Electric toothbrush and method for operating an electric toothbrush

An electric toothbrush comprising:

• a driving portion that performs a first driving that oscillates a brush unit in a first direction that is a pressing direction of a plurality of tooth cleaning elements provided on the brush unit and a second driving that oscillates the brush unit in a second direction that is different from the first direction;
• a fluid spraying unit that sprays a fluid from the brush unit;
• wherein the driving portion carries out the first driving while the fluid is being sprayed from the fluid spraying unit;
• a light emitting module that emits light from the brush unit, the light emitting module emits blue light;
• a reflected light detection portion that detects reflected light of the light emitted by the light emitting module, the reflected light detection portion detects the reflected light as red light and green light;
• a stain sensing portion that senses tooth stain amount based on the reflected light detected by the reflected light detection portion, the stain sensing portion senses the tooth stain amount based on the red light;
• and
• a fluid spraying control unit that controls spray timing of the fluid based on an amount of the reflected light detected by the reflected light detection portion, the fluid spraying control unit sprays the fluid under a first condition when an amount of the green light detected by the reflected light detection portion is less than or equal to a first threshold for a period of time that is greater than or equal to a second threshold.

An electric toothbrush comprising:

• a body comprising a gripping part and a stem extending from the gripping part;
• a brush unit detachably coupled to the body and having a plurality of tooth cleaning elements extending therefrom;
• a drive assembly located in the body and configured to oscillate the brush unit, wherein the drive assembly is operably coupled to a controller to alternate operation of the drive assembly between at least:
• (1) a first mode wherein the drive assembly oscillates the brush unit in a first direction;
• and (2) a second mode wherein the drive assembly oscillates the brush unit in a second direction that is different than the first direction;
• a fluid dispensing system for dispensing a fluid, the fluid dispensing system operably coupled to the controller to control operation of the fluid dispensing system;
• and
• wherein when the fluid is being dispensed by the fluid dispensing system, the drive assembly only operates in the first mode.