JP4963552B2 - Tooth polishing equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a tooth polishing device using compressed melamine foam.

  Melamine resin has brittle and hard properties, and melamine foam, which is a foamed product, can effectively remove dirt adhering to various objects due to the minute uneven surface, so as a polishing member, cleaning member, etc. Applications are expanding. In addition, melamine foam is considered as a tooth polishing device because it can remove yellowing, spears and the like adhering to the tooth surface which is difficult to remove with a normal toothbrush relatively easily.

  For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a tooth surface cleaning tool for removing coloring of a tooth surface, which includes a melamine-based resin foam processed into a shape that enters the oral cavity. Further, in Patent Document 2, in a brush having a brush member that contacts a hard surface portion of a human body such as a tooth to remove dirt and a support member to which the brush member is attached, a resinous foam in which the brush member is fixed to the support member The thickness of the component wall that separates the bubbles from the bubbles of this resinous foam is set to an average of 0.5 micrometers or less, and this component wall mechanically removes dirt that has entered microscopic recesses on the hard surface of the human body. A human body hard surface brush having a function of scraping is disclosed.

JP2003-250818 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-310352

  However, there is a demand for a tooth polishing device with high removal efficiency that can remove dirt more quickly than the conventional tooth polishing device using melamine foam. There is also a need for a tooth polishing device that is easy to use and easy to use.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a tooth polishing device having high removal efficiency, good operability, and ease of use in response to such a demand.

  The present inventors have completed the present invention based on the knowledge that when a compression melamine foam having a compression ratio in a certain range is used as a dentifrice member, the removal efficiency is high and the operability is good and the usability is good. I let you.

  A tooth polishing device according to the present invention is a tooth polishing device comprising a gripping portion, a support portion extending from the gripping portion, and a toothpaste member attached to the support portion, wherein the toothpaste member is a surface parallel to the brushed surface. The ratio of the number of partition walls to the number of partition walls in the direction perpendicular to the polished surface is 1/3 to 1/5.

In the above invention, the compressed melamine foam has an apparent density of 5 to 50 kg / m ³ , a tensile strength of 0.6 to 1.6 kg / m ² , and a number of cells of 80 to 350/25 mm. It should be heat-compressed to 4 to 1/6.

  Further, the dentifrice member may have a number of partition walls of the polished surface of 80 to 350/25 mm, and a number of partition walls of a surface perpendicular to the polished surface of 300 to 1000/25 mm.

  The tooth polishing apparatus according to the present invention has high removal efficiency capable of quickly removing yellowing, spears and the like attached to the tooth surface. In addition, this tooth polishing tool is easy to use and easy to use.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of a tooth polishing apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an external view of a tooth polishing apparatus according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the present tooth polishing instrument 10 includes a gripping portion 11, a support portion 13 extending from the gripping portion 11, and a dentifrice member 21 attached to the support portion 13. The dentifrice member 21 is made of a compressed melamine foam in which the ratio between the number of partition walls parallel to the polished surface and the number of partition walls orthogonal to the polished surface is 1/3 to 1/5. That is, the tooth polishing apparatus according to the present invention includes a dentifrice member 21 made of compressed melamine foam, and the compressed melamine foam has a ratio between the number of partition walls parallel to the polished surface and the number of partition walls orthogonal to the polished surface. Is 1/3 to 1/5.

Melamine foam, which is generally marketed as a cleaning member, has physical properties of a density of 5 to 50 kg / m ³ , a tensile strength of 0.6 to 1.6 kg / m ² , a cell count of 80 to 300/25 mm, and a hardness of Hv 150 to 200 Is a porous body having an open cell structure. FIG. 2 shows a schematic cross-sectional view of the melamine foam. As shown in FIG. 2 (a), there are a large number of cavities 22 in the interior of the melamine foam, and a partition wall 23 formed between adjacent cavities 22 appears on the surface. There are fine irregularities. Note that the cell generally refers to the cavity portion 22 described above, and the number of partition walls 23 described below is substantially equal to the number of cells.

  The compressed melamine foam can be produced by a heat compression process in which a compressive force is applied in the thickness (T) direction while heating the melamine foam in the form shown in FIG. As the processing method, for example, the methods described in patent documents (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2002-172638 and 2002-201299) can be used. As the melamine foam used for the production of the compressed melamine foam, a commercially available melamine foam can be used as a cleaning member. Further, a cell having a larger number of cells than that of such a commercial product, for example, having a cell number of 300 to 350/25 mm can be used.

  In the compressed melamine thus produced, a surface having fine irregularities parallel to the compression surface of the compressed melamine foam is used as the tooth polishing surface 24 (FIG. 2 (b)). The thickness s and the number of the partition walls 23 on the polished surface 24 are substantially constant regardless of the compression ratio. Further, the thickness s of the partition wall 23 on the surface (side surface 25) orthogonal to the polished surface 24 is approximately the same as the thickness s of the partition wall 23 on the polished surface 24. On the other hand, the number of the partition walls 23 on the side surface 25 has the relationship shown in Table 1.

  Table 1 shows the compression ratio of the compressed melamine foam and the partition walls on the polished surface 24 and the side surface 25 with respect to the compressed melamine foam produced by subjecting the original (commercially available) melamine foam (compression ratio 1/1) to various heat compression treatments. The relationship with the number of 23 is shown. As described above, the number of the partition walls 23 of the polished surface 24 of the compressed melamine foam is substantially constant regardless of the compression ratio. For this reason, in Table 1, the number of partition walls on the side surface 25 is the number of partition walls 23 existing per 25 mm length of the side surface 25 when the number of partition walls 23 existing per 25 mm length of the polished surface 24 is 100 (%). It was expressed as a percentage (%). As shown in FIG. 2 (b), the compression ratio means t / T, where T is the thickness of the original commercial melamine resin and t is the thickness of the compressed melamine foam. As can be seen from Table 1, the number of partition walls on the side surface 25 changes with the compression ratio, and the partition wall number increases as the compression ratio decreases.

  When the relationship between the compression ratio and the number of partition walls on the side surface is drawn on a graph, the graph shown in FIG. 3 is obtained. The horizontal axis represents the compression ratio, and the vertical axis represents the number of side walls (%). As shown in FIG. 3, in the case of a compressed melamine foam having a compression ratio of 1/4 to 1/6, the number of partition walls on the side surface 25 is 300 to 500 (%). That is, the ratio between the number of partition walls on the polished surface 24 and the number of partition walls on the side surface 25 is 1/3 to 1/5. In the present invention, a compressed melamine foam in which the ratio of the number of partition walls of the polished surface 24 to the number of partition walls of the side surface 25 is 1/3 to 1/5 is used for the dentifrice member 21.

  4 to 9 show test results obtained by examining the dirt removing effect of the tooth polishing device 10 using the compressed melamine foam as the dentifrice member 21. FIG. The test was performed by attaching or coloring tea leaves or cigarettes to the labial side of the extracted tooth (mandibular incisor), brushing with a tooth polishing device 10 using compressed melamine foam of various compression ratios for the dentifrice member 21, The measurement was performed by measuring the degree of coloring for each predetermined brushing elapsed time. The degree of coloration is taken with a stereomicroscope (OLYMPUS SZX9) at 0, 30, 60 and 90s brushing elapsed time, and the image is traced on a tracing paper and captured by an image scanner. (NIH image) was used. The brushing was performed by electric at a brushing pressure of 40 to 50 g.

  FIG. 4 shows a case where the dentifrice member 21 uses a compressed melamine foam having a compression ratio of 1/1, FIG. 5 shows a case where the compression ratio is 1/2, and FIG. 6 shows a case where the compression ratio is 1/3. 7 shows a case where the compression ratio is 1/4, FIG. 8 shows a case where the compression ratio is 1/5, and FIG. 9 shows a case where the compression ratio is 1/6. As shown in FIGS. 4 to 6, when the compression melamine foam having a compression ratio of 1/2 or 1/3 is used for the dentifrice member 21, it is slightly soiled as compared with the case of the compression ratio being 1/1. It can be seen that the removal rate is improved. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 7, when the compression ratio is 1/4, the dirt removal speed is very high. When the compression ratio is 1/1 at a brushing time of 30 s, the coloring degree is 50%, whereas when the compression ratio is 1/4, the coloring degree is reduced to 25%.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 8, when the compression ratio of melamine foam is high and the compression ratio is 1/5, the coloring degree is reduced to 15% at a brushing time of 30 s, and the compression ratio is 1/4. It can be seen that the dirt removal rate is further improved compared to the case of the above. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 9, when the compression ratio is 1/6, the coloring degree is 20% at a brushing time of 30 s, and the dirt removal speed is slightly lower than when the compression ratio is 1/5. You can see that

  That is, the compressed melamine foam used for the dentifrice member 21 should have a compression ratio of 1/4 or more. And the one with a compression ratio of 1/5 is the best. However, when the compression ratio is 1/6 or higher, the dirt removal speed is not improved for the increase in the compression ratio, and when the compression ratio is increased, the manufacturing efficiency and yield deteriorate. Then, the compression melamine foam used for the dentifrice member 21 preferably has a compression ratio of 1/4 to 1/6, and the ratio of the number of partition walls of the polished surface 24 to the number of partition walls of the side surface 25 is 1/3 to 1/5. Some are preferred.

  FIG. 10 shows the result of measuring the amount of water contained in the dentifrice member 21 using the above-described tooth polishing apparatus 10. In FIG. 10, the horizontal axis indicates the compression ratio of the melamine foam constituting the dentifrice member 21, and the vertical axis indicates the moisture content of the compressed melamine foam with respect to the moisture content of the original melamine foam (compression ratio 1/1). Indicates the percentage. Each compressed melamine foam used for the dentifrice member 21 has the same shape and dimensions as the melamine foam before compression. Further, after the dentifrice member 21 was sufficiently immersed in water, the amount of water contained in the dentifrice member 21 was measured. The amount of water was measured with a graduated cylinder.

  When brushing is actually performed using each tooth polishing apparatus 10 including the amount of water as shown in FIG. 10, when the compression ratio is 1/1 or 1/2, the water contained in the dentifrice member 21 drops dripping. In addition, water overflowed in the oral cavity and was unusable. On the other hand, when the compression ratio was 1/3 or more, there was no problem as described above, and it could be used like a normal toothbrushing brush. That is, a tooth polishing device using a compressed melamine foam having a ratio of the number of partition walls of the polished surface 24 and the number of partition walls of the side surface 25 of 1/3 to 1/5 (compression ratio of 1/4 to 1/6) as the dentifrice member 21. No. 10 was found to have high removal efficiency and excellent usability.

  Although the effect of using the compressed melamine foam for the dentifrice member 21 has been described above, the effect of using the compressed melamine foam for the dentifrice member 21 improves the strength and abrasion resistance of the compressed melamine foam itself by heat compression treatment in addition to the above effects. Furthermore, there is an effect that a trace amount of formaldehyde contained in the melamine foam is removed. The compressed melamine foam used for the dentifrice member 21 may be a melamine foam that is commercially available as a cleaning member as described above, but may be a melamine foam that has a large number of cells.

  FIG. 11 shows a schematic diagram of natural teeth. As shown in FIG. 11, the natural tooth has a structure in which the enamel trabeculae 51 stands on the surface of the tooth, and the tooth surface has the head of the enamel trabeculae 51, and the ridges 53 and the grooves 54. It seems to be arranged side by side. When the surface of the tooth is actually observed with an electron microscope, it is observed that the ridges 53 and the grooves 54 are alternately arranged as shown in FIG. The width of the concave groove 54 is about 5 μm. Yellowishness or dust adheres to the concave groove 54. In the dentifrice member 21 using melamine foam, the thickness s of the partition wall 23 of the melamine foam is approximately the same as the width of the concave groove 54, so that yellowing and scum can be effectively removed. Therefore, an increase in the number of melamine foam cells is preferable for removing yellowing and scum since the number of partition walls 23 increases. However, since melamine foam has the property of being hard but brittle, it cannot be said that the larger the number of cells, the better. That is, the compressed melamine foam used for the dentifrice member 21 can be produced from a melamine foam having 80 to 350 cells / 25 mm, and it is preferable to use a melamine foam having a large number of cells. Further, as the dentifrice member 21, a compressed melamine foam in which the number of partition walls of the polished surface 24 is 80 to 350/25 mm and the number of partition walls of the side surface 25 is 300 to 1000/25 mm can be used.

  As described above, in the present invention, such a compressed melamine foam is processed into a predetermined shape and size and used as the dentifrice member 21. Various methods, such as sticking and inserting, can be employed for attaching the compressed melamine foam to the support portion 13. The attachment of the dentifrice member 21 has an advantage that it can be easily replaced when the dentifrice member 21 is worn.

  Further, in the tooth polishing apparatus 10 according to the present invention, known shapes and structures of the grip portion 11 and the support portion 13 can be employed. In the above, the shape and structure of a commonly used manual toothbrush have been illustrated, but an electric type may be used.

1 is an overall view of a tooth polishing device according to the present invention. It is a cross-sectional schematic diagram of a melamine foam. It is a graph which shows the relationship between the compression ratio of a melamine foam, and the number of side walls. It is a graph which shows the dirt removal effect when brushing using the original melamine foam (compression ratio 1/1) for a dentifrice member. It is a graph which shows the stain | pollution | contamination removal effect when brushing using the melamine foam of 1/2 compression ratio for a dentifrice member. It is a graph which shows the dirt removal effect when brushing using the melamine foam of compression ratio 1/3 for a dentifrice member. It is a graph which shows the stain | pollution | contamination removal effect when brushing using the melamine foam of 1/4 compression ratio for a dentifrice member. It is a graph which shows the dirt removal effect when brushing using the melamine foam of compression ratio 1/5 for a dentifrice member. It is a graph which shows the stain | pollution | contamination removal effect when brushing using the melamine foam of 1/6 compression ratio for a dentifrice member. It is a graph which shows the moisture content contained in the melamine foam of each compression ratio. It is a schematic diagram of the structure of a natural tooth and the electron micrograph of the surface.

Explanation of symbols

10 tooth polishing equipment
11 Holding part
13 Support part
21 Dentifrice
22 Cavity
23 Bulkhead
24 polished
25 sides
51 Enamel trabeculae
53 ridges
54 Groove

Claims (3)

  A tooth polishing device comprising a gripping portion, a support portion extending from the gripping portion, and a dentifrice member attached to the support portion, wherein the dentifrice member is perpendicular to the polishing surface and the number of partition walls parallel to the polishing surface. A tooth polishing device comprising a compressed melamine foam having a ratio of the number of partition walls in the direction to 1/3 to 1/5. Compressed melamine foam has an apparent density of 5-50 kg / m ³ , a tensile strength of 0.6-1.6 kg / m ² , and a cell number of 80-350 / 25 mm. The tooth polishing tool according to claim 1, wherein the tooth polishing tool is subjected to heat compression treatment.   The compressed melamine foam has a number of partition walls of a polished surface of 80 to 350 pieces / 25 mm, and a number of partition walls in a direction perpendicular to the polished surface of 300 to 1000 pieces / 25 mm. Tooth polisher.

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