Flossing toothbrush

Abstract

A toothbrush comprising a round head with a spiral brush that is attached to the handle via a rotating spindle. The brush consists of hooks or bristles. The brush may have alternating sections of stro

Description

DESCRIPTION. This invention relates to a toothbrush with a circular brush at the end, which is attached longitudinally (see Fig:l) to a toothbrush handle. When the brush is used the wheel / brush rotates and travels along the teeth parallel to the gum-line. The key difference between this and a common toothbrush is that there is no scrubbing involved in the action of the brush and the brush-head only rolls along the teeth between the upper and lower gum-lines. There are various proposed advantages of this. Normal brushes scrub high points of the landscape between the lips and do nothing for the other inaccessible areas and prototypes of this brush showed better removal of food from interstices and grooved surfaces of the teeth, and more of the gathered detritus and grime from the crevices was removed more effectively than a brushing action with a normal of flat toothbrush. The normal brushing action is more rough scrubbing action which is active over the prominent ridges of the landscape between lips, and is prone to leaving the crevices of the teeth untouched where food particles lodge and bacteria can hide and breed and release acids and other chemicals which destroy enamel. This effect also ends up aggravating gums and makes the gums recede. THE PROBLEM No effective brushing of teeth is available which removes food and grime from all the intricate surfaces of the teeth particularly crevices that provide a seeding ground for bacteria. The normal brushes clean the prominent ridges of teeth and gums not the crevices or the spaces between teeth. PRIOR ART No similar prior art has been found, although a spiral brush has been disclosed. PROPOSED ART The proposed design has a flossing action, in that it is mainly designed to clear the deep spaces between the teeth as the ridges will clean themselves, and helps pull out the food and bacterial detritus from these recesses. Also - as the action of the brush is not a scrubbing action - it does not damage enamel if brushing is carried out after eating particularly sugary foods or sweets which softens the enamel, making it more susceptible to damage by brushing if brushing is carried out straight after eating sugary foods. In the first embodiment, the toothbrush consists of nylon or similar material brush-head in spiral / circular form, attached at the end of a handle, attached to the handle end via a spindle as shown in Fig: 1. The diameter of the brush-head can range from 5mm upwards, and some resistance can be built into the spinning of the spindle such that it is not freewheeling and therefore is more effective in its action. The wheel brush can also have shorter or longer bristles alternating or stronger and weaker bristles alternating round its circumference to get the optimal effect As the toothbrush is used, the wheel of bristles turns and travels along the teeth between the upper and lower gum-lines, and the bristles reach into the crevices and slip on the ridges of the teeth and remove material or film sticking to the teeth. The bristles action is such that they help to push toothpaste into the crevices which helps kill bacteria or loosen film of food etc. All of this is then washed out when the mouth is rinsed. Alternatively a jet of water could be provided from some of the bristles round the brush circumference which would further help dislodge this kind of detritus . In a second embodiment sections of the brush are alternatively spiral and straight and in a further embodiment can consist of rings of nylon brushes that are freely able to move.

Claims

CLAIMS .(1) A flossing and cleaning toothbrush with a round wheel shaped head formed from a spiral brush (constituted of bristles or hooks or in combination with each other or other shapes) attached to the end of a handle via a spindle that allows it to rotate as shown in Fig:l. The diameter of the wheel is anything from 5mm upwards.(2) A tooth brush with a turbinate shape formed from a spiral brush that tappers out from each end getting bigger in the middle and is 20-40mm in length which is made into a snail shell turbinate shape tapering at each end.(3) A toothbrush that has two or more spiral brushes as in claim 1 that have opposite or same threads to allow them to interlock the threads with each other or remain non interlocked, and then turn together or separately alternately to provide the cleaning action .(4) A brush as in claim 1 but with a variety of bristles alternating stronger and weaker bristles or hooks or any other shape, and longer and shorter bristles to allow variation and more cleaning action .(5) Any toothbrush made from a spiral brush wheel-brush construction in the form of or any system to apply the principle of making a toothbrush from a wheel of spiral brush or brushes in any combination arrangement or substantially as hereunder described, intended in any way to generally applying the principles to cleaning teeth with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings .

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