Multi-Brush Toothbrush for Full-Surface Cleaning Without Grip Changes
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current toothbrushes, both traditional and electric, require frequent changes in grip direction to effectively clean inner, outer, and top surfaces of teeth, and often miss hard-to-reach areas, posing challenges for caregivers in long-term care facilities.
Innovation Solution
A toothbrush with a specialized design that accommodates tooth size and shape, featuring a drive motor, turning-and-moving mechanism, and brush configuration allowing the bristles to adapt to dental arch arrangement, enabling simultaneous cleaning of inner, outer, and top tooth surfaces without significant grip adjustments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If users grip a traditional toothbrush or electric toothbrush to clean teeth, then the bristles can contact tooth surfaces, but users must constantly and largely change the grip direction to effectively clean inner side surface, outer side surface, and top surface of each tooth
Solution Approach 1:
The brush head is designed with multiple brush units (main brush and side brushes) that can dynamically adjust their positions and orientations relative to each other. The side brushes can move independently to adapt to different tooth surfaces, allowing the brush to automatically adjust its configuration during cleaning without requiring users to change grip direction frequently.
Solution Approach 2:
The brush head is segmented into multiple independent brush units including a main brush and multiple side brushes. Each brush unit can be positioned and oriented independently to contact different surfaces of the teeth (inner side, outer side, top surface), enabling comprehensive cleaning with a single grip position.
2Adaptability or versatility
If users use traditional toothbrushes to clean teeth from various angles, then more tooth surfaces can be reached, but caregivers in long-term care facilities face operational inconvenience and potentially unreachable blind spots
Solution Approach 1:
The brush head is divided into a main brush and multiple side brushes that can be positioned at different locations. This segmentation allows the brush to simultaneously contact multiple tooth surfaces including inner sides, outer sides, and top surfaces, expanding coverage without requiring the caregiver to maneuver the brush from multiple angles.
Solution Approach 2:
The side brushes are designed with elastic components that allow them to automatically adapt and contact tooth surfaces based on the brush's position. This self-adjusting capability enables the brush to reach blind spots and various tooth surfaces automatically, reducing the need for caregiver skill and effort in positioning the brush correctly.
3Adaptability or versatility
If a toothbrush is designed with specialized functions to accommodate various sizes and shapes of teeth, then cleaning effectiveness is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The side brushes are equipped with elastic components that allow them to change their position and orientation parameters automatically based on the size and shape of the teeth being cleaned. This passive adaptation through parameter changes enables the brush to accommodate various tooth geometries without requiring complex active control mechanisms or multiple interchangeable components.
Solution Approach 2:
The side brushes incorporate elastic components that provide flexibility, allowing the brush structure to deform and adapt to different tooth shapes and sizes. This flexibility enables a single brush design to accommodate various dental anatomies without requiring complex rigid adjustments or multiple specialized brush heads.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enhances user convenience and cleaning effectiveness by allowing the bristles to automatically adjust to tooth contours, ensuring thorough coverage of all tooth surfaces, including hard-to-reach areas.
Implementation Method 1
Each one of the side-brushes includes a connecting component, a side-brush head, and an elastic component. The elastic component is mounted in the connecting component and the main-brush head.
Data Source
AI summary
A toothbrush includes a shell, a driving mechanism and a turning-and-moving mechanism mounted in the shell, and a brush connected to the turning-and-moving mechanism. The brush includes a main-brush and side-brushes mounted respectively on both sides of the main-brush. With the structure of the brush, the brush is capable of simultaneously brushing the inner side surfaces, the outer side surfaces, and the top surfaces of the teeth. With the turning-and-moving mechanism and the driving mechanism, the brush can move back and forth linearly and adjust the overall direction and the moving direction of the brush depending on orientations of teeth. The brush can accommodate various sizes and shapes of the teeth and the brush can adapt to the arrangement of the teeth in the dental arch.