WO1998048662A1

WO1998048662A1 - Anti-dental injury toothbrush

Info

Publication number: WO1998048662A1
Application number: PCT/KR1997/000065
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jin-Su Ahn
Original assignee: Ahn Jin Su
Priority date: 1997-04-25
Filing date: 1997-04-25
Publication date: 1998-11-05
Also published as: GB2338645A; DE19782285T1; GB9924875D0; JP2000514699A

Abstract

An anti-dental injury toothbrush is disclosed. The toothbrush of this invention has a long handle (1) and a brushing head (2) formed on one end of the long handle (1). A plurality of soft bristles (22) are set on the brushing head (2) thus forming two opposite soft bristle parts, with a longitudinal gap being formed between the two soft bristle (22) parts and having a width similar to the thickness of a tooth. A plurality of hard bristles (21) are set on the brushing head at positions outside the two soft bristle parts thus holding the soft bristles (22). The hard bristles (21) are made of a plastic material harder than a material of the soft bristles (22). The toothbrush of this invention is free from injuring the teeth or gum while brushing the teeth.

Description

ANTI-DENTAL INJURY TOOTHBRUSH

Technical Field

The present invention relates, in general, toothbrushes used for cleaning one's teeth thus keeping dental hygiene and, more particularly, to an improvement in the structure and material of such toothbrushes to provide an anti-dental injury toothbrush being free from injuring one's teeth or gum and being convenient to a user and while brushing the teeth.

Background Art

As well known to those skilled in the art, several types of toothbrushes, each of which is used for cleaning one's teeth and keeping dental hygiene, are proposed and widely used. Most typical toothbrushes are individually provided with a long handle. A great number of nylon bristles are densely set on one end of the handle, thus forming a brushing head of the toothbrush. In addition, a replaceable toothbrush, of which the brushing head is detachably attached to the handle thus being replaceable with a new one when existing bristles are frictionally abraded or deformed, is proposed.

In most typical toothbrushes, the bristles are made of synthetic fiber. Most dentists propose that for dental hygiene, it is preferable to brush one's teeth three times a day within three minutes after breakfast, lunch and dinner. As a result of such repeated tooth-brushing, the synthetic fiber bristles may injure one's teeth or gum and causes the teeth to be cold while eating or drinking cold or sour food or beverages. Meanwhile, toothbrushes with animal bristles, which were typically used at the time of undeveloped petrochemical industry, do not injure one's teeth or gum even though they have a problem in that the bristles are easily removed from the handle.

However, the animal bristles are expensive and have a low strength so that such bristles increase production costs of the toothbrushes and reduce the expected life span of the toothbrushes. In this regard, it is profitable to produce the bristles for the toothbrushes using synthetic fiber, which is easily prepared and has a high strength, even though the synthetic fiber bristles may injure one's teeth or gum while brushing the teeth.

While a user brushes his teeth using such a toothbrush with the synthetic fiber bristles, the sharpened distal ends of the bristles with toothpaste physically crush the food remnants stuck on the teeth or jammed between the teeth and remove the food remnants while polishing the teeth. In an effort to improve the tooth polishing effect, toothpaste may include powdered aluminum particles as a tooth polishing agent.

When cleaning one's teeth using a synthetic fiber bristle toothbrush with toothpaste including such a tooth polishing agent, it is possible to effectively keep dental hygiene with the teeth being polished. However, the synthetic fiber bristle toothbrush with such a toothpaste is problematic in that it may cause injury on one's teeth or gum.

Another problem experienced in the typical toothbrush is that the cleaning of one's teeth with such a toothbrush is time consuming since it is necessary to repeatedly brush the teeth and teethridge vertically and to brush the front and back surfaces of the teeth one by one. Disclosure of the Invention

Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide an anti-dental injury toothbrush, which is free from injuring one's teeth or gum and reduces the tooth brushing time and thereby being convenient to a user while brushing the teeth.

In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides an anti-dental injury toothbrush comprising: a long handle; and a brushing head provided on one end of the long handle and adapted for brushing human teeth, the brushing head having a plurality of bristles made of a soft material thus being free from injuring the teeth or gum while brushing the teeth, the bristles being set on the head thus forming two bristle parts with a longitudinal gap being formed between the two bristle parts and having a width similar to the thickness of a tooth.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The above and other objects, features and other advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing the structure of the brushing head of an anti-dental injury toothbrush according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan view showing the brushing head of the anti-dental injury toothbrush according to this invention;

Fig. 3 is a side view showing the brushing head of the anti-dental injury toothbrush according to this invention; and Fig. 4 is a front view showing the brushing head of the anti-dental injury toothbrush according to this invention.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing the structure of the brushing head of an anti-dental injury toothbrush according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention. Figs. 2, 3 and 4 are plan, side and front views of the above brushing head respectively.

As shown in Figs. 1 to 4, the toothbrush of this invention comprises a long handle 1 and a brushing head 2. The brushing head 2 is provided on one end of the long handle 1 and brushes one's teeth. The above brushing head 2 has a plurality of bristles, which are made of a soft material thus being free from injuring one's teeth or gum while brushing the teeth.

The bristles of the brushing head 2 comprise two parts: soft bristles 22 and hard bristles 21. The soft bristles 22 are set on the head 2 thus forming two opposite soft bristle parts. The two opposite parts of the soft bristles 22 are spaced apart from each other, with a longitudinal gap being formed between the two parts and having a width which is almost similar to the thickness of a tooth. Meanwhile, the hard bristles 21 are set on the head 2 at positions outside the two parts of the soft bristles 22 thus holding the soft bristles 22. The hard bristles 22 are made of a plastic material. The gap between the two opposite parts of the soft bristles 22 has a configuration, which is similar to the surface configuration of teeth thus improving the tooth brushing effect. The width of the gap between the two parts of the soft bristles 22 varies in order to meet the difference in thickness of teeth: a molar tooth, a canine tooth and a front tooth so that the gap is wider at the outside end of the head 2 and is narrower at the inside end. The soft bristles 22 may be formed of various materials. However, the material of the soft bristles 22 has to be harmless to people and to have a high consume resistance and to have a high resistance against chemicals such as toothpaste. An example of the material having such conditions is a silicon rubber, which has a coil molecular structure thus having a low intermolecular attraction and having a good elasticity, a good compressibility and a good low temperature resistance. Methyl placed outside the coil molecular structure of the silicon rubber freely rotates so that the silicon rubber has a unique surface action such as a good water repellent and separation thereby being preferably used with water.

The operational effect of the above toothbrush will be described hereinbelow.

In order to brush one's teeth using a typical toothbrush, it is necessary to separately clean the three surfaces or the front, back and top surfaces of each tooth. That is, the typical toothbrush only cleans one surface of each tooth at every brushing action so that the brushing action of the toothbrush has to be repeated in order to separately clean the three surfaces of each tooth and is time consuming. Therefore, when the three surfaces of each tooth can be brushed simultaneously at every brushing action of a toothbrush, it is possible to reduce the tooth brushing time. The above object is preferably achieved by the toothbrush of this invention. That is, the toothbrush of this invention effectively brushes the three surfaces or the front, back and top surfaces of each tooth simultaneously at every brushing action, thus improving the tooth brushing effect and being convenient to a user. In addition, the bristles of the toothbrush of this invention are made of soft silicon rubber so that the toothbrush with such bristles does not injure one's teeth or gum but softly massages the gum while brushing the teeth.

Industrial Applicability

As described above, the present invention provides an anti-dental injury toothbrush, which is free from injuring one's teeth or gum and massages the gum and reduces the tooth brushing time, thus being convenient to a user while brushing the teeth.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.

Claims

Claims :

1. An anti-dental injury toothbrush comprising: a long handle; and a brushing head provided on one end of said long handle and adapted for brushing human teeth, said brushing head having a plurality of bristles made of a soft material thus being free from injuring the teeth or gum while brushing the teeth, said bristles being set on the brushing head thus forming two bristle parts with a longitudinal gap being formed between the two bristle parts and having a width similar to the thickness of a tooth.

2. The anti-dental injury toothbrush according to claim 1, wherein said bristles of the brushing head comprise: a plurality of soft bristles set on the brushing head thus forming two opposite soft bristle parts with said longitudinal gap being formed between the two soft bristle parts; and a plurality of hard bristles set on the brushing head at positions outside the two soft bristle parts thus holding the soft bristles, said hard bristles being made of a plastic material of harder than a material of said soft bristles.

3. The anti-dental injury toothbrush according to claim 2, wherein said gap between the two soft bristle parts has a configuration similar to a surface configuration of the teeth and is wider at the outside end of the brushing head and is narrower at the inside end thus meeting the difference in thickness of the teeth.

4. The anti-dental injury toothbrush according to claim 2, wherein said soft bristles are made of consume and chemical resisting silicon rubber being harmless to people.