Braided Dental Floss Multi-Looped Structure Plaque Removal
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional dental flosses are inadequate for effective plaque removal and gum massage due to their smooth, flat structure, lack of anchoring points, and fragility, which limits their ability to clean concave tooth surfaces and inter-proximal regions, and can cause gum damage.
Innovation Solution
A dental floss with a volumetric knit structure formed by braiding multifilament threads into a multi-looped pattern with quasi-flat sections and knobs, providing a multi-planar surface for enhanced cleaning and friction, preventing unwinding and slipping, and allowing for the application of flavor and therapeutic agents.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If conventional smooth and flat floss is used, then the structure is simple and easy to manufacture, but the cleaning efficiency between teeth is insufficient and no anchoring points are provided
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from a two-dimensional flat floss surface to a three-dimensional knitted structure with loops and stitches. The knitted fabric creates protruding surfaces and hollow spaces that engage with tooth surfaces, providing mechanical anchoring and enhanced plaque removal capability while maintaining ease of manufacture through standard knitting processes.
2Productivity
If texturized floss with higher contact surface is used, then the capacity for removal of food residues is improved, but the floss may kink and bend and shred in interproximal regions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the continuous floss into discrete knitted loops and stitches that can flex independently. This segmentation allows the structure to bend and conform to interproximal spaces without kinking or shredding, while the cumulative effect of multiple loops maintains high food residue removal capacity.
Solution Approach 2:
The knitted structure provides dynamic flexibility, allowing the floss to adapt its shape to the contours of teeth and gums. The loops can expand and contract, bend at angles, and flex without permanent deformation, maintaining structural integrity while navigating complex interproximal geometries.
3Device complexity
If multifilament thread is used, then the floss can be formed as a strand, but the floss tends to fray or split
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple multifilament threads into a unified knitted fabric structure. The interlocking loops bind the threads together, creating a composite structure where individual threads are restrained from fraying or splitting while collectively providing the desired floss functionality.
4Device complexity
If conventional floss is used, then the structure is simple, but there is little or no salutary massage to the gum surfaces
Solution Approach 1:
The knitted fabric creates localized protruding loops and stitches that concentrate mechanical action on specific gum surface areas. As the floss is manipulated, these localized structures provide targeted massage effects to the gingiva, promoting blood flow and tissue health, while the overall structure remains relatively simple to manufacture.
Data Source
AI summary
A dental floss is formed as a strand, including threads braided with each other in a multi-looped manner so that forming knobs connecting adjacent quasi-flat sections that, while being stretched in a straight line, are sequentially disposed and twisted relatively to each other, whose cross-sections can be approximated to a rectangle-like figure having a width and a height greater than the width. The heights of two adjacent quasi-flat sections are disposed at a predetermined angle to each other. Due to particular braiding, the quasi-flat cross-sections and the knob's cross-section encompass different numbers of thread pieces, forming a multi-planar surface with bulges, thereby providing for a unique adhesive property increasing the floss cleaning power, grabbing and removing plaque particles from the tooth surface more efficiently than the conventional ones. It's exemplarily produced by means of adapted overlock machines, of polyester, colored, flavored, un-waxed, waxed, or impregnated with specific therapeutic agents.