Toothbrush

Abstract

The toothbrush has a triple cross array of tufts of bristles. The tufts are disposed in rows which are disposed on a diagonal relative to longitude and axis of the toothbrush. In addition, alternating rows of the tufts have the tufts inclined at an acute angle to the base of the toothbrush and in crisscrossing relation to the tufts of the adjacent row.

Description

This invention relates to a toothbrush. More particularly, this invention relates to a bristle arrangement for the head of a toothbrush.

As is known, various types of toothbrushes and attachments for electric toothbrushes have been provided with arrays of tufts of bristles to accomplish the cleaning of teeth. In some cases, the tufts of bristles have been skewed at an angle to the more conventional perpendicular relationship to the head of a toothbrush. Skewing of the tufts has been intended to facilitate the cleaning of debris from the spaces between the teeth of a user.

It is an object of this invention to provide an array of tufts for a toothbrush head that will efficiently clean the teeth of a user.

It is another object of the invention to provide a toothbrush for efficiently cleaning the teeth of a user.

It is another object of the invention to provide a toothbrush that is comfortable for a user to use.

Briefly, the invention provides a head for a toothbrush that has a triple cross array of tufts of bristles. In particular, the invention provides a head for a toothbrush comprised of a body having an elongated shape along a longitudinal axis and a plurality of rows of tufts of bristles mounted on the body with at least some of these rows being disposed at an acute angle to the longitudinal axis of the body. In addition, the tufts in these rows are disposed at an acute angle to the plane of the body as well as in criss-crossing relation to the tufts in an adjacent row.

In one embodiment, the triple cross arrangement of tufts is used on a conventional toothbrush having a body of elongated shape along a longitudinal axis of the toothbrush. The rows of tufts are mounted on the head of the body with the rows being disposed at an acute angle, for example of 27°, to the longitudinal axis of the body. In addition, the tufts in each of the rows is disposed at an acute angle, for example of 18°, to the plane of the body and in criss-crossing relation to the tufts in an adjacent row.

In addition, a retainer wall is mounted on the body of the toothbrush and is located at the rear-most tuft at the end of each row of tufts for restraining the bristles of the rear-most tuft from deforming during use. This retainer wall may be made of plastic suitable for use on the toothbrush and is typically one-half the height of the adjacent tuft and slightly wider than the tuft in order to protect the bristles of the tuft from being permanently deformed due to pressures exerted during use.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention would become more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates a top plan view of a toothbrush head employing a triple-cross array of tufts in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a side view of the toothbrush head of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 illustrates a view of one row of tufts taken along line III-III of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 illustrates a view of a second row of tufts taken along line IV-IV of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 illustrates a diagrammatic view of a first action of the bristles of the toothbrush of FIG. 1 during a brushing action on a pair of teeth in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 6 diagrammatically illustrates the action of the bristles of the toothbrush of FIGS. 3 and 4 during cleaning of the tooth crowns;

FIG. 7 diagrammatically illustrates the resultant action of FIGS. 5 and 6 of the bristles of the toothbrush;

FIG. 8 diagrammatically illustrates the scrubbing and agitating actions of the bristles of the toothbrush on the teeth;

FIG. 9 diagrammatically illustrates the action of a conventional toothbrush on teeth;

FIG. 10 diagrammatically illustrates the manner in which the bristles of the toothbrush of FIG. 1 clean the crowns of teeth by bending without a bridging effect in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 11 illustrates the cleaning action of a conventional single-cross bristle brush;

FIG. 12 diagrammatically illustrates the cleaning action of a conventional straight bristle brush on the crowns of teeth;

FIG. 13 diagrammatically illustrates the coverage provided by two adjacent rows of tufts employing the toothbrush of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 14 diagrammatically illustrates the coverage provided by a conventional single-cross brush.

Referring to FIG. 1, the toothbrush 1 has a body 2 of an elongated rectangular shape disposed along a longitudinal axis X-X and is otherwise of a conventional structure and material.

The toothbrush 1 also has a plurality of rows a, b of tufts 3, 4 that are mounted on the body 2 in a conventional fashion (not shown). The rows a, b of tufts 3, 4 are disposed at an acute angle A, for example 27°, to the longitudinal axis X-X of the body 2.

Referring to FIG. 4, the tufts 3 in each row b are disposed in parallel to each other as well as to an acute angle B, for example 18° to the plane of the body 2.

Similarly, referring to FIG. 3, the tufts 4 in each row a are disposed at the same angle B to the plane of the body 2 but in an opposite direction from the tufts 3 of the adjacent rows b. As indicated in FIG. 2, the tufts 3, 4 are disposed in crisscrossing relation to each other in adjacent rows. In addition, the tufts 3,4 are disposed at a resultant angle C that is produced by the component angles A and B to a vertical plane to the body 2 as viewed in side view. For example, the angle C is 17°.

The tufts 3,4 are each formed of a plurality of bristles of conventional material and need not be further described.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 4, a retainer wall 5 is mounted on the body 2 of the toothbrush and is located at the end of each row a,b of tufts 3,4 for restraining the bristles of the tufts thereat from deforming during use. As shown in each of FIGS. 3 and 4, the retainer wall 5 is parallel to and slightly spaced from the rear-most tuft in each respective row a, b of tufts 3, 4. In addition, the retainer wall 5 is one-half the height H of the adjacent tuft and of slightly wider width. In addition, the retainer wall 5 is spaced from the adjacent tuft 4 a distance of 0.5 millimeter and has a thickness of 1.2 millimeters.

Referring to FIG. 1, the tufts 3, 4 are arranged in a uniform pattern relative to the longitudinal axis X-X and the transverse axis Y-Y. Each tuft 3, 4 has a diameter D, for example of 1.6 millimeters and a bristle height H of 11 millimeters.

The tufts 3, 4 in each row a, b are spaced apart on a centerline-to-centerline distance G that is two and one-quarter times the predetermined diameter (i.e. G=2.25 D). (See FIGS. 3 and 4)

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the rows a, b of tufts 3,4 are spaced apart a distance that is a minor fraction of the diameter D of the tufts 3, 4, e.g. the centerline-to-centerline distance J between the rows a,b is J=1⅓ D.

Referring to FIG. 1, the tufts 3,4 are located in rows parallel to the transverse axis Y-Y that are spaced on a centerline-to-centerline distance F of twice the diameter of a tuft. The tufts 3, 4 as viewed along the longitudinal axis X-X are transversely spaced apart a distance E that is on a centerline-to-centerline spacing of 1 1/2 times the diameter of a tuft.

The tufts 3, 4 are skewed at a tangential ratio of 1 tuft diameter in the transverse direction to two tuft diameters in the longitudinal direction thereby providing a tangential ratio that produces an angle A of 270 relative to the longitudinal axis X-X.

Referring to FIG. 5, when the toothbrush 1 (not shown) is put into use, for example moving back and forth across a user's teeth, the horizontally skewed diagonal bristles of the tufts 3, 4 allow easy sliding of the brush along the valley lines 8 in order to cover a wide area to scrub plaque away from the teeth. During this time, as indicated in FIGS. 6 and 7, the vertically slanted bristles of the tufts 3 slide and bend down into the valley 8 between the two adjacent teeth 7 thereby bending backward and sweeping along the surfaces of the crown. This also allows the bristles to be lowered to reach the bottom of the valley and crevices as illustrated.

Referring to FIG. 8, the toothbrush may be used so that the tufts 3, 4 act in an agitating circular motion in sequential back and forth strokes in order to scratch the teeth over the distance K. By contrast, as illustrated in FIG. 9, toothbrushes with a single-cross bristle 9, 10, upon vertical tilting of the brush during a brushing action indicated by the double arrow, create a non-smooth saw blade action by moving into the valley between the teeth and then jumping onto the next tooth due to a collision with the wall of the valley at a right angle.

Referring to FIG. 10, the triple-cross angles of the array of tufts allows the height of the bristles to yield from an unstressed height M to a deformed height L. The lowered bristle height N allows the bristles to reach deep into the valley between the two teeth. In contradistinction, as illustrated in FIG. 11, a conventional single-cross bristle brush does not allow the bristle height M to shorten so as to reach down into the valley between the teeth since the tuft of bristles 11 is supported on the upper surface 15 of the crown of the teeth 7. The inclined tufts 9, 10 are backed strongly by retainer tufts 12, 13 which makes it difficult if not impossible for the bristles of the tufts 9, 10 to bend down to reach deep.

Further, as indicated in FIG. 12, for a conventional straight bristle brush, the bristles of the tufts 14 cannot reach down into the valley of the teeth since the brush is supported on the upper surface of crowns of the teeth in a bridging relationship.

Referring to FIG. 13, during use, each two adjacent rows of tufts 3, 4 are spread evenly on the entire brushing width P. However, in contradistinction, as indicated in FIG. 14, a conventional single cross brush has only two bristle rows 9 moving over the small hatched areas Q when moving forward while a pair of other tufts of bristles 10 move over similarly spaced apart narrow areas Q when moving backward.

The triple cross toothbrush provides for scrubbing of a wider area during a back and forth movement of the brush as contrasted to the single cross brush effect indicated in FIG. 14.

The invention thus provides a toothbrush that can efficiently and comfortably clean the surface of teeth including the cavities and valleys between the teeth sidewall and crowns.

Claims

1. A head for a tooth brush comprising

a body having an elongated shape along a longitudinal axis; and

a plurality of rows of tufts mounted on said body, at least some of said rows of tufts being disposed at an acute angle to said longitudinal axis of said body,

said tufts in each of said some of said rows of tufts being disposed at an acute angle to the plane of said body and in criss-crossing relation to said tufts in an adjacent row of tufts of said some of said rows of tufts.

2. A head for a tooth brush as set forth in claim 1 wherein said some of said rows of tufts are disposed at an acute angle of 27° to said longitudinal axis of said body.

3. A tooth brush comprising

a body having an elongated shape along a longitudinal axis; and

a plurality of rows of tufts mounted on said body, said rows of tufts being disposed at an acute angle to said longitudinal axis of said body, said tufts in each of said rows of tufts being disposed at an acute angle to the plane of said body and in crisscrossing relation to said tufts in an adjacent row of tufts.

4. A toothbrush as set forth in claim 3 wherein said rows of tufts are disposed at an acute angle of 27° to said longitudinal axis of said body.

5. A tooth brush as set forth in claim 4 wherein said tufts in each said row are parallel and at an acute angle of 18° to said plane of said body.

6. A tooth brush as set forth in claim 3 wherein said tufts in each said row are parallel and at an acute angle of 18° to said plane of said body.

7. A toothbrush as set forth in claim 3 wherein each said tuft includes a plurality of bristles.

8. A tooth brush as set forth in claim 7 further comprising a retainer wall mounted on said body and located at one end of each said row of tufts for restraining said bristles of said tufts thereat from deforming during use.

9. A toothbrush as set forth in claim 8 wherein each said wall is parallel and spaced from a rearmost tuft in a respective row of tufts.

10. A toothbrush as set forth in claim 9 wherein each said wall is one-half the height of an adjacent tuft.

11. A toothbrush as set forth in claim 3 wherein said body is of a rectangular shape.

12. A tooth brush as set forth in claim 3 wherein each said tuft has a predetermined diameter and said tufts in each said row are spaced apart on a centerline-to-centerline distance of twice said predetermined diameter.

13. A toothbrush as set forth in claim 12 wherein said rows of tufts are spaced apart from each other.