CN111714781B

CN111714781B - Tooth whitening combination and using method thereof

Info

Publication number: CN111714781B
Application number: CN202010573115.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王静; 庞惠卿; 高东东
Original assignee: Beijing Summer Sprout Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Summer Sprout Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-06-24
Filing date: 2020-06-24
Publication date: 2022-08-05
Anticipated expiration: 2040-06-24
Also published as: CN111714781A

Abstract

A tooth whitening composition and method of use thereof are disclosed. The tooth whitening composition includes at least one light source, a triplet-triplet annihilation up-conversion (TTA-UC) material system, and a tooth aesthetic. The TTA-UC material system is used in the oral cavity, so that the light source can be arranged outside the oral cavity, great convenience is brought to a user, the teeth can be safely and effectively whitened, discomfort caused by using the existing buccal instrument is avoided, and normal speaking is not influenced; in addition, when a proper light source is adopted, the phototherapy beauty treatment on the skin of cheeks, lips and even the whole face can be realized while teeth are whitened, and the time of a user is greatly saved. In addition, the application of the TTA-UC material system in the aspect of tooth sterilization is also disclosed.

Description

Tooth whitening combination and using method thereof

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of tooth whitening/sterilization, in particular to a tooth whitening combination. The tooth whitening composition includes at least one light source, a triplet-triplet annihilation up-conversion (TTA-UC) material system, and a tooth aesthetic. In addition, methods of using the tooth whitening combination, a tooth whitening composition, use of a TTA-UC material system in tooth whitening and use of a TTA-UC material system in tooth disinfection are disclosed.

Background

With the improvement of living standard, people pay more and more attention to their own care and health in order to have good image quality, and dental care is one of the most popular items. In the dental care field, whitening and health of teeth are important. Tooth whitening is a very popular cosmetic item. Consumers have a strong desire for whiter teeth. Tooth whitening methods such as ceramic patches, full-ceramic crowns, and tooth bleaching are widely used because the tooth bleaching method has little damage to the tooth and low cost. Among all whitening methods, the cold light tooth whitening technology is a type of whitening method which takes effect quickly and has lasting effect at present, so that the cold light tooth whitening technology is popular with consumers. In addition, in the health of teeth, as the society develops and the diet changes in a variety of ways, diseases of teeth caused by bacterial infection are more and more developed, and thus, people are urgently required to sterilize and disinfect teeth to protect teeth. There are two main options available to people in terms of sterilization of teeth, one is the search for dental medical related solutions, which are often expensive and difficult to schedule freely; the other is to sterilize the teeth or the articles related to tooth cleaning by oneself in daily life, for example, some toothpaste, mouthwash or over-the-counter medicines with sterilizing effect are used, or an instrument suitable for household light sterilization is used.

The cold light tooth whitening technology is a technology that blue light with the wavelength of 480-520nm is irradiated on the surface of a tooth coated with a tooth beautifying agent, and the tooth beautifying agent rapidly generates oxidation reduction under the illumination effect, so that pigments attached to the surface and deep layer of the tooth are removed to achieve the tooth whitening effect. Besides emitting blue light between 480 and 520nm, the cold light lamp may need to use a filter or other technologies to filter out the wavelength band that may cause harm, such as an ultraviolet band with a wavelength less than 380nm that is harmful to cells.

With the development of cold light tooth whitening technology, there are many patents based on this, such as CN302002667S, CN106237539A, CN202458759U, CN304258752S, etc.; there are a variety of tooth whitening instruments on the market, such as https:// item.jd.hk/44469449080. html. The conventional tooth whitening apparatus can be classified into a medical cold light whitening apparatus (see fig. 1a) and a home cold light whitening apparatus (see fig. 1 b). The medical cold light whitening instrument is adopted to whiten teeth, although the effect is good, the large instrument needs to be operated by a special dentist, a patient using the instrument needs to go to a hospital personally, the whole whitening process is long, the steps are complex, and the whitening is not convenient enough. In addition, the cost of whitening teeth with a medical cold light whitening instrument is also high. The household cold light whitening instrument can achieve the whitening effect similar to or even identical to that of a medical tooth whitening instrument under the condition of reasonable use due to the convenient operation mode and the small size, so that the household cold light whitening instrument is popular among consumers. Most household tooth beautifying instruments sold on the market at present mainly use a blue light LED as a light source, and although the LED has small volume and light weight, the volume occupied by the LED after being integrated in a module form is still large, and the LED is particularly not suitable for being used as a light source used in the oral cavity. Whether a medical or home-use cold light whitening apparatus is used, the light emitting part must be placed inside the oral cavity during the use process to achieve the effect of light, as shown in fig. 1c, which is a graph of the effect when the home-use cold light whitening apparatus is used. IN addition to the luminescence tooth-beautifying apparatus, some luminescence tooth-whitening toothbrushes, such as patents CN1842305B, IN233967B, etc. by procter company. The luminescence tooth whitening instrument is inconvenient to use because it needs to be contained in the oral cavity for 15-60 minutes to achieve the effect of whitening teeth, during which normal speaking is necessarily affected. Secondly, the procedure is not aesthetically pleasing and comfortable. In a tooth whitening process, a patient can wear the light source outside the oral cavity, but the existing tooth whitening instruments emitting blue light or appliances such as a toothbrush cannot be realized.

The widely accepted tooth beautifying agent in the market at present mainly takes hydrogen peroxide as a main component, and the concentration is generally between 15 and 30 percent. The mechanism of bleaching teeth with hydrogen peroxide is complicated, and hydrogen peroxide is mainly thought to generate various free radicals such as H.,. OOH, and. OH. However, in practical applications, the rate of generating radicals by hydrogen peroxide is relatively slow, and the irradiation with the blue light with the wavelength of 480-. However, 480nm-520nm blue light is not friendly to living cells and even tissues due to its relatively high energy. According to the results of cytological studies, blue light with a wavelength of less than 500nm can seriously damage cells because its irradiation causes an increase in the species and concentration of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) inside the cells. In contrast, light having a wavelength of more than 500nm is relatively friendly to cells because it is not high enough in energy and causes generation of harmful substances in cells to a much reduced extent. This means that it is desirable to produce blue light only at the tooth area to be whitened, while leaving the other areas free of blue light during the tooth whitening process.

On the other hand, the main treatment means for inflammation caused by serious dental bacterial infection is to achieve the treatment effect by sterilizing and diminishing inflammation through medicines, but the defect is that the long-term medication is possibly required due to the enhanced drug resistance of the bacteria, and the long-term medication of a human body is easy to cause some side effects, such as staining of teeth. Recent researches find that light with the wavelength of 400-450nm has higher energy, particularly blue light with the wavelength of 400-520nm can excite photosensitive substances in bacterial cells to trigger a series of reactions in bacteria due to the higher energy, and further can play a sterilization effect. For example, studies have shown that 410nm blue light excites the porphyrin structure in bacterial cells to react with each other, thereby selectively and efficiently killing bacteria, for example, Porphyromonas gingivalis Pg and Prevotella intermedia Pi which cause periodontitis. Therefore, besides the sterilization by the medicine, the blue light equipment can be used for sterilizing the teeth or the articles related to tooth cleaning, such as the blue light sterilizing device and the oral therapeutic apparatus reported in patents CN105126254 and CN 208405793. In addition, for daily household use, tooth brushing is the most common tooth care means, and scientific and correct tooth brushing can play a certain role in preventing dental bacterial infection and cleaning teeth. However, when people clean teeth with a toothbrush, food residues and bacteria adhered to the teeth inevitably adhere to bristles of the toothbrush, and the food residues and bacteria adhered to the bristles cannot be completely removed, and more bacteria are easily bred on the bristles, so that when a user cleans the teeth with the toothbrush again, the bacteria bred on the bristles inevitably adhere to the oral cavity, and the health of the oral cavity are further affected. To avoid this, it is now common to place the toothbrush heads in an ultraviolet toothbrush sterilizer, as shown in fig. 8a-8b, in addition to periodically replacing the toothbrush heads, two types of toothbrush sterilizers currently commercially available; or as described in patent CN207270092, a sterilizing lamp is installed in the brush body of the toothbrush, and the sterilizing lamp can be turned on to sterilize the brush head before brushing teeth, thereby providing a toothbrush with sterilizing function.

However, daily tooth brushing and sterilization and disinfection of toothbrushes can only reduce the risk of infection by oral bacteria, and it is far from efficient and convenient to sterilize and disinfect teeth by directly using a light source. For example, as shown in fig. 9, a silicone toothbrush commonly used by children, a blue LED lamp is installed inside a U-shaped brush head, and the blue LED lamp is used for sterilizing an oral cavity during use or sterilizing the brush head of the toothbrush after use, and is also a product for protecting oral health which is sold at present. However, as with the currently marketed tooth whitening devices, the current tooth sterilization devices have some drawbacks, for example, the conventional devices for sterilizing teeth by using a light source need to be used by placing the light source inside the oral cavity, which is not convenient and efficient.

With the rise of Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) in the last 90 s of the century, the use of OLEDs as light sources for phototherapy has also begun to become possible. The OLED is an electroluminescent device made of multiple layers of organic thin films with nanometer thickness, and has the light and thin physical essence and the potential of making a flexible light source, the characteristics of a cold light source enable the OLED to become the best choice of wearing products close to the body, and the essence of a surface light source enables the OLED to have unique advantages in large-area phototherapy application. Most importantly, the luminous efficiency of the OLED in illumination is as high as 139lm/W in recent years, and the theoretical value can approach 250lm/W, so that the OLED becomes a practical light source. In addition, unlike the ordinary band UV spectrum in fluorescent or LED light sources, OLEDs do not produce UV illumination, which can reduce the side effects of UV irradiation. Therefore, OLEDs are also ideal light sources for wearable phototherapy products, and related concepts are described in patent applications CN109173071A, CN108783778A, and CN 203694423U.

Theoretically, the OLED does not contain light in a near infrared band and an ultraviolet band, an additional optical filter is not needed, and the OLED has the essence of a surface light source and a cold light source, so that a blue OLED light source is very suitable to be used as a light source of a cold light tooth beautifying instrument. However, it is well known that current blue OLEDs are less efficient and have a shorter lifetime than other color OLEDs or light sources, and are short plates in current commercial products. In addition, there are a number of studies that demonstrate that the thickness of light penetrating through skin tissue is closely related to the wavelength of light, mainly because the absorption of two chromophores in the skin, melanin and oxyhemoglobin, for different wavelengths of light affects the penetration of light through the tissue. Fig. 2a shows the absorption characteristics of melanin and oxyhemoglobin for different wavelengths of light, and it is noted that melanin absorbs blue light more than 80 times stronger than red light, so that red light can easily penetrate tissue to reach deep tissue layers and most of the blue light is absorbed. As shown in FIG. 2b, red Light with a wavelength longer than 600nm, even near infrared Light with a wavelength longer than 750nm, can easily penetrate tissue with a thickness of 5mm to 10cm to reach the subcutaneous depth (Ai X, Mu J, Xing B. "Recent Advances of Light-medial therapeutics", therapeutics, 2016; 6 (13); 2439-2457.doi:10.7150/thno. 16088). From a device performance perspective, red OLEDs have higher efficiency and longer lifetime than blue, and thus are also more stable and efficient light sources.

In recent years, Triplet-Triplet annihilation upconversion (TTA-UC) has attracted much attention. Compared with other up-conversion methods, TTA up-conversion has the outstanding advantages of low required irradiation light power, no need of coherent light, flexible and adjustable excitation and emission wavelengths, high up-conversion quantum efficiency and the like. Therefore, the TTA-UC material system is primarily applied and researched in the fields of photodynamic therapy, photocatalysis (such as hydrogen production by water photolysis), photovoltaic cells (such as sensitized solar cells), biological imaging and the like, but the research on the tooth whitening aspect of TTA-UC is not reported. Research shows that the blue light wave band with the wavelength shorter than 440nm can penetrate through the subcutaneous tissue to reach the thickness of less than 1mm and can not reach deep focus to induce the release of the medicine. The scientific researchers convert the long-wavelength light of the phototherapy window (600-. Scientists have also developed a series of metal-free small organic molecule TTA-UC material systems, such as the materials disclosed in patent WO2019050812 and the like, and the disclosure and use of the series of materials enable red light and near infrared light with a wavelength of more than 600nm to be efficiently converted into light with a shorter wavelength. This not only expands the wavelength range in which the light is irradiated, but also ensures safety in use in the living body. As described above, studies on the TTA-UC material system in the biological field have been conducted in the interior of cells, or the TTA-UC material system or drug is injected into an animal body by injection or the like to react with cells in the body, and thus, the use of the TTA-UC material system on the surface of the living body has not been reported. In addition, as mentioned above, the TTA-UC material system is combined with a drug to release a drug capable of killing cancer cells by the action of the TTA-UC material system, and there is no report on the effect of the TTA-UC material system that the tooth beautifying agent releases oxidative radicals to decompose dark compounds such as pigments on the surface of teeth, thereby whitening teeth. The tooth beautifying agent as a daily chemical product does not belong to the field of medicines and does not produce any effect on biological cells.

Therefore, the use of red-green-yellow and even near-infrared light sources, especially large-area light-emitting OLED light sources, in combination with TTA-UC material systems and corresponding tooth beautifying agents, has great advantages in the market of tooth whitening. As mentioned above, in the current market, when teeth whitening, teeth sterilization and other nursing are carried out, corresponding equipment needs to be placed inside the oral cavity, in order to solve the problem, the invention directly places the TTA-UC material system inside the oral cavity, the light source is outside the oral cavity, the distance between the TTA-UC material system and the light source is at least the thickness of tissues near the teeth, and the minimum distance is more than 1 mm; preferably, the smallest distance between the TTA-UC material system and the light source is greater than 3 mm.

In the present invention, we disclose a tooth whitening combination and methods of use thereof. The tooth whitening composition comprises a light source part, a triplet-triplet annihilation up-conversion (TTA-UC) material system part used in combination, and a tooth beautifying agent. The most important characteristic of the tooth whitening system is that the TTA-UC material system is used in the oral cavity, so that a light source does not need to be placed inside the oral cavity when tooth whitening and tooth sterilization are carried out, and only the light source needs to be used near the outside of the oral cavity for illumination, thereby bringing great convenience to users.

Disclosure of Invention

In the present invention, we disclose a tooth whitening composition and method of use thereof. In the tooth whitening composition, at least one light source, a triplet-triplet annihilation up-conversion (TTA-UC) material system, and a tooth beautifying agent are included. The TTA-UC material system is used in the oral cavity of the tooth whitening combination, so that a light source can be arranged outside the oral cavity, great convenience is brought to a user, teeth can be safely and effectively whitened, discomfort caused by tooth whitening by using a currently reported mouth instrument is avoided, and normal speaking is not influenced; in addition, when a proper light source is adopted, the phototherapy beauty treatment of cheek and lip skins and even the whole facial skin can be performed while teeth are whitened, and the time of a user is greatly saved. In addition, the application of the TTA-UC material system in the aspect of tooth sterilization is also disclosed.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a tooth whitening combination is disclosed, comprising:

at least one light source emitting a peak wavelength greater than 520nm, the light source comprising at least one light emitting face;

a triplet-triplet annihilation up-conversion (TTA-UC) material system, the maximum emission wavelength of the TTA-UC material system being between 400-520nm, the maximum absorption wavelength being greater than 520 nm;

a tooth beautifying agent;

the TTA-UC material system is coupled with the tooth beautifying agent, the TTA-UC material system is coupled with at least one luminous surface light path of a light source, and the TTA-UC material system and the tooth beautifying agent are arranged in the oral cavity;

an electrically driven connection, the light source being electrically connected to the electrically driven connection.

According to an embodiment of the invention, wherein the smallest distance between the TTA-UC material system and the light source is greater than 1 mm.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the minimum distance between the TTA-UC material system and the light source is greater than 3 mm.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein the tooth beautifying agent has an area a1, the TTA-UC material system has an area a2, and the light source has an effective light emitting area A3; and A1 is not less than A2 is not less than A1 is not less than A3.

According to an embodiment of the invention, wherein the form of the TTA-UC material system comprises any one or more of a gel, a film and a powder; wherein the form of the tooth beautifying agent includes any one or more of gel and patch.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein the coupling of the TTA-UC material system and the tooth beautifying agent in the tooth whitening combination comprises any one or more of the following ways: contacting the TTA-UC film with a tooth beautifying agent patch, contacting the TTA-UC gel with a tooth beautifying agent patch, contacting the TTA-UC film with a tooth beautifying agent gel, contacting the TTA-UC gel with a tooth beautifying agent gel, or contacting the TTA-UC powder with a tooth beautifying agent gel.

According to an embodiment of the invention, wherein the light source comprises at least one light source selected from the group consisting of: OLED light sources, LED light sources, mini LED light sources, micro LED light sources, and combinations thereof.

According to an embodiment of the invention, wherein the light source comprises at least one OLED light source.

According to an embodiment of the invention, wherein the light source comprises at least one flexible OLED light source.

According to one embodiment of the invention, wherein the peak wavelength of the light source is above 550 nm.

According to an embodiment of the invention, wherein the peak wavelength of the light source is between 600 and 900 nm.

According to an embodiment of the invention, wherein the peak wavelength of the light source is between 600 and 750 nm.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the maximum emission wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is between 480 and 520 nm.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the maximum absorption wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is greater than 550 nm.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the maximum absorption wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is between 600 and 900 nm.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the maximum absorption wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is between 600 and 750 nm.

According to one embodiment of the invention, wherein the peak wavelength of the light source is within +/-5nm of the maximum absorption wavelength of the TTA-UC material system.

According to one embodiment of the invention, wherein the difference between the peak wavelength of the light source and the maximum absorption wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is within +/-3 nm.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein the electrically driven connection device comprises a USB interface, a power plug, a wireless charging device, a built-in battery, or a combination thereof.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method of tooth whitening is disclosed, the method comprising the steps of:

a. directly placing a tooth beautifying agent on the outer surface of teeth to be whitened;

b. coupling a triplet-triplet annihilation up-conversion (TTA-UC) material system on the tooth beautifying agent, wherein the maximum emission wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is between 400 and 520nm, and the maximum absorption wavelength is more than or equal to 520 nm;

c. wearing a light source outside the oral cavity, wherein the peak wavelength of the light source is more than or equal to 520nm, the light source comprises at least one luminous surface and has an effective luminous area, and the luminous surface faces the oral cavity;

wherein step a and step b can be performed in any order.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the tooth whitening method, the outer surface of the tooth to be whitened has an area a0, and the light source has an effective light emitting area not less than 1.3 times the area a 0.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the tooth whitening method, the light source has an effective light emitting area not less than 1.5 times the area a 0.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the tooth whitening method, the light source has an effective light emitting area not less than 2 times the area a 0.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the tooth whitening method, the form of the TTA-UC material system includes any one or more of a gel, a film, and a powder; wherein the form of the tooth beautifying agent includes any one or more of gel and patch.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein the coupling of the TTA-UC material system and the tooth beautifying agent in the tooth whitening method comprises any one or more of the following ways: contacting the TTA-UC film with a tooth beautifying agent patch, contacting the TTA-UC gel with a tooth beautifying agent patch, contacting the TTA-UC film with a tooth beautifying agent gel, contacting the TTA-UC gel with a tooth beautifying agent gel, or contacting the TTA-UC powder with a tooth beautifying agent gel.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein the tooth whitening method, wherein the light source is worn outside the oral cavity.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein, in the tooth whitening method, the light source comprises at least one light source selected from the group consisting of: OLED light sources, LED light sources, mini LED light sources, micro LED light sources, and combinations thereof.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the tooth whitening method, the light source includes at least one OLED light source.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the tooth whitening method, the light source comprises at least one flexible OLED light source.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the tooth whitening method, the peak wavelength of the light source is 550nm or more.

According to an embodiment of the invention, in the tooth whitening method, the peak wavelength of the light source is between 600nm and 900 nm.

According to an embodiment of the invention, in the tooth whitening method, the peak wavelength of the light source is between 600 and 750 nm.

According to an embodiment of the invention, in the tooth whitening method, the maximum emission wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is between 480 and 520 nm.

According to an embodiment of the invention, in the tooth whitening method, the maximum absorption wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is greater than 550 nm.

According to an embodiment of the invention, in the tooth whitening method, the maximum absorption wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is between 600 and 900 nm.

According to an embodiment of the invention, in the tooth whitening method, the maximum absorption wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is between 600 and 750 nm.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein in the tooth whitening method, the difference between the peak wavelength of the light source and the maximum absorption wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is within +/-5 nm.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein in the tooth whitening method, the difference between the peak wavelength of the light source and the maximum absorption wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is within +/-3 nm.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the teeth whitening method, the electrically-driven connection device includes a USB interface, a power plug, a wireless charging device, a built-in battery, or a combination thereof.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the use of a TTA-UC material system for tooth whitening is also disclosed, characterized in that the TTA-UC material system is used in combination with a tooth whitening agent for tooth whitening;

wherein the maximum emission wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is between 400 and 520nm, and the maximum absorption wavelength is more than or equal to 520 nm.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the use of the TTA-UC material system for tooth whitening, characterized in that, in the case of tooth whitening, the TTA-UC material system is coupled with a tooth beautifying agent and is disposed in the oral cavity; when irradiated by a light source, the TTA-UC material system can convert long-wavelength light emitted by the light source into short-wavelength light and irradiate the tooth beautifying agent to enable the tooth beautifying agent to generate tooth whitening effect.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the use of the TTA-UC material system for tooth whitening, characterized in that the light source comprises at least one light source selected from the group consisting of: OLED light sources, LED light sources, mini LED light sources, micro LED light sources, and combinations thereof.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the TTA-UC material system is used for tooth whitening, characterized in that the light source comprises at least one OLED light source.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the use of the TTA-UC material system for tooth whitening, characterized in that the light source comprises at least one flexible OLED light source.

Also disclosed, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, is a tooth whitening composition comprising at least one triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion (TTA-UC) material and at least one dentifrice, wherein the TTA-UC material system has a maximum emission wavelength between 400-520nm and a maximum absorption wavelength greater than or equal to 520 nm.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the tooth whitening composition, which the TTA-UC material system is coupled with a tooth beautifying agent at the time of use, and the tooth beautifying agent directly contacts the tooth to be whitened.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the tooth whitening composition is used in combination with a wearable light source, the light source comprises a light emitting surface, the peak wavelength of the emission is more than or equal to 520nm, and the light emitting surface is coupled with the TTA-UC material system light path.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the tooth whitening composition is characterized in that the light source comprises at least one light source selected from the group consisting of: OLED light sources, LED light sources, mini LED light sources, micro LED light sources, and combinations thereof.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the tooth whitening composition is characterized in that the light source comprises at least one OLED light source.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the tooth whitening composition is characterized in that the light source comprises at least one flexible OLED light source.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the use of a TTA-UC material system for dental sterilization is also disclosed, wherein the TTA-UC material system is disposed in the oral cavity and coupled to the outer surface of a tooth for dental sterilization; wherein the maximum emission wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is between 400 and 520nm, and the maximum absorption wavelength is more than or equal to 520 nm.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the TTA-UC material system is used for dental sterilization, and is characterized in that the TTA-UC material system is used in cooperation with a wearable light source during dental sterilization, wherein the light source comprises at least one light-emitting surface, and the peak wavelength of the emission is greater than or equal to 520nm, and the at least one light-emitting surface is coupled with the TTA-UC material system through a light path; when irradiated by a light source, the TTA-UC material system can convert the light with long wavelength emitted by the light source into the light with short wavelength and irradiate the outer surface of the tooth to realize the sterilization effect.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the use of the TTA-UC material system for dental sterilization, wherein the light source comprises at least one light source selected from the group consisting of: OLED light sources, LED light sources, mini LED light sources, micro LED light sources, and combinations thereof.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the use of the TTA-UC material system for dental disinfection, characterized in that the light source comprises at least one OLED light source.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the use of the TTA-UC material system for dental sterilization, is characterized in that the light source comprises at least one flexible OLED light source.

The invention discloses a tooth whitening combination and a using method thereof, wherein the tooth whitening combination comprises at least one light source, a triplet-triplet annihilation up-conversion (TTA-UC) material system and a tooth beautifying agent; the tooth sterilization combination comprises a light source and a TTA-UC material system. In the tooth whitening combination, due to the fact that the TTA-UC material system is used in the oral cavity, the light source can be arranged outside the oral cavity, great convenience is brought to a user, teeth can be whitened safely and effectively, discomfort caused when teeth are whitened by using a buccal instrument reported at present is avoided, and normal speaking is not influenced; in addition, when a proper light source is adopted, the teeth can be whitened, meanwhile, phototherapy beauty treatment can be performed on cheek and lip skins, even the whole facial skin, and the time of a user is greatly saved. In addition, the application of the TTA-UC material system in the aspect of tooth sterilization is also disclosed.

Drawings

Fig. 1a-1b are schematic views of a medical and home-use tooth whitening apparatus, and fig. 1c is a schematic view of the effect of the home-use tooth whitening apparatus in use.

Fig. 2a-2b are schematic diagrams showing the absorption characteristics of melanin for light at different wavelengths and the subcutaneous penetration depth of the light at different wavelengths.

Fig. 3a-3d are schematic views of OLED light-emitting panel structures.

Fig. 4a-4b are exemplary diagrams of wearable light sources for tooth whitening according to the present disclosure.

Fig. 5 is an exemplary diagram of another wearable light source for tooth whitening disclosed in the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a schematic view of a currently commercially available whitening dental patch and a method for using the same.

Fig. 7a-7b are schematic diagrams of TTA-UC material systems in the form of thin films, and fig. 7c-7d are schematic diagrams of TTA-UC material systems in the form of gels.

Figures 8a-8b are exemplary illustrations of two types of toothbrush head uv disinfectors currently available on the market.

Fig. 9 is an illustration of a silicone toothbrush with a blue germicidal lamp built in a U-shaped head.

Detailed Description

In the present invention, we disclose a tooth whitening composition and method of use thereof. In the tooth whitening composition, at least one light source, a triplet-triplet annihilation up-conversion (TTA-UC) material system, and a tooth beautifying agent are included. The most important characteristic of the tooth whitening combination is that a TTA-UC material system is used in the oral cavity, so that a blue light source does not need to be placed inside the oral cavity when tooth whitening and tooth sterilization are carried out, and only a light source with the peak wavelength larger than or equal to 520nm needs to be used near the outer side of the oral cavity for illumination.

As used herein, "top" means furthest from the substrate, and "bottom" means closest to the substrate. In the case where the first layer is described as being "disposed on" the second layer, the first layer is disposed farther from the substrate. Conversely, where a first layer is described as being "disposed" under a second layer, the first layer is disposed closer to the substrate. Other layers may be present between the first and second layers, unless it is specified that the first layer is "in contact with" the second layer. For example, a cathode can be described as being "disposed on" an anode even though various organic layers are present between the cathode and the anode.

As used herein, the term "OLED device" includes an anode layer, a cathode layer, one or more organic layers disposed between the anode layer and the cathode layer. An "OLED device" can be bottom emitting, i.e. emitting light from the anode side, or top emitting, i.e. emitting light from the cathode side, or a transparent device, i.e. emitting light from both the anode and cathode side.

As used herein, the term "OLED light source" encompasses at least one OLED light emitting panel and support components to dispose the OLED light emitting panel, including but not limited to a housing and electrical connection means, and ancillary structures for wearing the housing, including but not limited to a tiled structure. The term "OLED light-emitting panel" comprises a substrate, an anode layer, a cathode layer, one or more organic layers disposed between the anode layer and the cathode layer, an encapsulation layer, and at least one anode contact and at least one cathode contact extending outside the encapsulation layer for external access.

As used herein, the term "LED light source" encompasses at least one LED light bead and a support assembly for positioning the LED light bead, including but not limited to a heat sink, a housing, and electrical connections, and an attachment structure for wearing the housing, including but not limited to a splice structure. The term "LED light bead" includes, but is not limited to, a support, a silver paste, a die bond, a wire, etc., which includes at least one anode contact and at least one cathode contact extending therefrom for external access.

As used herein, the term "mini LED light source" encompasses at least one LED light emitting bead having a dimension of 100 μm to 300 μm and a support assembly for positioning said LED light emitting bead, including but not limited to a heat sink, a housing and electrical connections, and an attachment structure for wearing said housing, including but not limited to a splice structure. The term "LED light bead" includes, but is not limited to, a support, a silver paste, a die bond, a wire, etc., which includes at least one anode contact and at least one cathode contact extending therefrom for external access.

As used herein, the term "micro LED light source" encompasses at least one LED light bead having a dimension of less than 100 μm and a support assembly for positioning the LED light bead, including but not limited to a heat sink, a housing and electrical connections, and an attachment structure for wearing the housing, including but not limited to a splice structure. The term "LED light bead" includes, but is not limited to, a support, a silver paste, a die bond, a wire, etc., which includes at least one anode contact and at least one cathode contact extending therefrom for external access.

As used herein, the term "encapsulation layer" refers to one or more layers of physical media disposed on the side of the device remote from the substrate for shielding the device from the external environment, and may be a thin film encapsulation having a thickness of less than 100 microns, which includes disposing one or more thin films directly onto the device, or may be a cover glass (cover glass) adhered to the substrate.

As used herein, the term "flexible printed circuit" (FPC) refers to any flexible substrate coated with any one or combination of the following, including but not limited to: conductive lines, resistors, capacitors, inductors, transistors, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), and the like. The flexible substrate of the flexible printed circuit may be plastic, thin glass, thin metal foil coated with an insulating layer, fabric, leather, paper, etc. A flexible printed circuit board is typically less than 1mm thick, more preferably less than 0.7mm thick.

As used herein, the term "light extraction layer" may refer to a light diffusing film, or other microstructure having light extraction effects, or a thin film coating having light outcoupling effects. The light extraction layer can be disposed on the substrate surface of the OLED, or in other suitable locations, including but not limited to between the substrate and the anode, or between the organic layer and the cathode, between the cathode and the encapsulation layer, on the surface of the encapsulation layer, and so forth.

As used herein, the term "independently driven" means that the operating points of two or more light emitting panels are separately controlled. Although these light panels may be connected to the same controller or power line, there may be circuitry to divide the drive lines and power each panel without affecting each other.

As used herein, the term "light-emitting region," for an OLED light source, refers to the portion of the anode, organic layer, and cathode that collectively overlap, excluding light extraction effects; for other point light sources or surface light sources, the light source array region formed by arranging the LED lamp beads on the shell for fixing the lamp beads in a certain mode is referred to, and the light source array region comprises a region where the luminous lamp beads are located and a non-luminous region between the lamp beads.

As used herein, the term "light emitting face" refers to the face of a light source that emits light. For example, for an OLED light source, if a bottom-emitting OLED device is used, the "light-emitting face" includes the side of the substrate away from the anode, and if a top-emitting OLED device is used, the "light-emitting face" includes the side of the encapsulation layer away from the cathode. For point light sources, such as LED light sources, mini LED light sources, and micro LED light sources, a plurality of LED beads may be arranged on a housing for fixing the beads in a certain manner to form a light source array, and the "light emitting surface" of the light source array refers to a surface of the light source array having emergent light on a plane or a curved surface.

As used herein, the term "underlight" refers to light that excites the TTA-UC material system; the bottom light source refers to a light source emitting bottom light.

As used herein, the term "single layer device" refers to a device having a single light-emitting layer and its associated hole and electron transport layers between a pair of cathodes and anodes, and such a device having a single light-emitting layer and its associated transport layer is a "single layer device".

As used herein, the term "stacked device" refers to a device structure having a plurality of light emitting layers between a pair of cathode and anode, each light emitting layer having its own independent hole and electron transport layer, each light emitting layer and its associated hole and electron transport layer forming a single light emitting layer, the single light emitting layers being connected by a charge generation layer, and a device having a plurality of single light emitting layers is a "stacked device".

As used herein, the term "tooth beautifying agent coupled to the outer surface of the tooth" is intended to mean that the tooth beautifying agent is in direct contact with the outer surface of the tooth, including but not limited to being attached flat on the outer surface of the tooth or being uniformly coated on the outer surface of the tooth.

As used herein, the term "TTA-UC material system coupled with the dentifrice" is intended to mean that the TTA-UC material system is affixed or uniformly applied to the side of the dentifrice remote from the outer surface of the teeth, or that the TTA-UC material system is uniformly mixed with the dentifrice in gel form.

As used herein, the term "TTA-UC material system coupled to the teeth" is intended to mean that the TTA-UC material system is associated with the surfaces and crevices of the teeth, including but not limited to flat application as a film on the surface of the teeth, or even application as a gel uniformly on the surface of the teeth, even with a safe transparent film applied to the outer surface of the gel to separate it from other tissues in the mouth.

As used herein, the term "optically coupled to a light source" is intended to mean that the TTA-UC material system is coupled to the optical path of the light source, meaning that the TTA-UC material system is disposed in the optical path of the emitted light of the light source, i.e., the light emitted by the light source at least partially impinges on the TTA-UC material system. For an OLED light source using a bottom-emitting OLED device, when the TTA-UC material system is disposed under the anode of the OLED device, or the TTA-UC material system and the anode of the bottom-emitting OLED device are disposed on two sides of the substrate, respectively, the light emitted by the OLED light source can at least partially illuminate the TTA-UC material system, i.e., the TTA-UC material system is "optically coupled" with the OLED light source; for an OLED light source using a top-emitting OLED device, when the TTA-UC material system is disposed over the cathode of the OLED device, the light emitted by the OLED light source may also at least partially impinge on the TTA-UC material system, i.e., the TTA-UC material system is "optically coupled" to the OLED light source.

A flexible OLED light-emitting panel, a cross-sectional view of which is shown in fig. 3 a. The OLED light emitting panel 300 includes a flexible substrate 301, an OLED device 310, a pair of contact electrodes 303 electrically connected to the OLED device 310, a flexible encapsulation layer 302 exposing the contact electrodes 303, and an adhesive structure 304 connecting the pair of contact electrodes 303 to an external driving circuit. The flexible substrate 301 may be ultra-thin flexible glass, preferably a non-brittle material including but not limited to plastic (PET, PEN, PI), textile, leather, paper, and the like. In particular, the substrate 301 may be a material (including but not limited to Polyimide material) that has been previously applied to the support base in solution form and cured to provide a desired surface finishAnd flattening the substrate for preparing the device. After the device is prepared, the device is peeled off from the supporting base plate by using a laser and is transferred to other flexible substrates according to requirements. OLED device 310 can be a bottom emitting device or a top emitting device, with a top emitting device being preferred because of its higher luminous efficiency. OLED device 310 can be a single layer structure or a stacked layer structure, with a stacked layer structure being preferred because it has a longer lifetime at the same brightness and because a thicker film layer is beneficial for increasing production yield. The organic material in OLED device 310 may be formed by evaporation in a vacuum chamber by thermal evaporation, or may be formed partially or even entirely using a solution process, including but not limited to ink jet printing (ink jet printing), spin coating, organic vapor spray printing (OVJP), and the like. The flexible encapsulating layer 302 may be ultra-thin glass adhered to the device by a UV curable adhesive, which is more suitable for encapsulating an array of OLED devices, and the area of each individual OLED device itself to be encapsulated is less than 1cm ² . The preferred flexible encapsulating layer 302 is a thin film encapsulating layer, generally having a thickness of 10 μm or more, and includes but is not limited to a single inorganic layer or a thin film organic-inorganic alternating multilayer structure, and is formed by PECVD, ALD, printing, spin coating, etc. The contact electrode 303 may comprise at least one anode contact and one cathode contact. A front cover film 305 may be added to the flexible OLED lighting panel described above as shown in fig. 3 b. The front cover film 305 may be a Flexible Printed Circuit (FPC) board on which a pre-designed circuit is printed and electrically connected to the OLED device 310 through the adhesive structure 304. In another alternative, the adhesive structure 304 may be an FPC frame and the front cover film 305 may be a sheet of plastic film to provide mechanical support. A specific description of the use of an FPC board to drive an OLED light-emitting panel can be found in chinese patent application CN201810572632.3, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety and is not within the scope of coverage of this application. The front cover film 305 may also include a light extraction layer. When OLED device 310 is top-emitting, front cover film 305 is transparent in the light-emitting area. The front cover film 305 may be a combination of the above. Additional thin film encapsulation layers 306 may be applied to one or both sides of the substrate 301 as shown in fig. 3 c. The front cover film may also be coated with an additional thin film encapsulation layer 306, but in this figureNot shown. In fig. 3d, a back cover film 307 is overlaid onto the substrate 301. The back cover film 307 may be used for mechanical support. When the flexible OLED is a bottom-emitting device, the back cover film 307 may be a light extraction layer and transparent. The back cover film 307 may be a combination of the above. Such a flexible OLED light-emitting panel is a flexible OLED light source when electrically connected to an external power (whether in an on or off state), and is one of the preferred embodiments of the present invention. It should be noted that other light sources capable of producing long wavelengths may be used herein, including but not limited to LEDs, mini LEDs, or micro LEDs. Wherein the mini LED is an LED with a size of about several hundred micrometers, and the micro LED is usually only several tens of micrometers in size. The light sources can also be integrated on a flexible substrate to form a flexible light source, and can also be worn close to the body due to the small volume of the light source. Such a light-emitting panel, which is a light source when electrically connected to an external power source (whether in an on or off state), is one of the essential elements of the present invention.

The "tooth beautifying agent" may be a tooth beautifying agent which is matched with cold light for whitening teeth on the market, and has two main forms, namely tooth beautifying gel or tooth whitening paster (tooth paster and tooth beautifying paster), which can be directly applied to the tooth whitening combination of the invention without separate production or purchase. The "tooth paste" as referred to herein refers to a patch having a mixture capable of releasing peroxide as a main bleaching component in a certain manner, and is characterized by having a single layer of an adhesive colloid bleaching substance having a pH of 6.5 to 7.5, the adhesive colloid bleaching substance being combined in a certain mass percentage, and the material and the preparation thereof are well known in the art and are not described herein, and are specifically shown in fig. 6. As used herein, "the tooth care agent is coupled to the outer surface of the teeth to be whitened" means that the tooth care agent is in direct contact with the outer surface of the teeth, including but not limited to flat application or even application to the outer surface of the teeth.

As used herein, "direct irradiation" refers to irradiation in which the user opens his mouth or includes a light source inside the mouth, and only air is present between the light source and the object to be irradiated, and no tissue outside the teeth is included. In contrast, the term "indirect irradiation" as used herein refers to irradiation of an object with part or all of a light source through the outer side of and surrounding tissues of a tooth, such as the cheek, lips, or gums, in order to allow the user to freely control the opening and closing of the mouth during the irradiation process.

Fig. 4 is an example 400 of a light source according to the present invention, which is a flexible OLED mask, and can be used with a TTA-UC material system and a tooth beautifying agent to achieve the effect of whitening teeth, and also can be used to perform phototherapy on the skin of both cheeks and mouths, including but not limited to anti-wrinkle, anti-speckle, scar removal, healing, and so on, which can serve multiple purposes; meanwhile, the OLED mask with a relatively large area is more favorable in price, and provides different choices for users. Wherein fig. 4a shows primarily the non-emitting side of the flexible OLED mask and fig. 4b shows primarily the emitting side of the flexible OLED mask. As shown in fig. 4a-4b, the flexible OLED mask 400 comprises a housing fixture 401, a flexible OLED light panel 402, ear hooks 403, and electrical drive connections 404. Wherein the flexible OLED panel 402 may be an entire device or may be pixelated. The peak wavelength of the flexible OLED panel 402 is greater than 520 nm. The splice structure is represented by ear hook 403 in fig. 4. The electrically driven connection 404, which is shown as an example, may also be a battery or other charging port that provides power through a pair of mobile phones, chargers, etc. In addition, in order to increase comfort and safety, a skin-friendly protective layer may be added to the side of the flexible OLED light-emitting panel 402 facing the wearer, and the skin-friendly protective layer may be a film made of various colorless and transparent substances harmless to the skin, and may also include a rear cover film 307 of a bottom light-emitting device or a front cover film 305 of a top light-emitting device, which is not shown here. In addition, the light emitting side is 405, which comes out of the viewing plane, and the non-light emitting side 406, which enters the viewing plane. In use, the user wears the OLED mask with the light emitting side 405 facing the face.

Fig. 5 is another example 500 of the light source of the present invention, which is an OLED facial mask, and when a wearer uses the light source with a large area, the time of the user can be saved by using the TTA-UC material system and the tooth whitening agent together to whiten teeth while beautifying facial skin with the OLED facial mask. As shown in fig. 5, primarily the light emitting side of the flexible OLED face film is shown and the non-light emitting side is not shown, the OLED face film comprising housing fixture 501, flexible OLED light emitting panel 502, ear hook 503, electrically driven connection 504, hole 505, and cut-out 506. Wherein the flexible OLED panel 502 may be an entire device or may be pixelated. The peak wavelength of the flexible OLED panel 502 is greater than 520 nm. The holes 505 may include, but are not limited to, eye area, nose area, and notably mouth area, so that the user may utilize the illumination of this area for tooth whitening. When converting from a 2D sheet to a 3D mask, there may be additional cuts 506, for example, to assist in the expansion of the mask. Note that the holes 505 and cutouts 506 are merely illustrated here, and the design of such structures is well known to those skilled in the art. These cuts may be made by laser cutting. The splice structure is represented by ear hook 503 in fig. 5. Or a headband, but not shown here. The electrically driven connection 504, which is shown as an example, may also be a battery or other charging port that provides power through a pair of mobile phones, chargers, etc. In addition, in order to increase comfort and safety, a skin-friendly protective layer may be added on the outer side of the flexible OLED light-emitting panel 502, and the skin-friendly protective layer may be a film made of various colorless and transparent substances harmless to the skin, and may also include a rear cover film 307 of a bottom light-emitting device or a front cover film 305 of a top light-emitting device, which is not shown here. Here, the light emitting side is 507, which comes out of the viewing plane, and the non-light emitting side 508, which comes into the viewing plane. In use, the user wears the OLED mask with the light emitting side 507 facing the face. The specific method for preparing the OLED facial mask is described in detail in the patent CN109173071 by the inventor, and is not described in detail herein.

Note that the light sources used in fig. 4 and 5 above are all flexible OLED light emitting panels, but other light sources, including but not limited to LEDs, micro LEDs or mini LEDs, may also be arranged in an array on a flexible substrate and used integrated into the housing fixture. In addition, in the invention, as the TTA-UC material system is directly arranged in the oral cavity and the light source is worn outside the oral cavity, the distance between the TTA-UC material system and the light source is at least the thickness of tissues near the teeth, and the minimum distance is more than 1 mm; preferably, the smallest distance between the TTA-UC material system and the light source is greater than 3 mm. For example, the smallest distance between the TTA-UC material system and the light source is greater than 5 mm; as another example, the TTA-UC material system and the light source have a minimum distance of greater than 1 cm.

The TTA-UC material system generally comprises a photosensitizer (sensizer) and a luminescent material (Emitter). As described above, UCNPs or heavy metal-containing triplet-triplet up-conversion materials are generally used, but their potential cytotoxicity and accumulation of metabolic toxins make them unsuitable for use in animals or humans. Scientists developed a series of metal-free small organic molecule TTA-UC material systems, such as the materials disclosed in patent WO2019050812, and the like. In a report of 2017, a TTA-UC material system using metal-free Bodipy iodide dimer (BDP-F) as a photosensitizer and 9-phenylacetylene anthracene (EPA) as a deep blue luminescent material was successfully used for drug release test in mice, and from the results, it was found that it has both high efficacy and biological safety. TTA-UC material systems are usually small molecular materials, and can be uniformly mixed with macromolecular polymers, and then coated on a substrate in the modes of spin coating, printing, screen printing and the like, and a film of the TTA-UC material system, namely a TTA-UC film, is uniformly dispersed after drying; or making into TTA-UC gel. For the convenience of users, the TTA-UC thin film can be made into different shapes, including but not limited to a strip shape (as shown in fig. 7a) and a denture shape (as shown in fig. 7b), and then packaged, including but not limited to plastic package, thin film package and the like, and the TTa-UC material system in a film shape can be directly pasted outside the beauty patch for use; the TTA-UC gel may be filled into a number of containers including, but not limited to, pen-shaped (fig. 7c) and tube-shaped (fig. 7d), and used by extruding the desired amount for application to a tooth strip or mixing with a tooth gel. In addition, it can be loaded into nano-materials with nano-pores in a certain way, such as (Ling, et al. Angew. chem., DOI: 10.1002/anie.201704430). Regarding the product form made by the TTA-UC material system in the invention, the TTA-UC material system can be a TTA-UC film or TTA-UC gel, and the preparation method thereof is well known by the technical personnel in the field and is not described herein; it can also be TTA-UC powder, and its preparation method includes but not limited to loading two materials of TTA-UC system into multi-mesoporous silicon nanosphere in optimal ratio to obtain powdered mixture, and mixing the powder with tooth beautifying gel for use.

The term "coupling a triplet-triplet annihilation up-conversion (TTA-UC) material system to an aesthetic agent" as used herein includes, but is not limited to, the following: in the first mode, the tooth beautifying agent is in the shape of a tooth paste (as shown in fig. 6 and 7a), a user applies film-shaped TTA-UC on the outer surface of the tooth beautifying paste far away from teeth, and then the side of the tooth paste on which the TTA-UC film is not applied is applied on the surface of the teeth to be whitened; in the second mode, the tooth beautifying agent is in the shape of a tooth paste, a user uniformly coats the TTA-UC gel on the outer surface of the tooth beautifying paste far away from teeth, and then the other side of the tooth paste without the TTA-UC gel is adhered on the surface of the teeth to be whitened, so the gel can be directly used in the oral cavity due to the biological safety of the TTA-UC gel, but for higher safety, a safe and transparent film can be additionally coated on the outer surface of the coated TTA-UC gel to separate the gel from other tissues in the oral cavity, including but not limited to food preservative films and other household films with food safety, and in the first mode and the second mode, the tooth paste is required to be transparent or semitransparent; in the third mode, the tooth beautifying agent is in a gel type, a user can uniformly apply the tooth beautifying agent on the surface of teeth to be whitened, and the TTA-UC film is stuck on the tooth beautifying gel; in the fourth mode, the tooth beautifying agent is in a gel type, the TTA-UC powder or gel can be uniformly mixed in the tooth beautifying agent before use, and the mixed gel is uniformly coated on the surface of teeth to be whitened.

The term "coupling a triplet-triplet annihilation up-conversion (TTA-UC) material system to a tooth" as used herein includes, but is not limited to, the following: in one embodiment, the TTA-UC material system is in the form of a film, and the user applies the TTA-UC material system to the outer surface of the teeth (similar to that shown in fig. 6 and 7 a); in the second mode, the user uniformly coats the TTA-UC gel on the inner surface of the mouthpiece (as shown in fig. 7b), and then attaches the dental tray to the surface of the teeth; in the third embodiment, the TTA-UC material system is in a gel form, and the user directly applies the TTA-UC material system to the surface of the teeth. The TTA-UC gel can be directly used in the oral cavity because of biological safety, but a safe transparent film can be added on the outer surface of the coated TTA-UC gel to separate the TTA-UC gel from other tissues in the oral cavity for higher safety, and the TTA-UC gel comprises but is not limited to food-safe household films such as food preservative films and the like.

Assuming that the surface area of the teeth to be whitened is a0, the wearer may selectively whiten one or several teeth or may selectively whiten all teeth in the mouth. The "tooth beautifying agent area" a1 refers to an area where a user directly contacts and applies a tooth beautifying agent on the outer surface of teeth to be whitened in order to satisfy his/her needs for tooth whitening, and may be a gel-shaped tooth beautifying agent or a strip-shaped tooth beautifying agent. In the using process, the area which can not be touched between the gully and the slit of the teeth is ignored, so the area of the tooth beautifying agent needs to meet the requirement that A1 is less than or equal to A0+ 20%. The "TTA-UC material system area" a2 refers to the area of the TTA-UC material system directly applied on the surface of the applied tooth beautifying agent in order to satisfy the requirement of the user for tooth whitening, and the TTA-UC material system can be a gel-shaped TTA-UC material system or a film-shaped TTA-UC material system; in addition, for a TTA-UC material system that can be used by mixing with a tooth beautifying agent uniformly, for example, a powder-form TTA-UC material system, a2 is a1, which is equal to the area of the TTA-UC material system. In order to effectively utilize the tooth beautifying agent coated on teeth, the area A2 of the TTA-UC material system is slightly larger than that of the tooth beautifying agent, so as to ensure that the part coated with the tooth beautifying agent is utilized; but simultaneously, the blue light can be converted into blue light after passing through a TTA-UC material system, so that cells and tissues are damaged to a certain extent, and the area of the blue light cannot be too large to cause damage to gums or other tissues in the oral cavity; therefore, in order to achieve both effectiveness and safety, A1 ≦ A2 ≦ A1 × 110%. The "effective light-emitting area" a3 refers to the area of the plane of the light source, and in case of a surface light source such as OLED, the "effective light-emitting area" is the actual light-emitting area of the OLED light source, and in case of an array of point light sources such as mini LED or micro LED, the "effective light-emitting area" is the area of the plane occupied by the whole array. The "effective light-emitting area" is generally to cover at least the area of the face 1/4, and it does not vary with the variation of a 0. Notably, for teeth whitening purposes, A3> a1 × 110%, e.g., A3 ≧ a1 × 150%; as another example, A3 ≧ A1 × 200%.

In order to realize the cold blue light emission, the emission wavelength of the TTA-UC material system should be between 400-550nm, preferably around 480-520nm, which is the most effective and safe light emission wavelength for the cold light tooth whitening. In order to absorb light with long wavelength emitted by the light source, the maximum absorption wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is more than or equal to 520 nm; preferably, the maximum absorption wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is greater than or equal to 550 nm; more preferably, the absorption maximum wavelength of the TTA-UC material system should be 600nm and above. In order to enable a sufficient utilization of the light emitted by the light source, the absorption maximum wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is within +/-5nm, preferably within +/-3nm, of the peak wavelength of the emission spectrum of the light source. Meanwhile, a light source emitting red, yellow, green or near infrared light is selected, and the light source includes at least one selected from the group consisting of: an OLED light source, a mini LED light source, a micro LED light source, an LED light source, or a combination thereof; preferably, the light source is an OLED light source; more preferably, the light source is a flexible OLED light source. The TTA-UC material system partially up-converts light emitted by the light source to blue light emission. Specifically, the peak wavelength of the emission spectrum of the light source is 520nm or more; preferably, the peak wavelength of the emission spectrum of the light source is 550nm or more; more preferably, the light source has an emission spectrum with a peak wavelength of 600nm or more, which is mainly red and near infrared light, which can easily penetrate human tissue with a thickness of 5mm to 10cm, and thus can pass through cheek skin to reach the tooth surface, thereby effectively irradiating on the TTA-UC material system to facilitate emission of cold blue light with a short wavelength through up-conversion.

The invention also provides a method for whitening teeth, which comprises the following 3 steps:

a. directly coupling a tooth beautifying agent with the outer surface of the tooth to be whitened, wherein the outer surface of the tooth to be whitened has an area A0;

c. wearing a light source outside the oral cavity, wherein the peak wavelength of the light source is more than or equal to 520nm, the light source comprises at least one luminous surface and has an effective luminous area, and the at least one luminous surface faces the oral cavity and is coupled with the TTA-UC material system optical path;

wherein step a and step b can be performed in any order.

When the consumer uses the tooth whitening method provided by the present invention, the above steps a and b can be performed in any order. For example, the tooth beautifying agent may be first disposed on the outer surface of the tooth to be whitened (step a): for example, a gel of a tooth beautifying agent is directly coated on the outer surface of teeth to be whitened, or a patch of the tooth beautifying agent is attached to the outer surface of teeth to be whitened; then, a TTA-UC material system is coated or attached on the outer side of the tooth beautifying agent gel or the tooth beautifying agent patch (step b). The two steps may also be performed in reverse order, for example, the TTA-UC material system gel may be first mixed with the dentifrice gel (step b), and then the mixed gel is applied to the outer surface of the teeth to be whitened (step a); for example, the TTA-UC material system may be coated or attached to the side of the dentifrice patch away from the dentifrice active ingredient (step b), and then the dentifrice patch with the TTA-UC material system attached thereto may be attached to the outer surface of the tooth to be whitened such that the side of the dentifrice patch having the dentifrice active ingredient is attached to the outer surface of the tooth to be whitened and the dentifrice active ingredient is in direct contact with the outer surface of the tooth (step a). After the step a and the step b are finished, wearing a light source outside the oral cavity, irradiating the TTA-UC material system in the oral cavity by using the light source, converting the light with long wavelength emitted by the light source into blue light with short wavelength and high energy after the upconversion action of the TTA-UC material system, and irradiating the blue light on the tooth beautifying agent to accelerate the decomposition of the tooth beautifying agent so as to whiten teeth.

The invention also provides the application of the TTA-UC material system in the aspect of tooth whitening, wherein in the application, the TTA-UC material system is matched with a tooth beautifying agent for use to whiten teeth; wherein the maximum emission wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is between 400 and 520nm, and the maximum absorption wavelength is more than or equal to 520 nm. When teeth are whitened, the TTA-UC material system is coupled with the tooth beautifying agent, and the tooth beautifying agent is coupled with the outer surface of the teeth and is matched with a wearable light source for use; when irradiated by a light source, the TTA-UC material system can convert long-wavelength light emitted by the light source into short-wavelength light and irradiate the light on the tooth beautifying agent, and the short-wavelength light has proper energy to enable the tooth beautifying agent to generate corresponding free radicals so as to play a role in tooth whitening.

The present invention also provides a tooth whitening composition comprising at least one triplet-triplet annihilation up-conversion (TTA-UC) material and at least one tooth beautifying agent; wherein the maximum emission wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is between 400 and 520nm, and the maximum absorption wavelength is more than 520 nm; the TTA-UC material system is coupled with a tooth beautifying agent, and the tooth beautifying agent directly contacts the tooth to be whitened. The tooth whitening composition consisting of at least one triplet-triplet annihilation up-conversion (TTA-UC) material and at least one tooth beautifying agent can be used with a wearable light source, wherein the light source comprises at least one luminous surface, the peak wavelength of the emission is more than or equal to 520nm, and the at least one luminous surface is coupled with the TTA-UC material system in a light path.

The invention also provides the use of a TTA-UC material system for dental disinfection, in which the TTA-UC material system is disposed within the oral cavity and coupled to the teeth for dental disinfection; wherein the maximum emission wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is between 400 and 520nm, and the maximum absorption wavelength is more than or equal to 520 nm. When a light source is used for irradiating the TTA-UC material system coupled with the tooth, the TTA-UC material system can absorb light with long wavelength being more than or equal to 520nm and emit blue light with short wavelength being between 400 and 520nm after up-conversion, and the blue light irradiates on the surface of the tooth to play a role in sterilization.

When the customer uses the TTA-UC material system for tooth sterilization according to the disclosure, the process can be carried out in the following two steps:

1. coupling the TTA-UC material system on the tooth; when the step is carried out, a consumer can directly coat the TTA-UC material system in the form of gel on the surface of the tooth to be sterilized, can directly attach the TTA-UC material system in the form of a patch on the surface of the tooth to be sterilized, and can directly sleeve the TTA-UC material system in the form of a tooth socket on the tooth to be sterilized and enable the TTA-UC material system to be in direct contact with the surface of the tooth;

2. when a proper light source is worn outside the oral cavity and the TTA-UC material system arranged inside the oral cavity is irradiated, the TTA-UC material system coupled on the teeth can convert the light with long wavelength emitted by the light source into the blue light with short wavelength through the up-conversion process and irradiate the blue light on the teeth, thereby playing the role of sterilizing the teeth.

In the application of the tooth whitening combination and the TTA-UC material system in the aspect of tooth sterilization, as the TTA-UC material system is used in the oral cavity, a light source can be arranged outside the oral cavity, great convenience is brought to a user, the discomfort brought when the oral cavity type tooth beautifying instrument and the oral cavity type tooth sterilization instrument which are reported at present are used for tooth whitening and tooth sterilization is avoided while teeth are safely and effectively whitened and the teeth are sterilized, and normal speaking is not influenced; in addition, when a proper light source is adopted, the phototherapy beauty treatment on the skin of cheeks, lips and even the whole face can be realized while teeth are whitened, and the time of a user is greatly saved.

It should be understood that the various embodiments described herein are illustrative only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. Thus, the invention as claimed may include variations from the specific embodiments and preferred embodiments described herein, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Many of the materials and structures described herein may be substituted with other materials and structures without departing from the spirit of the present invention. It should be understood that various theories as to why the invention works are not intended to be limiting.

Claims

1. A tooth whitening combination, comprising:

at least one light source emitting a peak wavelength of 520nm or more, the light source including at least one light emitting face;

a triplet-triplet annihilation up-conversion (TTA-UC) material system, wherein the maximum emission wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is between 400-520nm, and the maximum absorption wavelength is more than or equal to 520 nm;

a tooth beautifying agent;

2. The tooth whitening combination of claim 1, wherein the smallest distance of the TTA-UC material system and light source is greater than 1 mm.

3. The tooth whitening combination of claim 2, wherein the smallest distance of the TTA-UC material system and light source is greater than 3 mm.

4. The tooth whitening combination of claim 1, wherein the tooth whitening agent has an area a1, the TTA-UC material system has an area a2, the light source has an effective light emitting area A3; and A1 is not less than A2 is not less than A1 is not less than A3.

5. The tooth whitening combination of claim 1, wherein the form of the TTA-UC material system comprises any one or more of a gel, a film, and a powder; wherein the form of the tooth beautifying agent includes any one or more of gel and patch.

6. The tooth whitening combination of claim 1, wherein the coupling of the TTA-UC material system and the tooth beautifying agent comprises any one or more of the following: the TTA-UC film is contacted with the tooth beautifying agent patch, or the TTA-UC gel is contacted with the tooth beautifying agent patch, or the TTA-UC film is contacted with the tooth beautifying agent gel, or the TTA-UC gel is contacted with the tooth beautifying agent gel, or the TTA-UC powder is contacted with the tooth beautifying agent gel.

7. The tooth whitening combination of claim 5, wherein the coupling of the TTA-UC material system and the tooth beautifying agent comprises any one or more of the following ways: the TTA-UC film is contacted with the tooth beautifying agent patch, or the TTA-UC gel is contacted with the tooth beautifying agent patch, or the TTA-UC film is contacted with the tooth beautifying agent gel, or the TTA-UC gel is contacted with the tooth beautifying agent gel, or the TTA-UC powder is contacted with the tooth beautifying agent gel.

8. The tooth whitening combination of claim 1, wherein the light source comprises at least one light source selected from the group consisting of: OLED light sources, LED light sources, and combinations thereof.

9. The tooth whitening combination of claim 1, wherein the light source comprises at least one light source selected from the group consisting of: OLED light sources, mini LED light sources, micro LED light sources, and combinations thereof.

10. The tooth whitening combination of claim 8, wherein the light source comprises at least one OLED light source.

11. The tooth whitening combination of claim 10, wherein the light source comprises at least one flexible OLED light source.

12. The tooth whitening combination product of claim 1, wherein the light source has a peak wavelength above 550 nm.

13. The tooth whitening combination of claim 8, wherein the light source has a peak wavelength above 550 nm.

14. The tooth whitening combination product as set forth in claim 12, wherein the peak wavelength of the light source is between 600 and 900 nm.

15. The tooth whitening combination product as set forth in claim 14, wherein the peak wavelength of the light source is between 600 and 750 nm.

16. The tooth whitening combination product as set forth in claim 1, wherein the TTA-UC material system has a maximum emission wavelength between 480 and 520 nm.

17. The tooth whitening combination of claim 1, wherein the TTA-UC material system has a maximum absorption wavelength of greater than or equal to 550 nm.

18. The tooth whitening combination product as set forth in claim 17, wherein the absorption maximum wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is between 600 and 900 nm.

19. The tooth whitening combination product of claim 18, wherein the maximum absorption wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is between 600-750 nm.

20. The tooth whitening combination product of claim 1, 12 or 17, wherein the peak wavelength of the light source is within +/-5nm of the maximum absorption wavelength of the TTA-UC material system.

21. The tooth whitening combination product of claim 1, 12 or 17, wherein the peak wavelength of the light source is within +/-3nm of the maximum absorption wavelength of the TTA-UC material system.

22. The tooth whitening combination of any one of claims 1-19, wherein said electrically driven connection comprises a power plug, a wireless charging device, an internal battery, or a combination thereof.

23. The tooth whitening combination of any one of claims 1-19, wherein the electrically driven connection comprises a USB interface, a wireless charging device, a built-in battery, or a combination thereof.

24. A method of tooth whitening, the method comprising the steps of:

a. directly coupling a tooth beautifying agent with the outer surface of the tooth to be whitened;

c. arranging a light source outside the oral cavity, wherein the peak wavelength of the light source is more than or equal to 520nm, the light source comprises at least one luminous surface and has an effective luminous area, and the at least one luminous surface faces the oral cavity and is coupled with the TTA-UC material system optical path;

wherein step a and step b can be performed in any order.

25. The tooth whitening method of claim 24, wherein the outer surface of the tooth to be whitened has an area a0, and the light source has an effective light emitting area not less than 1.3 times the area a 0.

26. The tooth whitening method of claim 25, wherein the light source has an effective light emitting area not less than 1.5 times the area a 0.

27. The tooth whitening method of claim 26, wherein the light source has an effective light emitting area not less than 2 times the area a 0.

28. The method of tooth whitening as claimed in claim 24, wherein the form of the TTA-UC material system includes any one or more of a gel, a film and a powder; wherein the form of the tooth beautifying agent includes any one or more of gel and patch.

29. The method of tooth whitening as claimed in claim 28, wherein the coupling of the TTA-UC material system and the tooth beautifying agent comprises any one or more of the following: the TTA-UC film is contacted with the tooth beautifying agent patch, or the TTA-UC gel is contacted with the tooth beautifying agent patch, or the TTA-UC film is contacted with the tooth beautifying agent gel, or the TTA-UC gel is contacted with the tooth beautifying agent gel, or the TTA-UC powder is contacted with the tooth beautifying agent gel.

30. The tooth whitening method of claim 24, wherein the light source is worn outside the oral cavity.

31. The tooth whitening method of claim 24, wherein the light source comprises at least one light source selected from the group consisting of: OLED light sources, LED light sources, and combinations thereof.

32. The tooth whitening method of claim 24, wherein the light source comprises at least one light source selected from the group consisting of: OLED light sources, mini LED light sources, micro LED light sources, and combinations thereof.

33. The tooth whitening method of claim 31, wherein the light source comprises at least one OLED light source.

34. The method of tooth whitening according to claim 33, wherein the light source comprises at least one flexible OLED light source.

35. The tooth whitening method of claim 24, wherein the peak wavelength of the light source is 550nm or more.

36. The tooth whitening method of claim 31, wherein the peak wavelength of the light source is 550nm or more.

37. The tooth whitening method of claim 35, wherein the peak wavelength of the light source is between 600 and 900 nm.

38. The tooth whitening method of claim 37, wherein the peak wavelength of the light source is between 600 and 750 nm.

39. The method of claim 24, wherein the TTA-UC material system has a maximum emission wavelength between 480 and 520 nm.

40. The method of tooth whitening according to claim 24, wherein the TTA-UC material system has a maximum absorption wavelength of 550nm or greater.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the TTA-UC material system has a maximum absorption wavelength between 600 and 900 nm.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein the TTA-UC material system has a maximum absorption wavelength between 600 and 750 nm.

43. The method of tooth whitening according to claim 24, 35 or 40, wherein the difference between the peak wavelength of the light source and the maximum absorption wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is within +/-5 nm.

44. The method of tooth whitening according to claim 24, 35 or 40, wherein the difference between the peak wavelength of the light source and the maximum absorption wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is within +/-3 nm.

45. The tooth whitening method of any one of claims 24-42, wherein the light source is electrically connected with an electrically driven connection; the electrically driven connection means comprises a power plug, a wireless charging device, a built-in battery, or a combination thereof.

46. The tooth whitening method of any one of claims 24-42, wherein the light source is electrically connected with an electrically driven connection; the electrically driven connection device includes a USB interface, a wireless charging device, a built-in battery, or a combination thereof.

47. The application of a TTA-UC material system in the aspect of tooth whitening is characterized in that the TTA-UC material system is matched with a tooth beautifying agent for use to whiten teeth; when irradiated by a light source, the TTA-UC material system can convert long-wavelength light emitted by the light source into short-wavelength light and irradiate the tooth beautifying agent to enable the tooth beautifying agent to generate tooth whitening effect;

48. The use of claim 47, wherein the TTA-UC material system is coupled with the dentifrice and the dentifrice is coupled with the outer surface of the teeth when teeth whitening is performed.

49. The use of claim 47, wherein the light source comprises at least one light source selected from the group consisting of: OLED light sources, LED light sources, and combinations thereof.

50. The use of claim 47, wherein the light source comprises at least one light source selected from the group consisting of: OLED light sources, mini LED light sources, micro LED light sources, and combinations thereof.

51. The use according to claim 49, wherein the light source comprises at least one OLED light source.

52. The use according to claim 51, wherein the light source comprises at least one flexible OLED light source.

53. A tooth whitening composition comprising at least one triplet-triplet annihilation up-conversion (TTA-UC) material system and at least one tooth beautifying agent; when irradiated by a light source, the TTA-UC material system can convert long-wavelength light emitted by the light source into short-wavelength light and irradiate the tooth beautifying agent to enable the tooth beautifying agent to generate tooth whitening effect;

wherein the maximum emission wavelength of the TTA-UC material system is between 400 and 520nm, and the maximum absorption wavelength is more than 520 nm.