US 8,800,089 B2Granted

Process for cleaning teeth

AssigneeConopco, Inc.

InventorsKirtan Shravan Kamkar, Amit Sah, Rudra Saurabh Shresth, Narayanan Subrahmaniam, Suresh Sambamurthy Jayaraman

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Abstract

The present invention is in the field of tooth cleaning devices, especially electrical toothbrushes. The invention further relates to the use of an air/water jet for the cleaning of teeth. A process for cleaning teeth that incorporates a water jet for cleaning teeth remains to be desired, especially a single device that can be employed to clean teeth and reliably deposit material onto teeth. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a process for cleaning teeth with an electrical toothbrush device providing improved cleaning by means of an externally mixed air-water jet wherein the water dosing is not influenced by the air pressure. Surprisingly it has been found that a tooth brush device, comprising an air/water jet, wherein the air and water are mixed outside the nozzle(s), provides improved cleaning of dental surfaces, including inter-proximal areas, with low usage of water.

Claims6

Dependent claims

A device comprising

a. an air-water jet device configured to clean a dental surface comprising a first nozzle and a second nozzle;
wherein:
i. the first nozzle is in fluid communication with a feed liquid source;
ii. the second nozzle is connected to a source of compressed air;
and
iii. both nozzles are positioned relative to a central axis,
wherein the first nozzle is at an angle of between 1 and 60° relative to the central axis;
wherein the second nozzle is at an angle of between 1 and 45° relative to the central axis;
and
wherein the central axis is normal to the dental surface;
wherein a mouth of the second nozzle is positioned more forward in the direction of the flow along the direction of the central axis than a mouth of the first nozzle,
wherein the offset distance between the mouth of the first nozzle and the second nozzle is between 0.5 and 5 mm in said direction;
wherein the first nozzle and the second nozzle are positioned so as to result in:
(i) mixing of the air and the feed liquid at the mouth of the second nozzle when the device is in operation and
(ii) liquid from the first nozzle forming a film around the second nozzle when the device is in operation;
wherein the second nozzle does not co-axially surround the first nozzle;
wherein the distance between an opening of the first nozzle and a side of the second nozzle is less than 2 mm;
and
wherein the device further comprises a handle and a head,
wherein the head further comprising bristles, and
wherein the bristle-head is configured to be electrically operated.

18 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.