Tooth cleaning mechanism

#This application is based upon U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/811,349 filed Apr. 12, 2013, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein.

#Maintaining proper dental hygiene is an important part of maintaining overall health. For people with permanent or temporary disabilities the task of brushing teeth can be between challenging or impossible without assistance. There have been many proposals for dealing with this problem, most with various drawbacks or difficulties either in production or use.

#One prior art proposal by Galel et al, the subject of a U.S. provisional patent application filed Feb. 11, 2011 and an article published by Rensselaer Polytechnic Instituted in 2011 entitled “Oral Hygiene for Disabled Users,” utilizes a U-shaped base with a raised track and with raised bristle elements movable on the track. The bristle elements are arcuately reciprocated on the track with a battery powered rotating shaft connected by an output gear to a slotted projection on the bristle elements. While the Galel et al device has a number of desirable features, the manner of use requires the user to bite down on the base and the profile of the entire device is high, both undesirable features. Also the output gear adds undesirable complexity.

#FIG. 1 is a top perspective exploded view of an exemplary embodiment of a tooth cleaning assembly according to the present invention, in combination with a commercially available battery powered toothbrush power source;

#FIG. 2 is a top perspective view of one of the brush bristle mounting heads, per se, of the assembly of FIG. 1;

#FIG. 3 is an end schematic view of the head of FIG. 2 showing exemplary bristles mounted in the head with a tooth shown in dotted line;

#FIG. 1 illustrates a top perspective exploded view of one exemplary embodiment of a tooth cleaning assembly 10 according to the invention. One of the major novel components comprises a substantially U-shaped track, shown generally by reference numeral 11, having a substantially open top 12. The term “top” as used in the present specification and claims is merely for the purposes of facilitating description of the various components of the invention and is not suggested that the open area 12 will always be vertically above other elements of the track 11. In fact, in use, normally the open area 12 will be disposed in a generally horizontal plane and will either provide the top or bottom of the track 11 depending upon whether the assembly 10 is used to clean the top or bottom teeth, respectively, of a human user's mouth.

#In the preferred embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, the track 11 is operatively connected to a guide channel 13 extending outwardly therefrom, at the bottom 14 of the “U,” and an opening 15 in provided in the bottom of the “U” provided between the track 11 and the channel 13. In one desirable embodiment the track 11 and channel 13 comprise a unitary piece of biocompatible plastic, e. g. injection molded nylon or other common biocompatible plastic. Desirably, although not essential, the plastic comprising the track 11 is low friction, such as nylon, or is coated with a low friction material, such as polytetraflouroethylene.

#The free ends 19 of the “U” are preferably open, as illustrated in FIGS. 1, 7 and 8, but may be closed.