Tongue cleaner

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a tongue cleaner for cleaning the tongue of a patient or person, comprising at least one base body and a handle section, wherein the base body is assigned at least one cleaning area for cleaning and suctioning away deposits on the tongue.

[0002] For example, a tongue cleaner head with a disc-shaped body for cleaning a patient's tongue is known from German patent application DE 20 2016 001 011 U1. The disc-shaped body has a disc-shaped front surface facing the user. A profile is formed on the front surface for scraping off dirt adhering superficially to the human tongue. The profile is formed by ribs. The body also has a hose connection that communicates with the profile via several channels, so that dirt loosened through a drain hose connected to the hose connection is suctioned away by negative pressure or vacuum.

[0003] A tongue scraper for use in combination with a suction device is known from US patent 2009 / 111069 A1. The tongue scraper is rod-shaped. A suction hose is attached to one end, and a suction opening is provided at the other end.

[0004] From the publications CN 205 286 575 U and CN 209 173 037 U, a mouth cleaner with a suction function is known, which has a handle on which a cleaning head is provided.

[0005] It has been shown that not only in intensive care patients who require intubation and are usually on ventilators due to the severity of their illness, but also in other patients, the oral cavity is spatially very limited and highly sensitive to cleaning procedures. In particular, the surface of the tongue can be injured during cleaning, resulting in a significant risk of bleeding when cleaning the oral mucosa.

[0006] The problem with the well-known tongue cleaner is that the rigid profiles and the openings for suctioning accumulated debris are directed straight onto the tongue mucosa, i.e., perpendicular to the plane or direction of movement of the tongue cleaner. Consequently, injuries from the rigid profiles are possible during cleaning and simultaneous suction. In particular, the openings directed perpendicularly towards the tongue mucosa can create a vacuum, causing the tongue cleaner to adhere to the mucosa, thus creating an additional risk of injury.

[0007] Therefore, the present invention aims to propose a tongue cleaner of the type described above, which enables atraumatic and at the same time powerful cleaning and suction.

[0008] This problem is solved according to the invention by the features of claim 1. Further advantageous and claimed embodiments will become apparent from the dependent claims, the description, and the drawings.

[0009] Thus, a tongue cleaner for cleaning the tongue of a person or patient, particularly a patient in intensive care, is proposed, comprising at least one base body and a handle section. The base body includes at least one cleaning area for cleaning and suctioning away debris from the tongue. To ensure safe and efficient cleaning and suction, the first cleaning area features at least one elastic cleaning lip or similar element. This cleaning or scraping lip is associated with at least one suction opening, such that the suction opening is essentially parallel to the plane of motion of the tongue cleaner's cleaning movement.

[0010] In this way, a safe and efficient design of the tongue cleaner is achieved, creating a vacuum for atraumatic suction. The cleaning lip, made of elastic material, gently and safely loosens secretions and tongue coating, which are then completely and gently suctioned away through one or more suction openings. This is because the suction direction is aligned with the direction of movement of the tongue cleaner, and thus approximately parallel to the tongue surface or plane of movement. The elastic, yielding cleaning lip reliably prevents unintentional injury. Furthermore, the suction openings, which are not perpendicular to the tongue surface but at least parallel to the tongue cleaner's plane of movement or the tongue surface, also reliably prevent the tongue cleaner from adhering to the tongue surface.

[0011] Furthermore, it is stipulated that a central axis of at least one suction opening is aligned approximately parallel to the plane of movement of the tongue cleaner and / or that a central axis of at least one suction opening lies in the plane of movement of the tongue cleaner's cleaning motion. This means that the central axes or center lines of the suction openings or bores are aligned approximately parallel to the tongue surface, which in turn is aligned approximately parallel to the plane of movement. If the central axis of at least one suction opening lies in the plane of movement, this is a special case of parallelism.

[0012] The proposed tongue cleaner features a particularly simple design, achieved by incorporating an elongated recess in the base for collecting loosened debris. This recess includes at least one section with a predetermined radius. The presence of this radiused recess creates an area where the debris, gently loosened by the elastic cleaning lip, can be optimally collected and subsequently removed through the integrated suction openings. Other designs are also possible to achieve atraumatic suction and cleaning.

[0013] The elastic cleaning lip extends approximately perpendicularly from one front surface of the base body and runs along approximately the predetermined radius of the edge section of the housing recess. In this way, during the cleaning movement of the tongue cleaner, the cleaning lip can be moved along the tongue surface, and the loosened debris is collected almost automatically within the housing recess.

[0014] A particular advantage here is that the cleaning lip is aligned approximately vertically on the front of the base body and has a curved, roughly U-shaped profile, running almost parallel to the edge of the housing recess. Consequently, optimal cleaning performance can be achieved thanks to the vertically oriented cleaning lip. Due to its preferably U-shaped profile along the edge of the housing recess, all loosened debris and secretions are collected by the cleaning lip and conveyed to the housing recess, where they can be extracted using a generated negative pressure or vacuum.

[0015] Internal suction openings are provided on the end face of the housing recess's edge section to extract accumulated debris. The front-facing placement of these openings ensures that the suction direction is parallel to the cleaning motion or scraping action of the tongue cleaner, thus preventing suction on the tongue. Furthermore, the suction openings located on the edge of the housing recess are directly adjacent to the cleaning lip, enabling optimal suction.

[0016] As part of future training, it may be proposed that external suction openings or similar features be incorporated into the end face of the main body. These additional external suction openings will improve cleaning performance, as any remaining loosened debris can be removed through them. Furthermore, this additional suction opening will reliably prevent suction from forming, even at maximum suction power. These external suction openings are also aligned parallel to the tongue cleaner's plane of movement and directly adjacent to the cleaning lip.

[0017] In order to easily connect the suction openings to an external suction system to generate a predetermined vacuum, the proposed tongue cleaner is designed so that the inner and outer suction openings are connected to a suction channel or the like running through the base body, with the suction openings being connected via the suction channel to a connection for an external suction system to generate a vacuum.

[0018] A particularly simple and effective solution for controlling the suction power of the proposed tongue cleaner is achieved within the scope of the invention by providing the handle section with an opening, or so-called fingertip, which can be covered by the user's finger and is connected to the suction channel for controlling the suction power. Only when the opening, fingertip, or similar device is closed does a vacuum build up in the suction channel or at the suction openings. This vacuum can be individually controlled or terminated by the user by adjusting the position of their finger over the opening. Consequently, an optimal and cost-effective control system for atraumatic suction is achieved using simple means.

[0019] To further improve the cleaning performance of the proposed tongue cleaner, a cleaning sponge or similar item could be incorporated on the back of the main body as a second cleaning area. This soft, elastic sponge would allow for pre-cleaning of the tongue, loosening any residue.

[0020] Preferably, a cleaning sponge, cleaning nubs, or brushes made of a soft, elastic material can be used. Because the second cleaning area is located on the back of the main body, cleaning with this area can be achieved simply by rotating the proposed tongue cleaner.

[0021] The present invention will now be explained in more detail with reference to the drawings.

[0022] They show: Figure 1 is a schematic top view of a front side of a possible embodiment of a tongue cleaner according to the invention; Figure 2 is a schematic top view of a back side of the tongue cleaner; Figure 3 is a sectional view along section line A1-A1 according to Figure 1 ; and Figure 4, a frontal view of the tongue cleaner.

[0023] In the Figures 1 to 4 The images shown are of various views of a tongue cleaner 1 according to the invention for cleaning the tongue of a person, in particular of a patient receiving intensive care, but are only examples.

[0024] The tongue cleaner 1 comprises a base body 2 and a handle section 3 for handling by a user. The base body 2 has a front 4 with a first cleaning area and a back 5 with a second cleaning area. The base body 2 has an elongated recess 6 for collecting the loosened debris, which essentially forms a through opening in the base body 2. As can be seen in particular from the Figure 1 and 2 As can be seen, the elongated housing recess 6 has a border section 8 extending in a predetermined radius on each of its end faces.

[0025] The first cleaning area provided on the front of the base body 2 has an elastic cleaning lip 7. The cleaning lip 7 runs along the front of the base body 2 along the curved edge section 8 of the housing recess 6. The cleaning lip 7 is oriented approximately perpendicular to the front of the base body 2 and has a curved, approximately U-shaped profile parallel to the edge section 8 of the housing recess 6.

[0026] Accordingly, the edge section 8 of the housing recess 6 forms an inner curve, on which several internal suction openings 9 are arranged at the front face for suctioning the deposits accumulated within the housing recess 6. As can be seen in particular from Figure 3 As can be seen, the first inner extraction openings 9 are arranged symmetrically next to each other along the curved edge section 8 of the housing recess.

[0027] On an end-face edge region 10 of the base body 2 opposite the curved edge region section 8 of the housing recess 6, external extraction openings 11 are provided, as is the case, for example, with Figure 4 This becomes clear. The frontal edge region 10 of the base body 2 forms a kind of outer curve of the base body 2 in the proposed tongue cleaner 1. The outer suction openings 11 are also arranged symmetrically next to each other along the frontal edge region 10.

[0028] According to Figure 1The inner suction openings 9 on the inner curve or on the edge area section 8 of the housing recess 6 on the base body 2 and the outer suction openings 11 on the outer curve or on the end face edge area 10 of the base body 2 are directly assigned to the cleaning lip 7, since the cleaning lip 7 is arranged between the edge area section 8 of the housing recess 6 and the end face edge area 10 on the base body 2.

[0029] Furthermore, in Figure 1The plane of movement 16 of the tongue cleaner 1's cleaning direction is indicated by dashed double arrows arranged in a cross shape. These double arrows essentially define the plane of movement 16 in the drawing plane. To suction away the debris removed from the tongue by the elastic cleaning lip 7, the inner suction openings 9 and the outer suction openings 11 are aligned approximately parallel to the plane of movement 16 of the cleaning or scraping direction of the tongue cleaner 1. Consequently, the central axes 17 of the suction openings 9 and 11, indicated by dashed lines, are aligned parallel to the plane of movement 16. Since the inner extraction openings 9 and the outer extraction openings 11 are located on the curved edge section 8 and on the curved end-face edge section 10 of the base body 2, respectively, the central axes 17 of the extraction openings 9, 11 are aligned at a predetermined angle to each other.Regardless, the central axes 17 are either aligned parallel to the plane of movement 16 or lie in the plane of movement 16 of the tongue cleaner 1.

[0030] To remove the adhering substances, the inner suction openings 9 and the outer suction openings 11 are connected to a suction channel 12, which runs within the base body 2 of the tongue cleaner 1. The suction channel 12 connects the suction openings 9 and 11 to a port 13 for an external suction system (not shown). The suction channel 12 is located in Figure 1 indicated by a dashed line inside the base body 2 of the tongue cleaner 1.

[0031] To control the suction power, an opening 14, which can be covered by the operator's finger, is provided on the handle section 3 of the tongue cleaner 1 and is connected to the suction channel 12 for controlling the suction power. Preferably, the opening 14 is located on the front of the base body 2, like the first cleaning area with the cleaning lip 7 on the handle section 3, so that the operator can easily and ergonomically operate or cover the opening 14 with their index finger.

[0032] As especially from Figure 2 As is evident, a second cleaning area with a cleaning sponge 15 is provided on the back of the base body 2 of the proposed tongue cleaner 1. Using the cleaning sponge 15, which is made of soft, elastic material, the operator can first loosen the deposits on the patient's tongue and then remove these deposits from the tongue through the suction openings 9, 11 with the cleaning lip 7. Reference sign

[0033] 1 Tongue cleaner 2 Base body 3 Handle section 4 Front of base body 5 Back of base body 6 Housing recess 7 Elastic cleaning lip 8 Edge section of housing recess 9 Inner suction opening 10 End edge of base body 11 Outer suction opening 12 Suction channel 13 Connection for external suction 14 Opening for controlling suction power 15 Cleaning sponge 16 Movement plane for cleaning 17 Center axis of the suction opening

Claims

1. A tongue cleaner (1) for cleaning the tongue of a patient, having at least one main part (2) and having a handle section (3), wherein the main part (2) is paired with at least one cleaning region for cleaning and suctioning deposits on the tongue, wherein a first cleaning region has at least one elastic cleaning lip (7), said cleaning lip (7) being paired with at least one suction opening (9, 11) such that a central axis (17) of at least one suction opening (9, 11) is aligned approximately in parallel to the movement plane (16) of the cleaning movement of the tongue cleaner (1) or a central axis (17) of at least one suction opening (9, 11) is in the movement plane (16) of the cleaning movement of the tongue cleaner (1), wherein the main part (2) has an oblong housing recess (6) for collecting the detached deposits, wherein the housing recess (6) has at least one peripheral section (8) extending at a predetermined radius, wherein the cleaning lip (7) is approximately orthogonally spaced apart from a front side of the main part (2) and extends approximately at the predetermined radius of the peripheral section (8) of the housing recess (6), and characterised in that inner suction openings (9) are provided frontally on the peripheral section (8) of the housing recess (6) for suctioning the deposits accumulated in the housing recess (6).

2. The tongue cleaner (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that outer suction openings (11) are provided at a frontal periphery (10) of the main part (2).

3. The tongue cleaner (1) according to claim 2, characterised in that the inner suction openings (9) and the outer suction openings (11) are coupled to a suction duct (12) extending in the main part (2), wherein the suction openings (9, 11) are connected to a port (13) via the suction duct (12) for external suction.

4. The tongue cleaner (1) according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the handle section (3) has an opening (14) coverable by a finger of the operator for controlling the suction power.

5. The tongue cleaner (1) according to claim 4, characterised in that the coverable opening (14) is connected to the suction duct (12).

6. The tongue cleaner (1) according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that a cleaning sponge (15) is provided on a rear side of the main part (2) as a second cleaning region.