Brushing – scrubbing – and general cleaning – Implements – Brush or broom
Patent
1988-04-04
1989-09-12
Feldman, Peter
Brushing, scrubbing, and general cleaning
Implements
Brush or broom
15201, 1510494, A46B 904
Patent
active
048646768
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a tooth brush comprising a brush handle, a brush stem, and a brush head which carries on the base face thereof a plurality of bristle tufts rising up in a generally uniform direction.
Tooth brushes of the above kind are known conventionally and in widespread use in designs for both manual operation and electrical operation.
A drawback of all conventional tooth brushes is the insufficient cleaning efficiency in the area of the gaps between teeth. This is due to the fact that normally a rigid brush head carries a bristle array including a plurality of bristle tufts which define a substantially planar and coherent bristle surface. However, as the teeth do not define a planar surface, complete or at least sufficient cleaning of the gaps between teeth is not, or hardly, possible. The bristles of such brushes may enter the gap between teeth only with a correspondingly large deformation of the adjacent bristles. To this end, a correspondingly high pressing force must be exerted on the brush head; however, this may result in damage to the hard substance of the teeth, e. g. in wedge-shaped cleaning defects on the necks of teeth, in the course of time. Further, so high a pressing force results in the feeling of pains in the gums (gingiva), whereby a user of a tooth brush is caused to exert a lower pressing force. Finally, it is a further drawback that the bristles in a short time become deformed permanently under a high pressing force against the surface of the teeth thereby further impairing the cleaning efficiency. Actually, an adequate cleaning effect may be obtained even with the above-described tooth brushes when specific teeth cleaning techniques are adopted; in practice, however, it can be observed that such techniques are too complicated, such that these techniques are rarely practised.
Furthermore, attempts have been made to improve the cleaning efficiency by adopting special positions or attitudes of individual bristle tufts or groups of tufts, e. g. V-position or inclined position; in practice, however, any deciding improvements could not be obtained thereby, because the fundamental drawbacks of conventional tooth brushes exist as before.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, it is the object of the invention to provide a tooth brush of the kind as outlined above, which tooth brush avoids the indicated drawbacks and provides for improved surface contact to the teeth, which permits to thoroughly clean the gaps between teeth even without adopting special teeth cleaning (or brushing) techniques, which avoids damage to teeth due to excessively high pressing forces, and which provides for effective and at the same time gentle dental hygiene.
According to the invention, this object is solved by a tooth brush of the kind as outlined above, wherein the brush head is formed of a plurality of head sections being resiliently movable relative to each other and each being provided with one or more bristle tufts.
The configuration of the tooth brush according to the invention permits the brush head to conform itself to the surface of the teeth, including the gaps between teeth, such that good full-surface contact of the brush head or its bristle array, respectively, with the tooth and a good cleaning efficiency thereof is obtained, on the one hand. On the other hand, a local excessive pressing force of the bristles against the tooth is avoided, because the respective head section of the brush head is adapted to yield resiliently.
According to a preferred embodiment of the tooth brush, the brush stem is divided, at least in the region adjacent the brush head, in its longitudinal direction into a plurality of substantially parallel, resiliently deflectable part stems (or sub-stems), with each part stem having associated therewith at least one head section. Hereby, elastic deflectability of the head sections in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the tooth is realized in a simple and also effective manner, whereby the pushing and drawing forces generat
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"Thin Solid Films", Band III, No. 4, Jan. 1984, Elsevier Sequoia, Structure and Properties of Dispersion-Strengthened Cr-MgO, Cr-Y.sub.2 O.sub.3, Cr-Y, and Cr-Cu Condensates, pp. 285-291.
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