Abstract:
An electrically driven toothbrush having a rotatable drive shaft with an end, off-set from the central longitudinal axis of the drive shaft and lodged in a boring in a bristle carrier, which bristle carrier is orbitally secured within a socket in the toothbrush head. When the drive shaft rotates, the end describes a circle and drivingly engages the bristle carrier to actuate the bristle carrier in a three dimensional reciprocating side-to-side and rocking up-and-down motion.
Abstract:
A toothbrush is disclosed having a handle portion and a head portion carrying or adapted to carry a bristle configuration. The handle has an end portion, a waist, a shoulder portion and a neck connecting the shoulder to the head. The waist is narrower, at least in plan view, than the end portion or the shoulder, and the end portion, preferably, is rounded. The bristle configuration is such that the teeth engaging ends of the bristles do not lie in a plane parallel to the surface of the head of the handle in which the bristles are embedded. In a first embodiment, the teeth engaging ends of at least a proportion of the bristles lie in a curved line when the toothbrush is viewed in side elevation. The curved line is provided by a mixture of concave groups of bristles and convex groups of bristles. In a second embodiment, the bristle configuration falls into at least two groups of bristles. The teeth engaging ends of the bristles of the first group, and the teeth engaging ends of the bristles of the second group, lie in curved lines when the toothbrush is viewed in side elevation. In a third embodiment, the teeth engaging ends of the bristles form a continuous wavy line. In a fourth embodiment, the teeth engaging ends of the bristles fall into two groups, a rearwardly located group, the castellated group, made up of transversely extending rows of bristles, the rows alternating in height, and a forwardly located group having at least some bristles extending further from the surface of the toothbrush head than any of the bristles of the castellated group.
Abstract:
An oral care implement having a handle, a head, and at least one movable cleaning element coupled to the head. The movable cleaning element may be used as an interdental cleaner. The movable cleaning element may be positioned within a loop formed by fixed cleaning elements on the head. The movable cleaning element may be coupled to an actuator that moves the movable cleaning element between a first position wherein a distal tip of the movable cleaning element is spaced a first distance from a front surface of the head and a second position wherein the distal tip of the movable cleaning element is spaced a second distance from the front surface of the head, the second distance being greater than the first distance. The movable cleaning element may maintain the first and second positions until subsequent actuation of the actuator.