JP2001095821A - Interdental cleaning appliance - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an interdental cleaning appliance which can simultaneously clean two interdental parts on both sides of one tooth, and surely clean the interdental parts on both sides even when they are narrow or wide. SOLUTION: A pair of arch-like floss stretching parts 3 and 31 (3' and 31') formed by tensioning fiber bundles 1 and 11 of the dental floss are connected substantially parallel to each other via a connection part 4, a pair of arch-like stretching parts connected substantially parallel to each other are provided on one end or both ends of a holding part 6 so that the major axis of the fiber bundle and the major axis of the holding part are substantially parallel to each other or substantially orthogonal to each other, at least one folding recess 5 is formed on the connection part 4 to connect a pair of the arch-like stretching parts, and the distance L of the fiber bundles of a pair of the arch-like stretching parts is adjustable by folding at least one arch-like stretching part by the folding recess. A folding recess 7 is formed in a connection boundary part between the arch-like stretching parts and the holding part so that the angle of intersection of the arch-like stretching parts with respect to the holding part is adjustable.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an interdental cleaning tool for cleaning and removing food residues and plaque adhering between teeth using dental floss, and more particularly to a plurality of interdental parts. The present invention relates to an interdental cleaning tool that can simultaneously clean plaque and efficiently remove plaque.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As this kind of interdental cleaning tool, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No.
JP-A-16914 and JP-A-8-289898 are known. The interdental cleaning tool described in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 3-16914 discloses a pair of strings (filament bundles).
It is characterized in that the separation distance can be changed, but when the separation distance is made zero by closely fitting a pair of strings, the thickness of the strings is substantially doubled, and the interdental portion There is a drawback that it becomes difficult to insert a string into the string.
In addition, a separate member from the main body, such as a latch, an opening / closing bracket, and a cylindrical handle, is added to the handle, and when manufacturing the interdental cleaning tool, assembly work of these members is required, resulting in high cost. There was a drawback that it would be. further,
In this invention, there is no technical idea of cleaning a plurality of interdental portions at the same time with one interdental cleaning tool.

The interdental cleaning tool described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 8-289898 discloses an interdental cleaning thread tension portion having a shape and size suitable for the front teeth and an interdental cleaning portion having a shape and size suitable for the back teeth. A cleaning thread tension portion is provided on each of the right and left ends of the grip portion, but this interdental cleaning tool cannot simultaneously clean a plurality of interdental portions. ,
It was not efficient.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, two interdental portions on both sides of a single tooth can be cleaned at the same time. Another object of the present invention is to provide an interdental cleaning tool which can reliably clean even the interdental portions on both sides of a wide tooth, and has a simple structure and a low manufacturing cost.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the interdental cleaning tool according to the first aspect of the present invention connects a pair of arch-shaped threaded portions in which a fiber bundle of dental floss is strained substantially in parallel by a connecting portion. A pair of arched thread tension portions connected in substantially parallel are provided at one or both ends of the gripping portion such that the major axis of the fiber bundle and the major axis of the gripping portion are substantially parallel or substantially perpendicular to each other, At least one bending recess is formed in a connecting portion connecting the pair of arch-shaped threaded portions, and the at least one arch-shaped threaded portion is bent by the bending recess to form a pair of arch-shaped threaded portions. The distance between the fiber bundles can be adjusted.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the interdental cleaning tool according to the first aspect, a bending recess is formed at a connection boundary between the pair of arched thread tension portions and the grip portion,
The angle of intersection of the pair of arched thread tension portions with respect to the grip portion can be adjusted by the bending recess.

[0007] The interdental cleaning tool of the present invention includes a pair of arch-shaped tension portions connected substantially in parallel at one or both ends of a grip portion, and connects the pair of arch-shaped tension portions. Since the connecting recess is provided with a bending recess, even when cleaning the interdental portion of any part, the distance between the fiber bundles of the pair of arched thread tension portions can be easily shortened or extended with a finger. Thus, two interdental portions on both sides of one tooth can be cleaned at the same time. For this reason, it is very efficient.

Further, since a bending recess is provided at the connecting boundary between the pair of arched thread tension portions and the gripping portion, the intersection angle of the pair of arched thread tension portions with respect to the gripping portion can be freely adjusted. It is very easy to use both front teeth and back teeth.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the interdental cleaning tool according to the present invention. 1A is a plan view of the interdental cleaning tool, FIG. 1B is a front view thereof, and FIG. 1C is a left side view thereof.

In the first embodiment, a pair of arch-shaped tension portions 3, 3 in which fiber bundles 1, 11 of dental floss are tensioned.
31 are arranged substantially in parallel, and the fiber bundles 1 and 11 of the pair of arm-shaped thread tension portions 3 and 31 arranged in substantially parallel
The left end of the gripper 6 (in the figure) so as to be substantially parallel to
And the separation distance L between the fiber bundles 1 and 11 of the pair of arched thread tension portions 3 and 31 can be freely adjusted by the bending recesses 5 and 5.

That is, the pair of arched thread tension portions 3, 31
The fiber bundles 1 and 11 are tensioned between the tips of the arched arms 2 and 21, respectively. The pair of arched thread tension portions 3 and 31 are connected by the connection portion 4 substantially in parallel. Then, the pair of arched thread tension portions 3, 3 are arranged such that the major axes of the fiber bundles 1, 11 and the major axis of the grip portion 6 are substantially parallel to each other.
1 is formed integrally with the left end (in the figure) of the grip portion 6. Note that the right end of the grip portion 6 is sharply tapered to form a toothpick portion 8.

A connecting portion 4 connecting the pair of arched threaded portions 3 and 31 has a position close to each threaded portion,
Bent depressions 5 and 5 are formed, and the pair of arched thread tension portions 3 and 31 are pushed and spread or pushed and contracted with the fingers using the folding depressions 5 and 5 as pivot points. As shown in FIG. 2, a pair of arched thread tension portions 3, 3
The distance L between the one fiber bundles 1 and 11 can be freely adjusted. In addition, this bending recess 5 is
As shown in the figure, it is desirable to form the connecting portion 4 not only on the front side but also on the back side. By forming a dent on both the front and back surfaces, it becomes easier to bend.

On the other hand, the pair of arched thread tension portions 3, 31
The bending recess 5 is also provided at the connection boundary between the
A pair of arched thread tension portions 3 and 31 are bent right and left at the positions of the folding recesses 7 to form a pair of arched yarns as shown in FIG. The crossing angles of the tension parts 3 and 31 with respect to the grip part 6 can be freely adjusted. It is to be noted that it is easier to bend the bending recesses 7 if they are formed on both left and right sides of the connection boundary as shown in the figure.

If the distance L between the fiber bundles 1 and 11 does not correspond to the width of all the teeth in the oral cavity (= distance between the teeth), all the teeth have the interdental parts on both sides thereof. Cannot be cleaned at the same time. According to "Japanese Permanent Teeth Anatomy" (by Kamijo Yasuhiko, published by Atnerum Co., Ltd.), the narrowest tooth in the upper and lower dentition is the lower central incisor, 5.33 mm for men and 5 for women. .2 mm. On the other hand, the widest tooth is the lower first molar, which is 1 for males.
1.6 mm, 10.9 mm for women.

Therefore, in the present invention, in order to be able to cope with the maximum change range of the tooth width of 5.2 mm to 11.6 mm, the bending of the connecting portion 4 of the pair of arched threaded portions 3 and 31 is performed. The recesses 5,5 are formed, and the arched thread tension portions 3,31 can be bent at these portions, so that the separation distance L can be freely adjusted.

Further, in the present invention, in order to most effectively cope with a change in the tooth width, the installation interval W (FIG. 1) of the pair of arched threaded portions 3 and 31 is required.
(A)) was changed to the minimum tooth width of 5.2 mm and the maximum tooth width of 11.
It was set to about 8.5 mm, which is close to the intermediate value of 6 mm (8.4 mm). When the installation interval W between the pair of arched thread tension portions 3 and 31 is set to such a value, this median value of 8.5 mm
By opening the arched thread tension parts 3 and 31 about 3 mm outward or about 3 mm inward around the center, it is possible to cope with all tooth widths from men to women from 5.2 mm to 11.6 mm. The fiber bundles 1 and 11 can be simultaneously and smoothly inserted into the interdental portions on both sides of one tooth.

The constituent materials of the fiber bundles 1 and 11 include:
It is made of multifilament of resin such as polyamide, polyester or polyethylene.
0 to 1000 denier, preferably 600 to 800 denier is good. This is tensioned and provided on the arm of the arched thread tension portion.

Arms 2 and 2 of arched thread tension portions 3 and 31
1, the connecting portion 4, the grip portion 6, and the toothpick portion 8 are integrally formed of synthetic resin. As synthetic resin materials constituting these materials, polypropylene, polyamide, and the like are suitable in terms of moldability and bending strength of the bending recess, and among them, polypropylene is most preferable because of its low cost.

In order to clean the interdental space using the interdental cleaning tool having the above-mentioned shape, as shown in FIG. Spread it out,
By pressing and contracting, the distance L between the fiber bundles 1 and 11 is adjusted to the tooth width of the part to be cleaned. Then, the fiber bundles 1 and 11 with the adjusted separation distance L are inserted into the interdental portions on both sides of the tooth to be cleaned, and the gripping portion 6 is gripped to move the entire interdental cleaning tool in the long axis direction of the gripping portion. It only has to reciprocate. As a result, it is possible to simultaneously clean the left and right interdental portions of one tooth.

If necessary, as shown in FIG.
The angle of the pair of arch-shaped threaded portions 3 and 31 is adjusted at the position of the bending recess 7, and the arch-shaped threaded portions 3 and 31 and the gripping portion 6 are adjusted according to the cleaning position of the teeth in the oral cavity such as the back teeth. Adjust the intersection angle to the optimal angle. Thereby, the interdental cleaning can be performed most effectively according to the position of the teeth.

As in the first embodiment, the long axes of the fiber bundles 1 and 11 of the pair of arched thread tension portions 3 and 31 are provided so that the long axes of the gripping portions 6 are substantially parallel to each other. In this case, the shape becomes easy to use especially for cleaning the interdental area of the front teeth.

FIG. 4 shows a second embodiment of the interdental cleaning tool of the present invention. In the second embodiment, the pair of arched threaded portions 3 and 31 are arranged such that the long axes of the fiber bundles 1 and 11 and the long axis of the holding portion 6 are substantially perpendicular to each other. It is provided in. In the case of such an orientation, the shape becomes easy to use especially for cleaning the back teeth. In the connecting portion 4 connecting the pair of arched threaded portions 3 and 31, a bending recess 5 is formed only on the side of the arched threaded portion 3 located on the outside, and only the outer arched threaded portion 3 is formed. Was bent. Note that, except that the directions of the arch-shaped thread tension portions 3 and 31 are substantially perpendicular to the grip portion 6, the same portions as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals. And
Detailed description is omitted.

FIG. 5 shows a third embodiment of the interdental cleaning tool of the present invention. In the third embodiment, a pair of arched threaded portions are provided at both left and right end portions of a gripping portion. That is, in the case of the third embodiment, the pair of arched thread tension portions 3 and 31 on the left end side of the drawing are
11 is provided so that the long axis of the grip portion is substantially perpendicular to the long axis of the grip portion.
1 ′ is provided such that the major axes of the fiber bundles 1 and 11 and the major axis of the gripping portion are substantially parallel. Also, the connecting portion 4 on the left end side
In this example, a bending recess 5 was formed only on the outer side of the arched thread tension portion 3 so that only the outer arched thread tension portion 3 was folded. The same parts as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In the case of the third embodiment, the arched thread tension portions 3 and 31 on the left end provided substantially at a right angle to the grip portion 6.
Can be easily cleaned between the teeth of the back teeth, and the right end-side arched threaded portions 3 ′, 3, which are provided substantially parallel to the grip portion 6.
1 'facilitates the cleaning of the interdental teeth of the front teeth, and the cleaning of the interdental portions of all the teeth can be performed by one interdental cleaning tool.

FIG. 6 shows a fourth embodiment of the interdental cleaning tool of the present invention. In the fourth embodiment, as in the third embodiment, a pair of arched thread tension portions are provided at both ends of the grip portion. That is, in the case of the fourth embodiment, the pair of arched thread tension portions 3 and 31 on the left end side of the figure are set so that the long axes of the fiber bundles 1 and 11 and the long axis of the grip portion are substantially perpendicular to each other. Along with the pair of arched thread tension portions 3 ′ and 31 ′ on the right end side in the figure, the long axes of the fiber bundles 1 and 11 and the long axis of the grip portion 6 are also substantially perpendicular to each other. I have. Further, in each of the left end side connection portion 4 and the right end side connection portion 4, a bending recess 5 is formed only on the outer side of the arched thread tension portions 3 and 3 ′, respectively. Only the tension portions 3 and 3 'were to be bent. The same parts as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In the case of the fourth embodiment, both the arched thread tension portions 3 and 31 at the left end and the arch thread tension portions 3 ′ and 31 ′ at the right end are provided substantially at right angles to the grip portion 6. Therefore, the shape becomes easy to use especially for cleaning the back teeth. Furthermore, even if the arched threaded portion on one side is broken, the arched threaded portion on the other side can be used, so that it can be used for a long time.

FIG. 7 shows a fifth embodiment of the interdental cleaning tool of the present invention. In the fifth embodiment, like the third and fourth embodiments, the left and right ends of the gripper are provided.
It is provided with a pair of arched thread tension portions. That is, in the case of the fifth embodiment, the pair of arched thread tension portions 3 and 31 on the left end side of the figure are set so that the long axes of the fiber bundles 1 and 11 and the long axis of the grip portion are substantially parallel. And a pair of arched thread tension portions 3 ', 3 on the right end side of the figure.
1 'is also provided so that the major axes of the fiber bundles 1 and 11 and the major axis of the gripper 6 are substantially parallel. The same parts as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In the case of the fifth embodiment, the arched thread tension portions 3 and 31 at the left end and the arch thread tension portions 3 ′ and 31 ′ at the right end are provided substantially parallel to the grip portion 6. Therefore, the shape becomes easy to use especially for cleaning the posterior teeth of the front teeth. Further, even if the arched threaded portion on one side is broken, the arched threaded portion on the other side can be used, so that it can be used for a long time.

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention,
A pair of arched thread tension portions connected in substantially parallel are provided at one or both ends of the gripping portion such that the long axis of the fiber bundle and the long axis of the gripping portion are substantially parallel or substantially perpendicular to each other. Since at least one bending recess is formed in the connecting portion connecting the thread tension portions, and the spacing between the fiber bundles of the pair of arch-shaped thread tension portions can be adjusted by the bending recess,
Regardless of the interdental portion of the tooth at any position, the interdental portion on the left and right sides thereof can be cleaned at the same time, and the cleaning efficiency can be remarkably improved as compared with the conventional interdental cleaning tool.

Further, a bending recess is formed at a connection boundary between the pair of arched thread tension portions and the grip portion, and the crossing angle of the pair of arched thread tension portions with respect to the grip portion can be adjusted by the bending recess. As a result, the angle of the handle can be changed according to the position of the teeth in the oral cavity,
Cleaning can be performed more easily and reliably, and the usability as the interdental cleaning tool is further improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1A and 1B show a first embodiment of an interdental cleaning tool according to the present invention, wherein FIG. 1A is a plan view, FIG. 1B is a front view, and FIG.
Is a left side view.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an adjustment state of a separation distance between fiber bundles of a pair of arched thread tension portions.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an adjustment state of an intersection angle of a pair of arch-shaped thread tension portions with respect to a grip portion.

FIG. 4 shows a second embodiment of the interdental cleaning tool according to the present invention, wherein (a) is a plan view and (b) is a front view.

5A and 5B show a third embodiment of the interdental cleaning tool according to the present invention, wherein FIG. 5A is a plan view and FIG. 5B is a front view.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of a fourth embodiment of the interdental cleaning tool according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of a fifth embodiment of the interdental cleaning tool according to the present invention.

[Description of Signs] 1, 11 Fiber bundle 2, 21 Arm 3, 31 A pair of arch-shaped threaded portions 3 ', 31' A pair of arch-shaped threaded portions 4 Connecting portion 5 Bending recess 6 Grip portion 7 Bending recess 8 toothpick part L Separation distance of fiber bundle W Installation interval of a pair of arched thread tension parts

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A pair of arch-shaped threaded portions that tension a fiber bundle of dental floss are connected substantially in parallel by a connecting portion, and the pair of arch-shaped threaded portions connected in substantially parallel are connected to one end of a gripping portion. At both ends, a long axis of the fiber bundle and a long axis of the grip portion are provided so as to be substantially parallel or substantially perpendicular to each other, and at least one bending recess is formed in a connecting portion connecting the pair of arched thread tension portions. An interdental cleaning tool characterized in that the spacing between the fiber bundles of the pair of arched threaded portions can be adjusted by folding at least one arched threaded portion by the folding recess. 2. A bending recess is formed at a connection boundary between the pair of arched thread tension portions and the grip portion, and the crossing angle of the pair of arched thread tension portions with respect to the grip portion is adjusted by the bending recess. 3. The interdental cleaning tool according to claim 1, wherein the cleaning tool is enabled.