Apparatus and method for cleaning teeth
AssigneeDEKA Products Limited Partnership
InventorsDean L. Kamen, Larry B. Gray, Mark D. Newton
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus designed to clean surfaces and to recycle a cleaning fluid. The apparatus has a hand-holdable housing that includes a head with a distal end through which cleaning solution may be impelled. The apparatus further has a pump for both impelling and urging cleaning fluid back through a return path. The pump has a flexible membrane and a pump drive mechanism in which two pistons drive the flexible membrane. The cleaning fluid includes a foaming-resistant composition that has an abrasive agent; a shear thinning fluid matrix, and a non-foaming means.
Claims26
An apparatus for cleaning a surface, the apparatus comprising:
- a hand-holdable housing having a base component and a head component, the head component detachably coupled to the base component at a proximal end and also having a distal end;
- a flexible membrane retaining a cleaning fluid composition within the head component of the housing;
- a pump drive mechanism disposed within the base component of the housing for driving the flexible membrane, the membrane having a substantially planar dimension the pump drive mechanism and the flexible membrane comprising a pump, in such a manner as to impel the cleaning fluid composition toward the surface and to return the cleaning fluid from the vicinity of the surface to the head component.
A method for cleaning a surface in a mouth, the method comprising:
- providing a cleaning fluid in a reservoir;
- impelling the fluid from the reservoir and out of an exit nozzle toward a vicinity of the surface;
- and
- holding the exit nozzle in a position such that the pump urges the fluid from the vicinity of the surface back to the reservoir, for further impelling of the fluid toward the vicinity of the surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.