 5016660 (1991-05-01), Boggs
patent: 5033150 (1991-07-01), Gross et al.
patent: 5038806 (1991-08-01), Ewald
patent: 5085236 (1992-02-01), Odneal et al.
patent: 5094256 (1992-03-01), Barth
patent: 5176157 (1993-01-01), Mazza
patent: 5183064 (1993-02-01), Barth
patent: 5183065 (1993-02-01), Mason
patent: 5184632 (1993-02-01), Gross et al.
patent: 5186191 (1993-02-01), Loubier
patent: 5188133 (1993-02-01), Romanus
patent: 5207773 (1993-05-01), Henderson
patent: 5224500 (1993-07-01), Stella
patent: 5269331 (1993-12-01), Tanriverdi
patent: 5678578 (1997-10-01), Kossak et al.
patent: 5822874 (1998-10-01), Nemes
patent: 6095192 (2000-08-01), Gleasman et al.
patent: 1000533 (1976-11-01), None
patent: 3625991 (1988-01-01), None
patent: WO 90/11057 (1990-10-01), None
patent: 0 453418 (1991-10-01), None
patent: 2141935 (1985-01-01), None
patent: 139048 (1980-04-01), None
patent: 52610 (1982-12-01), None
patent: 098442 (1986-05-01), None

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Manually held dental flossers does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Manually held dental flossers, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Manually held dental flossers will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3674473