Combination Toothbrush And Pick

Abstract

The disclosure herein is of a sanitized, disposable, tooth cleaning article which includes a nonsplintering handle, having a pick portion formed at one end, which portion is normally confined within a foamed plastic scrub member, designed to scrub and clean the teeth as a toothbrush, the handle being adhered to the member in such manner as to facilitate projection of the pick portion therefrom when the member is manipulated to cause the pick to enter the interstices between teeth for particle removal whilst the scrub member conforms to and moves over the surfaces of the teeth adjacent such interstices simultaneously cleaning those surfaces.

Description

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

It is a particular object of the instant invention to provide a disposable article which is useful for cleaning teeth and incorporates therein the equivalent of a toothpick, so that particles which may be lodged between the teeth and in the interstices thereof, may be removed without damaging the teeth, and in fact without the necessity for a separate article for such purposes.

A more particular object of the invention is to provide an article of the class described, in which the pick for particle removal is incorporated in the portion which effects the scrubbing action on the teeth in such a manner as to be concealed substantially therewithin so that in normal use of the article, usual manipulation for cleaning most of the surfaces of the teeth may be resorted to, but in specific instances where particles are present, the pick portion may be projected outwardly from the scrubbing portion of the article so that the particles may be removed in each case, whilst the scrubbing article is in engagement with the surfaces adjacent the area in which the articles may be lodged and thereby effects a specific and local cleaning action during such manipulation.

Another object of the invention is to provide an article of the class described, in which a handle is provided, which handle incorporates at one end thereof the pick portion, the handle being formed of nonsplintering material such as rolled, hard-waxed paper, and the pick portion being formed in any particular manner so as to have a spadelike configuration which will effect the particle removal as desired, but which is normally concealed within and shielded by the special scrubbing portion of the article, but may be extended or projected as required when necessary.

Other and further objects of the invention will be understood from a consideration of the specification appended hereto, and disclosed in the drawing, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of the article of this invention, showing the handle and scrub member thereon, with dotted lines indicating the position of the pick portion within the scrub member.

FIG. 2 is an end view from the right-hand end of FIG. 1, showing the configuration of the scrub member.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are top and side views respectively, of the spadelike portion of the handle in enlarged detail, being fragmentary views,

FIG. 5 is a somewhat diagrammatic view, indicating a member of use of the article in effecting particle removal as related to the teeth in a lower jaw, for example.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now to FIG. 1, the article hereof consists of an elongated handle 1, which is preferably for the purposes hereof, formed of hard-waxed, rolled paper, providing a stiff yet somewhat flexible handle and one which does not have any potential splinters such as a wooden handle might have, and which further may be of generally sanitary nature, the end of said handle 1 being indicated in FIGS. 3 and 4, having a formed portion indicated at 2, which is of spadelike nature, provided by grinding the end of the handle 1, so that it is in side elevation as shown in FIG. 4, and tapered to a substantially fine tip indicated at 3 which is relatively wide as suggested at 3 in FIG. 3.

After this is formed as indicated, suitable plastic is placed thereon and by pressure thereby creates the form portion indicated which will hold its shape and be effective for particle removal as is to be described hereinafter.

Suitably arranged on the same end of the handle 1, is a scrub member 4, which is comprised of a polyester-urethane derivative selected for firm, crisp compression. One of the bases for establishing the compression as firm and crisp is the density of the material, and in this instance the density of the material measured in weight per cubic foot is indicated as being approximately 2 lbs. per cubic foot.

Such a material has a large area of windows against nonwindows so called, although the description might might be said to be open spaces and closed areas.

As indicated in FIG. 2, this scrub member 4 is an elongated fluted body having the 7 apices as suggested at 5, this having been found to provide the most suitable type of surface to present to the teeth for effecting a cleansing action thereon.

This polyester-urethane derivative is sanitized so as to resist bacterial development and thereby provides for a unitary article which might be packaged for one-time use and disposed of thereafter.

As indicated in FIG. 1, the handle 1 is positioned within the scrub member 4 so that the end 3 of the spadelike formed portion 2 is contained in a recess R and terminates very close to the end surface 6 of the brush member 4; but nevertheless is spaced sufficiently far from such surface that during normal use the pick portion or spadelike portion 2 will not usually (except under extreme conditions) contact any portion of the interior of the mouth, unless specifically intended so to do.

In other words, the material of which the scrub member 4 is formed is sufficiently resistant to deformation as to normally prevent this, but at the same time resilient enough so that when desired, the spadelike portion 2 of the handle 1 may be manipulated as indicated in FIG. 5 so as to extend into the interstices of the teeth such as 7 and 8, being teeth in the lower jaw and represented somewhat schematically.

As indicated in this FIG. 5, the spadelike portion 2 and particularly the end 3 thereof, has been inserted between the teeth 7 and 8, and in so doing caused to project from the scrub member 4 in view of the resilience thereof and the fact that there is a suitable opening usually such as R in such scrub member for this purpose.

It will be further apparent that the end 6 of the scrub member 4 is thereby brought into close and cleaning contact with the surfaces of the teeth 7 and 8 between which the pick portion 2 has been inserted.

From this, it will be noted that suitable manipulation to remove any particle such as would be effected by this manipulation, at the same time provides for the movement of the end surface 6 over the face of the teeth so as to clean them at the same time in a particular manner.

In order to provide additional flexibility over that inherently involved in the provision of the material from which the article hereof is formed, and specifically the scrub member 4 of such article, a pair of peripheral grooves 10 and 11 are provided as indicated in FIG. 1, so that when the scrub member 4 is at repose, there is a slight spacing between the sections a, b, and c, although the member is in fact integral, since the grooves do not extend all the way to the handle 1 thereof.

The advantage of these grooves 10 and 11 is to enable the flexing of the respective section a, b, and c, and as illustrated particularly in FIG. 5 when the section c is in engagement with the teeth such as 7 and 8, and in this case particularly it is noted in respect to the tooth 8,--the section c will be permitted to flex over and extend farther into engagement with the surface of the tooth 8. There is thus tended to be formed a sort of V-shaped opening indicated at 12 in FIG. 5, although necessarily somewhat exaggerated in extent, provided by the flexing of the section c.

On the opposite side of the section and in engagement with the tooth 7, the portion of the section c which is in engagement with said tooth, is permitted to flex similarly and extend around the surface of the tooth 7 because the groove 11 permits additional compression and movement of this portion of the section c.

The groove 10 will likewise provide additional flexiblity without at the same time depriving the entire scrub member 4 of its desired action in cleaning the teeth when it is used as a conventional toothbrush so that fluted body and particularly the apices thereof may be used in longitudinal contact with the teeth or otherwise manipulated so as to effect cleaning thereof.

It is of course clear that the scrub member 4 is suitably adhered to the handle 1 so as to be maintained in the condition indicated under use, and of course by suitable material which is in itself sanitized or sufficiently so as to prevent bacterial development.

In view of the foregoing, it will be clear that the article set forth herein may be manipulated in many different ways so as to remove particles between teeth irrespective of location thereof, and in so doing provide for cleansing the surfaces of the teeth adjacent the interstices in which the particles may be lodged.

Claims

I claim:

1. A dental pick, comprising

a. a rigid rodlike handle member (1) terminating at one end in a reduced sharp tip portion (2) adapted for insertion in the interstices between teeth to remove food particles therefrom; and

b. a generally cylindrical scrub member (4) formed of a compressible synthetic foam material adapted to conform to the surfaces of teeth during the cleaning thereof, said scrub member containing a central longitudinal cylindrical through bore the diameter of which corresponds generally with that of said handle member, said scrub member being mounted concentrically on said handle member at a position in which the extremity (3) of said tip portion is contained within said bore in axially inwardly spaced relation relative to the end surface (6) of said scrub member, said reduced sharp tip portion being spaced radially inwardly from the adjacent wall surface of said bore to define a cylindrical recess (R), whereby said tip portion is freely spaced about its circumference from said bore wall and is normally concealed in an inoperative position within said recess to prevent inadvertent engagement of said tip portion with the mouth of the user, said scrub member containing in its outer periphery a circumferential groove (11) axially spaced from said end surface to define a flexible annular end section (c) containing said recess, whereby upon axial compression of said annular end section by the teeth, said end section is caused to flex to cause said tip portion to extend in an operative position axially beyond said end surface.

2. Apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said scrub member contains on its outer periphery a plurality of circumferentially arranged longitudinally extending flutes, and further wherein said synthetic foam material comprises a polyester urethane derivative having a density of about 2 pounds per cubic foot.

3. Apparatus as defined in claim 2, wherein said handle member comprises a stiff flexible roll of hard waxed paper, the end of said handle member being squeezed to cause said tip portion to have a spadelike configuration.