Method and apparatus for brushing teeth

Abstract

This is a method and apparatus for brushing teeth. The method embodies an up and down chewing action on a resilient cushioning element and bristles having relatively soft frayed or filamented ends to avoid injury to the gums; the design of the brush unit is illustrated in several different forms, one being a plurality of radial fingers mounted on a handle supported hub and engaging the sides of the teeth during the chewing operation. This form of the apparatus is also adapted for actuation to a back and forth oscillating action which produces a rolling of the fingers along the teeth. Other forms of the invention embody brush type units specifically constructed to facilitate chewing thereon while simultaneously brushing the teeth with an up and down action.

Description

The dental profession has recognized for some time that up and down brushing is a more effective way of cleaning the inter proximal areas of the teeth. However, this is much more difficult than brushing crosswise along the surface of the teeth and is a very tedious operation at best. The present invention involves an up and down chewing action on a specially constructed brush or cleaning unit specifically designed to prevent injury to the gums while still contacting the inter proximal areas of the teeth to remove food particles therefrom and to remove the plaque from all portions of the tooth's surfaces without injury to the gum. By using a chemical available on the market which discolors the plaque coating in order to make it visible, it is possible to determine the effectiveness of the chewing brushing action and it has been found that with even relatively short brushing periods the chewing action produces far superior over all cleaning of the complete tooth surface than do any of the other methods of brushing teeth.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a new method for brushing teeth which embodies the use of a chewing up and down action against a cushioning member on which the cleaning bristles are mounted.

An efficient cleaning brush embodies two opposed banks of bristles for simultaneously engaging both the inner and outer tooth surfaces during the chewing operation.

It is a specific object to provide a tooth cleaning unit made in the form of opposed concentric rings of bristles at least the outer rings of which embody soft filamented ends to avoid damaging the gums while the operator is chewing against the cushioned central hub member on which the rings or bristles are mounted or is rolling the rings along the surfaces of the upper and lower rows of the teeth.

It is a further object to provide an attachment for a soft conventional toothbrush which will permit the same to be used with a chewing action.

These and other objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following description made in connection with the accompanying drawing wherein like reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view showing one form of my brushing apparatus with a special multiple toothpick type cleaning attachment on the other end of the gripping handle thereof.

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the brush apparatus shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view showing the apparatus in cleaning position around both the upper and lower teeth.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional view showing a modified form of my brushing apparatus.

One form of apparatus embodying this invention is illustrated in FIGS. 1 through 4. In this form the tooth cleaning elements constitute a plurality of bristles 20 in the shape of radially oriented fingers mounted on a central hub member 21 and extending outwardly therefrom in "spider leg" fashion. Each individual bristle has a soft filamented end 20a to prevent injury to the gums. In the form illustrated three concentric rings of bristles are provided, each containing a plurality of the bristles 20. The outer ring of bristles is designated by the letter "A", the middle ring by the letter "B" and the inner ring by the letter "C". The central hub 21 has a cushioning sleeve 22 surrounding the same which provides a spacer between opposed concentric rings of bristles as best shown in FIG. 3. A handle 23 is mounted on the end of the hub 21 and extends at right angles thereto. The three concentric rings of bristles A, B and C form one bank of bristles designated by I. A second bank of bristles II is also mounted on the common hub 21 with the respective banks of bristles I and II disposed in opposed relation as best shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. In this form of the invention a central brush 23a is mounted on the hub 22 and has radially extending bristles 22b, the outer ends of which define a cylinder concentric with said hub. Both sides of the teeth and the inter proximal areas thereof will be simultaneously cleaned by the bristles 20 when the banks I and II are inserted into the mouth as illustrated in FIG. 3 and the individual merely chews up and down against the resilient cushioning sleeve or bumper 22. This form of the invention is also adapted for rolling along the surfaces of the teeth by back and forth oscillating action by the user. In addition to the cleaning action described above the chewing surfaces of the teeth are cleaned by the bristles 22b during the chewing action.

A second form of the invention is illustrated in FIG. 5 wherein a ring of spider like bristles 120 is mounted on the outer periphery of a compressible center hub member 121. The hub 121 is made from relatively soft material which will yield sufficiently to contract the finger like bristles as shown in full lines in FIG. 5 when the hub is compressed as by the chewing pressure thereagainst. It will be apparent that the axis of the ring of the bristles 120 and the hub thereof will be substantially vertical and will coincide with the center lines through the teeth of the teeth, as contrasted with the axis of the rings A, B and C in for form of the invention shown in FIGS. 1 through 4 wherein said axis is disposed generally horizontal and normal to the axis of the teeth.

It will be seen that I have provided a highly efficient method and apparatus for brushing teeth which have proved to be more effective than methods and apparatus previously known. A concept of chewing on a brush is considerably easier than previously known methods and is therefore particularly adapted for use by young children and relatively old people. All forms of the invention are particularly adapted for use with the chewing type cleaning action and the form shown in FIG. 1 through 4 is also adapted for use by rolling the same between the upper and lower rows of teeth.

It will of course be understood that various changes may be made in the form, details, arrangement and proportions of the parts without departing from the scope of this invention as set forth in the appended claims.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A toothbrush comprising

a handle,

a bristle mounting head connected to said handle,

a cushioning element mounted on said head, and

a plurality of cleaning bristles carried by said head and having certain of said bristles bent to form an acute angle to the direction of motion produced by up and down chewing action against the cushioning element.

2. The structure set forth in claim 1 wherein said head comprises a hub member disposed at right angles to said handle, and said cushioning element having a plurality of circumferentially arranged bristles extending generally radially around said hub-for forming at least one generally circular ring of bristle elements with the axis thereof disposed substantially concentrically with the axis of said hub member.

3. The structure set forth in claim 1 wherein each bristle element has the brushing ends thereof filamented to produce soft tooth and gum engaging end portions.

4. The structure set forth in claim 2 wherein the bristles include a plurality of substantially concentric rings of bristle elements forming a first set of rings.

5. The structure set forth in claim 4 wherein a second set of concentric rings of bristles is provided on said hub member in generally opposed spaced relation to said first set of rings.

6. The structure set forth in claim 1 and said cushioning element comprising a second set of bent bristles mounted on the opposite side of said head from the first mentioned bristles so that chewing action against the opposed bristles will simultaneously clean both the upper and lower teeth.