CURVED TOOTHBRUSH

Abstract

A curved toothbrush includes a plurality of bundled fine bristles adapted to frictionally brush teeth and gums and a curved body plate adapted to plant the plurality of fine bristles thereinto at uniform intervals, wherein the curved body plate includes a curved underside and a curved top formed curvedly by twisting both ends of the curved body plate in a longitudinal direction thereof (in a direction of X-X′), the curved top having obliquely protruding portions formed on both sides thereof in an oblique direction (in a direction of Z-Z′) and an obliquely concaved groove formed between the obliquely protruding portions, so that all of users can keep clean and healthy teeth.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE

This application claims foreign priority under Paris Convention to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2015-0172249, filed 4 Dec. 2015, with the Korean Intellectual Property Office.

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates to relates to a curved toothbrush that is configured to have a curved body plate twistedly formed in a longitudinal direction thereof, like a shape of a propeller, in such a manner as to be curvedly formed like a shape of a bow stick in a perpendicular direction to the longitudinal direction thereof, so that the curved body plate and tooth frictional surfaces of bristles are twisted and curved, and more particularly, to a curved toothbrush that is configured to have a curved body plate twistedly formed in a longitudinal direction thereof, so that during toothbrushing, the curved toothbrush makes an air space between a cheek of a user's mouth and a curved top of the curved body plate to perform the toothbrushing in an easy and convenient way, rotatably brushes the spaces between teeth and the deep portions of molars of both rows of uniform teeth and rows of non-uniform teeth to allow all of users to keep clean and healthy teeth, and further, extends the range of movements of tooth frictional surfaces only through small hand motions of the user to allow healthy persons, persons with hands inconvenient in use, children, the elderly, and the weak to keep clean and healthy teeth.

The present invention relates to a curved toothbrush that includes a plurality of bundled fine bristles having the same length as each other to frictionally brush teeth and gums, a curved body plate adapted to plant the plurality of fine bristles thereinto at uniform intervals, and a neck and a handle extended unitarily from the curved body plate, wherein the curved body plate is twistedly formed in a longitudinal direction of the curved toothbrush, like a shape of a propeller, in such a manner as to be curvedly formed like a shape of a bow stick in a perpendicular direction to the longitudinal direction thereof, so that the curved body plate and tooth frictional surfaces of the bristles are twisted and curved.

According to the present invention, the curved toothbrush enables persons with both rows of uniform teeth and rows of non-uniform teeth and persons with hands inconvenient in use to always clean and healthy teeth.

Before the present invention will be described, on the other hand, an explanation on a conventional toothbrush will be first given, and the conventional toothbrush is disclosed in Korean Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-0101369 (hereinafter, referred to as Patent Document) dated on Nov. 14, 2001.

Referring first to the main characteristics of the conventional toothbrush according to the Patent Document, further, the toothbrush includes a handle, a head coupled to the handle, and a plurality of bristles fixed to the head, wherein the bristles are extended outwardly from the surface of the head and have protruding portions protruding from the tip ends thereof, the bristles having a first bristle group, a second bristle group, and an intermediate bristle group located between the first bristle group and the second bristle group to separate the first bristle group from the second bristle group, and the tip ends of the intermediate bristle group are located on the plane to restrict the brushing surfaces overlapped with a portion of the surface of the head, the lengths of the protruding portions of the first bristle group and the second bristle group being decreased as the distances between the bristles of the first bristle group and the second bristle group and the intermediate bristle group are increased.

However, the conventional toothbrush according to the Patent Document is configured wherein the head and handle are arranged perpendicularly to the bristles so that the head is formed to the shape of the bow stick and the bristles are located at the horizontal and oblique angles. Further, it is checked from the attached drawings thereof that the head and handle are located in parallel to each other so that the head is formed to the shape of the bow stick and the neck is curvedly formed. Accordingly, the toothbrush of Patent document 1 has the head formed to the shape of the bow stick and the bristles formed at the horizontal and oblique angles, so that in the practical use, the area of the bristles contacted with the teeth is smaller than that in the general toothbrush, and further, the range and angle in movements of a user's hand in every direction are increased, thus making it difficult to brush the deep molars of the user's mouth.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems occurring in the prior art, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a curved toothbrush that is configured to have a curved body plate twistedly formed in a longitudinal direction thereof in such a manner as to form obliquely protruding portions on both sides thereof, like a propeller, and to have tooth frictional surfaces of a plurality of fine bristles formed curvedly along the same shape as a curved underside of the curved body plate.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a curved toothbrush that makes an air space between a cheek of a user's mouth and a curved top of the curved body plate, so that toothbrushing is performed in an easy and convenient way.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a curved toothbrush that extends the range of the movements of tooth frictional surfaces only by means of small hand motions, so that even a person with hands inconvenient in use can freely perform toothbrushing.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a curved toothbrush that brushes the spaces between teeth and the deep portions of molars of both rows of uniform teeth and rows of non-uniform teeth, without having any trouble, thus allowing all of users to keep clean and healthy teeth.

To accomplish the above-mentioned objects, according to the present invention, there is provided a curved toothbrush that is configured to have a curved body plate twistedly formed in a longitudinal direction thereof and curvedly formed like a shape of a bow stick in a perpendicular direction to the longitudinal direction thereof.

According to the present invention, preferably, the curved toothbrush includes tooth frictional surfaces of a plurality of fine bristles formed twistedly and curvedly along the same shape as a curved underside of the curved body plate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a curved toothbrush according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a front view showing the curved toothbrush according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing an example of a curved body plate from which bristles are removed and a neck of the curved toothbrush according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the curved body plate having bristles and the neck of the curved toothbrush according to the present invention; and

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing another example of a curved body plate from which bristles are removed and a neck of the curved toothbrush according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

According to the present invention, a curved toothbrush includes a plurality of bundled fine bristles having the same length as each other to frictionally brush teeth and gums; a curved body plate adapted to plant the plurality of fine bristles thereinto at uniform intervals, and a handle extended unitarily from the curved body plate, wherein the curved body plate is twistedly formed in a longitudinal direction of the curved toothbrush, like a shape of a propeller, in such a manner as to be curvedly formed like a shape of a bow stick in a perpendicular direction to the longitudinal direction thereof, and the bristles have tooth frictional surfaces twistedly and curvedly formed along the same shape as a curved underside of the curved body plate.

According to the present invention, the curved toothbrush makes an air space between a cheek of a user's mouth and a curved top of the curved body plate, thus reducing the friction surface between the inside of the cheek and the curved top and providing a massage effect to the frictional portion to allow the toothbrushing to be performed in an easy and convenient way.

According to the present invention, the curved toothbrush extends the range of movements of the tooth frictional surfaces through rotation in every direction and small hand motions of the user, thus allowing persons with hands inconvenient in use to freely perform toothbrushing and further brushing the spaces between teeth and the deep portions of molars of both rows of uniform teeth and rows of non-uniform teeth, without having any trouble, so that all of users can keep clean and healthy teeth. Hereinafter, an explanation on a curved toothbrush according to the present invention will be in detail given with reference to the attached drawing.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a curved toothbrush according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view showing the curved toothbrush according to the present invention, FIG. 3 is a plan view showing an example of a curved body plate from which bristles are removed and a neck of the curved toothbrush according to the present invention, FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the curved body plate having bristles and the neck of the curved toothbrush according to the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a plan view showing another example of a curved body plate from which bristles are removed and a neck of the curved toothbrush according to the present invention. Now, an explanation on a curved toothbrush according to the present invention will be in detail given.

According to the present invention, a curved toothbrush 50 includes fine bristles 20, a curved body plate 10 adapted to plant the fine bristles 20 thereinto at uniform intervals, and a neck 30 extended from the curved body plate 10 toward a handle 40, and the curved body plate 10 includes a curved underside 11 and a curved top 12 formed curvedly by twisting the body plate 10 obliquely, that is, by twisting both ends of the body plate 10 in a longitudinal direction thereof, like a propeller (to a shape of a single wing) or a wing of an electric fan). The curved top 12 includes obliquely protruding portions 12a and 12b formed on both sides thereof in the oblique direction and an obliquely concaved groove 12c formed between the obliquely protruding portions 12a and 12b.

Further, the bristles 20 are planted on the curved underside 11 of the curved body plate 10 at the given intervals and in given columns and include tooth frictional surfaces 21 formed on the end portions thereof.

According to a first embodiment of the present invention, the neck 30 and the handle 40 are formed linearly in parallel to the curved body plate 10, and according to a second embodiment of the present invention, on the other hand, the neck 30 and the handle 40 are formed at an oblique angle of 2 to 3° with respect to the curved body plate 10.

If the plane state of the curved toothbrush 50 according to the first embodiment of the present invention is viewed at the front thereof, on the other hand, the neck 30 and the handle 40 are formed linearly in parallel to the curved body plate 10, but according to the second embodiment of the present invention, the neck 30 and the handle 40 are formed curvedly in such a manner as to have waveforms with the curved body plate 10, so that the height of the curved body plate 10 is lower than that of the handle 40.

According to the present invention, therefore, when the obliquely protruding portions 12a and 12b formed on both sides of the curved top 12 of the curved toothbrush 50 come into contact with a cheek in a user's mouth, the obliquely concaved groove 12c formed between the obliquely protruding portions 12a and 12b forms an air space between the cheek and the curved top 12, thus reducing a friction coefficient formed by the friction between the curved top 12 and the inside of the cheek.

Accordingly, while a massage effect is being provided to the cheek with which the obliquely protruding portions 12a and 12b are frictional, toothbrushing is performed in an easy and convenient way.

When the curved toothbrush 50 rotates and moves in every direction according to the structural characteristics of the curved body plate 10, the range of the movements of the tooth frictional surfaces 21 is extended only by means of small hand motions, so that even a person with hands inconvenient in use can freely use the curved toothbrush 50 according to the present invention.

Further, the curved toothbrush 50 according to the present invention can brush the spaces between teeth and the deep portions of molars of both rows of uniform teeth and rows of non-uniform teeth, without having any trouble, thus allowing all of users to keep clean and healthy teeth.

As described above, the curved toothbrush according to the present invention makes an air space between a cheek of a user's mouth and the curved top of the curved body plate, thus performing toothbrushing in an easy and convenient way, so that the range of maxillary and mandibular central incisors to second molars or wisdom teeth can be easily brushed.

Further, the tooth frictional surfaces are formed twistedly and curvedly along the same shape as the curved body plate, so that through small hand motions of a user, the tooth frictional surfaces can rotatably brush the surfaces of teeth and the spaces between teeth in every direction, irrespective of both rows of uniform teeth and rows of non-uniform teeth.

Furthermore, the curved toothbrush allows healthy persons, persons with hands inconvenient in use, children, the elderly, and the weak to perform effective toothbrushing, without having any trouble, so that they keep clean and healthy teeth.

While the present invention has been described with reference to the particular illustrative embodiments, it is not to be restricted by the embodiments but only by the appended claims. It is to be appreciated that those skilled in the art can change or modify the embodiments without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.

Claims

1. A curved toothbrush comprising:

a plurality of bundled fine bristles having the same length as each other to frictionally brush teeth and gums;

a curved body plate adapted to plant the plurality of fine bristles thereinto at uniform intervals; and

a neck and a handle extended unitarily from the curved body plate,

wherein the curved body plate comprises a curved underside and a curved top formed curvedly by twisting both ends of the curved body plate in a longitudinal direction thereof (in a direction of X-X′), the curved top having obliquely protruding portions formed on both sides thereof in an oblique direction (in a direction of Z-Z′) and an obliquely concaved groove formed between the obliquely protruding portions,

wherein distal ends of the plurality of bundled fine bristles at a first end of the curved body plate and a second end of the curved body plate in the X-X′ direction extend orthogonally a first distance from the X-X′ direction and distal ends of the plurality of bundled fine bristles at a center of the curved body plate extend orthogonally a second distance from the X-X′ direction, wherein the second distance is greater than the first distance, and

wherein the neck and the handle are formed obliquely from a plane of the curved body plate, and the neck extends upwardly from the second end of the body plate along the X-X′ direction to the handle, the handle extending at an oblique angle of 2 degrees to 3 degrees with respect to the X-X′ direction of the curved body plate.

2. The curved toothbrush according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of bristles has tooth frictional surfaces formed along the same shape as the twistedly curved underside.

3. The curved toothbrush according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of bundled fine bristles have tooth frictional surfaces that are extended radially to a larger area than the plane area of the curved underside.

4. The curved toothbrush according to claim 1, wherein the handle is curvedly extended from the curved body plate to a different height from each other.

5. (canceled)

6. The curved toothbrush according to claim 1, wherein the curved body plate and the handle are twistedly formed.