Drinking Device to Minimize The Unpleasant Taste of Liquids

a technology of drinking device and unpleasant taste, which is applied in the direction of drinking vessels, transportation and packaging, tray containers, etc., can solve the problems of reducing the compliance of useful or necessary medications, reducing the quality of life of patients, and difficulty in ingesting unpleasant flavors of liquid medications, so as to minimize unpleasant flavor, and the effect of optimizing the perception of unpleasant tas

Inactive Publication Date: 2016-01-14
BRADU STEFAN +1
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010]The current invention is a drinking device and a method of delivery that optimizes the perception of the unpleasant taste during the ingestion of an unpleasantly flavored fluid, e.g., medication. According to an embodiment of the invention, a drinking device minimizes the perception of an unpleasant taste by delivering the unpleasantly flavored fluid sandwiched between a pleasantly flavored fluid. According to an exemplary embodiment of the invention, a drinking device, such as a cup, has two separate compartments, one filled with a liquid medication having an unpleasant flavor and the other with a more pleasantly flavored liquid, designed such that the air and hydraulic pressure in the compartments minimize the mixing of the two liquids. When drinking from the drinking device, the unmixed more pleasantly flavored liquid is ingested first, followed by the medication liquid and then finishing again with the unmixed more pleasantly flavored liquid. In this way the person will minimize perceiving the unpleasant flavor of the medication liquid and maximize the sensing of the pleasantly favored liquid.
[0011]In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, a method of delivering two liquids with different properties (e.g., flavors) is provided by delivering the more pleasantly flavored liquid first, then delivering the unpleasantly flavored liquid second, and then delivering the pleasantly flavored fluid again. The method of delivery minimizes the mixing of the two liquids by delivering the first liquid in the head and tail of a liquid bolus and limiting the delivery of the second liquid to the center or body of the bolus.

Problems solved by technology

For years, people have ingested liquid medications having unpleasant flavors with difficulty.
The unpleasant taste of medications can decrease the quality of life for patients and decrease compliance with useful or necessary medications.
Similarly, some people have difficulty ingesting certain fluids whose perception (taste or consistency) they don't favor, e.g., ingestion of radiologic contrast by patients, interfering with the nutrition of children on the autistic spectrum, or with less essential life processes like entertainment (shots of strong or unpleasant alcoholic drinks) Many people can also be particularly sensitive to the flavor of the fluid they don't like and would gag and even vomit if they are exposed to certain unpleasant flavors, e.g. many healthy children, adults with nausea (e.g. from chemotherapy, pregnancy) or who are incapacitated.
If the unpleasant taste of the medication lingers in the bolus tail, the patient will perceive this taste more saliently, resulting in prolonged unpleasant perception of the medication, gagging, and even vomiting.
Even though an increase in salivary flow and rate of swallowing can occur on stimulation with certain odors or flavors in the mouth, waiting for the saliva to wash down the lingering aftertaste of medication can unnecessarily and significantly prolong the unpleasant experience.
The previously invented drinking devices do not appear to be designed to maximize the pleasant taste of both the bolus head and tail, failing to provide an optimized solution to minimize the mixing of the pleasant and unpleasant flavored liquids in both the head and tail of the bolus, therefore potentially prolonging the unpleasant tasting part of the bolus and the duration of lingual taste bud exposure to the unpleasant medications.
One can try to minimize the unpleasant taste of medications by either indiscriminately or uniformly diluting the unpleasant taste of the medication with the pleasant taste of a better tasting liquid, but this approach has significant limitations and drawbacks.
It is not always practical to mix in advance an unpleasantly flavored liquid with a pleasantly flavored one to obtain a flavor that is tolerated by all people, because different people like different flavors.
But none of them allow for rapid continuous delivery and ingestion of an unmixed fluid in both the head and tail of a fluid bolus.
The problem with such approaches is that the unpleasant flavor can often still be felt in the head and / or tail of the bolus even with large dilutions of a medication, resulting in an undesirable mixture of pleasantly flavored and unpleasantly flavored fluids that prolongs the duration of perceiving a lower intensity but nevertheless unpleasant taste.
One would still have to chase the remaining unpleasant taste with the more pleasantly flavored fluid, resulting in a relatively inefficient solution that can unnecessarily prolong the perception of the unpleasantly flavored medication.
After a person swallows the liquid, the taste receptors in the lingual buds are often still exposed to the lingering flavor of the liquid that was just swallowed, resulting in an unpleasant aftertaste.

Method used

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  • Drinking Device to Minimize The Unpleasant Taste of Liquids
  • Drinking Device to Minimize The Unpleasant Taste of Liquids
  • Drinking Device to Minimize The Unpleasant Taste of Liquids

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Embodiment Construction

[0033]The following detailed description of the invention refers to the accompanying drawings. According to an exemplary embodiment of the invention, a drinking device, such as a cup, has two compartments adapted to hold fluids independent of one another. One embodiment is illustrated in FIGS. 1-2. FIG. 1A shows a top plan view of the drinking cup 10 having an outer rim 70 and two compartments, 50 and 60, that are divided by a vertical separation wall 20. The vertical separation wall may be curved. The outer rim 70 has a lip 71 for pouring or drinking of the liquids in a desired position of the cup. The drinking cup 10 is dissected horizontally by line A-A and vertically by line B-B.

[0034]FIG. 1B shows a vertical cross-sectional view of the drinking device of FIG. 1A along the line B-B. Compartment 60 of the drinking cup is partially closed on top with a horizontal separation wall 30. The horizontal separation wall may be curved.

[0035]FIG. 1C shows a horizontal cross-sectional view ...

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Abstract

A drinking device comprising a first compartment to hold a first fluid, a second compartment to hold a second fluid independent of the first fluid, a vertical separation between the first and second compartments, a horizontal separation closing a part of the first compartment, an opening in the horizontal separation to allow flow of the first fluid, and a lip on an upper rim of the device and opposite to the horizontal separation and adjacent to the opening to allow ingestion of the first and second fluids. A method of oral delivery of a first fluid and a second fluid, said fluids having different taste flavors, comprising delivering the first fluid in a bolus head followed by delivering the second fluid in the bolus center, and then delivering the first fluid again in the bolus tail to mask the more unpleasant flavor.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates generally to drinking devices. More particularly, the invention relates to a drinking device that minimizes the unpleasant taste of a liquid.BACKGROUND[0002]For years, people have ingested liquid medications having unpleasant flavors with difficulty. The unpleasant taste of medications can decrease the quality of life for patients and decrease compliance with useful or necessary medications. To be able to drink such medications, many people (e.g. children, incapacitated or older patients) currently try to diminish the unpleasant taste of such a medication by mixing it with a liquid that has a pleasant taste, or after the medication is swallowed, drinking as soon as possible a cup of water or another more tasty or pleasantly flavored liquid in an attempt to reduce the unpleasant flavor. Similarly, some people have difficulty ingesting certain fluids whose perception (taste or consistency) they don't favor, e.g., ingestion of r...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & Authority Applications(United States)
IPC IPC(8): A47G23/02B65D1/26B65D81/32
CPCA47G23/0208B65D1/265B65D81/32A47G19/2205B65D81/3283
Inventor BRADU, STEFANTEODORESCU, IONEL
Owner BRADU STEFAN
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