US 5,584,690 A · Dental cleaning assembly

Abstract

A dental cleaning assembly including a disposable dental tool including a main body tubular portion and a head portion disposed at right angles to the main body. A prophy cup is secured to a shaft projecting from the head portion so that the cup may be rotated to perform a tooth cleaning operation. A series of flexible bristles are secured to the head of the dental tool and extend forwardly therefrom in surrounding relation to the prophy cup so as to provide an anti-splatter shield for the cup to preclude splatter of toothpaste, saliva and blood. The bristles form an effective circumferential barrier around the prophy cup but yet allow complete freedom of movement of the prophy cup to perform the cleaning function and further allow potentially impacting paste to escape outwardly from the annular space between the prophy cup and the bristles to avoid impairment of the cleaning operation of the assembly.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A dental cleaning assembly comprising:

a dental tool defining a head;
a cleaning and polishing prophy cup mounted on the head for rotation relative to the head about a central drive axis;
drive means on the head for rotating the cup relative to the head about the drive axis;
and
a series of flexible bristles fixedly secured to the head and extending forwardly from the head in surrounding relation to the prophy cup, whereby the prophy cup may be rotated about the drive axis to perform a dental cleaning operation while the bristles form a non-rotating flexible shield in surrounding relation to the rotating cup to minimize splattering and yet allow substantial eccentric orbiting movement of the rotating cup relative to the drive axis.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Dental cleaning assembly

Life of this patent

Dental cleaning assembly

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims16