Brushing – scrubbing – and general cleaning – Implements – Brush or broom
Patent
1999-01-19
2000-05-30
Chin, Randall E.
Brushing, scrubbing, and general cleaning
Implements
Brush or broom
151765, 152072, 15DIG5, A46B 904
Patent
active
060676841
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates, in general, to toothbrushes used for cleaning human teeth and maintaining dental hygiene and, more particularly, to a toothbrush with bristles made from a soft material with both a high polishing power and a high water repellency, thus effectively cleaning teeth without injuring one's teeth or gums and being used for effectively brushing front, canine and molar teeth of different sizes and configurations, and being convenient to a user while brushing teeth.
BACKGROUND ART
As well known to those skilled in the art, several types of toothbrushes, each of which is used for cleaning human teeth and maintaining dental hygiene, are proposed and widely used. Most typical toothbrushes are individually provided with a long handle. A great number of nylon bristles are densely set on one end of the handle, thus forming a brushing head of the toothbrush. A replaceable toothbrush, of which the brushing head is detachably attached to the handle thus being replaceable with a new head when existing bristles are frictionally abraded or deformed, is proposed.
In most typical toothbrushes, the bristles are made from synthetic fiber. For dental hygiene, most dentists advise people to brush one's teeth three times a day within three minutes after breakfast, lunch and dinner. Such repeated tooth brushing action allows the synthetic fiber bristles to injure one's teeth or gums, thus causing the teeth to be sensitive to cold while eating or drinking cold or sour food or beverages. A problem experienced in a known toothbrush with a replaceable head is that the brushing head fails to be securely fixed to the handle and is unexpectedly separated from the handle. The nylon bristles are sharpened at their tips so that the bristles are not free from injuring one's teeth.
Meanwhile, toothbrushes with animal hair bristles. which were typically used at the time of the undeveloped petrochemical industry, do not injure one's teeth or gums. However, the animal hair bristles are problematic in that they are easily removed from the handles.
The animal hair bristles are also expensive and have a low durability so that such bristles increase production costs of the toothbrushes and reduce the expected life span of the toothbrushes. In this regard, the bristles of toothbrushes have been made from synthetic fiber, which is easily prepared and has a high durability.
While a user brushes his teeth using such a toothbrush with the synthetic fiber bristles, the sharpened tips of the bristles physically crush the food remnants stuck on the teeth or lodged between the teeth and remove the food remnants while polishing the teeth.
However, the synthetic fiber bristles may injure one's teeth or gums while brushing the teeth and may cause a rejection symptom of the teeth because the synthetic fiber does not have an affinity for the human body including teeth.
The damage to the teeth caused by such synthetic fiber bristles is more serious than that expected from an organic material such as cloth, leather or fur having a hardness similar to the synthetic fiber bristles.
It is thus preferable to produce the bristles of a toothbrush using organic materials having an affinity for the human body. However, the bristles made from such organic materials are problematic in that they fail to achieve the tooth cleaning effect expected from the synthetic fiber bristles. It is thus necessary to produce a toothbrush using a material, which is not expensive and easily handled during a production process and is free from generating toxic materials while brushing teeth, and has a high durability.
In order to provide an appropriate material for toothbrushes, physical and chemical characteristics of known materials have been actively studied by the applicant of this invention as follows.
A) Crude rubber (natural rubber): crude rubber is typically produced by adding an acid into latex (rubber tree sap) prior to performing a congelation and drying process. Known crude rubbers are classified into various types in accordance with
REFERENCES:
patent: 1578074 (1926-03-01), Chandler
patent: 2618003 (1952-11-01), Robey
patent: 4020521 (1977-05-01), Velasquez
patent: 5027463 (1991-07-01), Daub
Chin Randall E.
Kweon Young-Cheol
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