In the field of dental hygiene, it is known that it is advantageous to use a soft-bristle toothbrush for regular home-cleaning regimens. This is particularly true, from the specialized view of the field of periodontistry. That area of dentistry is principally concerned with the physiology and pathology of the gums and other "soft-tissue" of the tooth-bearing region of the mouth, vis-a-vis the teeth themselves and their associated skeletal regions. More particularly, periodontistry is directed toward preventing and correcting the diverse effects of plaque-causing bacteria in the gingival sulcus area under the gum flap which covers the base of the teeth.
In the daily home-practice of oral hygiene, periodontists strongly favor the use of toothbrushes having soft bristles. The reasons for this are to provide a brush which is sufficiently flexible to massage throughly the soft tissues of the mouth, to stimulate blood circulation, and to disorganize bacteria; all without causing undue trauma to the oral tissues. Further, the straight bristles normally used in a conventional brush, are not effective to scour comfortably under the gum flap.
Currently, the bristles in toothbrushes are almost always made from thermo-plastic materials. Inherently, these are easily deformed. Soft bristles, being inherently even more supple and susceptible to bending than "hard" bristles which are thicker and/or made from material which is more rigid structurally, are not useful for any reasonable period of time in the manner which periodontists particularly seek. Such bristles individually spread and bend over and become fixed more or less permanently in a multitude of directions, rather than staying aligned, more or less. Thus, the bristles do not present a coordinated mass of soft bristles to the brushed area. This can render the brush unusable, particularly over any considerable length of time, and even hazardous to the soft tissues in the mouth.
The long, soft, bristles in the presently available designs are, inherently, individually, structurally weak, and readily collapse under pressure. For this reason, brushes are made available in the "medium" and "hard" bristle types so they will stand up better under the pressure of brushing. Yet these are counter-productive because the stiffer bristles have a greater tendency to injure the soft tissues. This tendency to injury increases as the bristles spread with use.
From the foregoing, it may be seen that:
All present brushes become permanently deformed with use and increasingly become unsatisfactory for use.
The basic shape of the present bristle design does not lend itself to reaching the vital sulcus area under the gum flaps.
The soft bristles rapidly become deformed with repeated use and do not present a resilient coordinated mass of soft bristles for brushing action.
The "medium" and "hard" brushes provide increased resilience, when new, but soon take a self-defeating spreading set.
All of the above establishes a need for a brush made of soft bristles which are formed in a manner to substantially increase the effective resilience of the soft bristles, which eliminates the need for the "medium" and "hard" brushes; and which at the same time, produces a maintainable, coordinated mass of soft bristles, so formed that the sulcus area is properly addressed, and all surfaces are comfortably and effectively scoured.
A variety of proposals have been made for straightening brush bristles after use. Some of them contemplate pressing to a limited degree on the free ends of the outer bristles so as to cause them to deflect inwards, so as to make the group of bristles form a uniform mass without edge fraying. In this connection, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 271,814; No. 637,522; No. 1,444,677; No. 3,120,019; and No. 3,995,743. However, even these prior art teachings do not produce results desired by periodontists and other such specialists in oral hygiene since, even when practiced with soft bristle brushes, the effect at best is merely to reduce edge-fraying. Consequently, the prior art devices provide no greater remedial effect than is available in any soft toothbrush, even when brand new and unfrayed.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a dental appliance having soft bristles formed into close juxtaposition in a unique, crucial region proximal their free ends with the free ends of said bristles flared outward with respect to the region in which they are closely juxtaposed.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a dental appliance in which the resiliency of the tooth-contacting portion of the bristles is enhanced by shape and juxtaposition.
Another object is to provide a dental appliance whose bristles are bent at a crucial point, and the ends are formed into a coordinated mass of soft bristles.
Another object of this invention is to provide a dental appliance whose end bristles are reformed after each use into a unique coordinated mass of soft bristles.
Another object of this invention is to provide such a dental appliance in which the portion of the free ends of said bristles above the crucial pressure area will flare outward with respect to the region in which they are closely juxtaposed.
Another object of the invention is to provide such a dental applicance in which the lower portion of bristles below the crucial bending and pressure area are formed into a wedge-like shape which converges at the pressure point.
Another object of this invention is to identify the location of the crucial pressure area in relation to the length of the bristles, above which point the flare and supporting wedge are not formed, and below which crucial area the application of the knife edge bending pressure causes the bent bristles to splay outward instead of bending inward on themselves.
Another object of this invention is to provide a dental appliance whose flared bristle ends are re-established after each use.
Another object of the invention is to establish the bristles of the dental appliance into a shape that effectively eliminates the need for a "medium" or "hard" brush.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a dental appliance including apparatus for forming the bristles of an associated toothbrush so that they fulfill at least one of the foregoing objects.
Still another object of this invention is to provide such apparatus in a form which is removably affixable after each use.
Another object is to apply all of the above to any soft bristle brush in which an upper, flared, coordinated mass of brush ends are supported by a trained, wedge-like, formation of the coordinated lower mass of bristles so that brushing pressure causes the lower portion of the bristles to bend inward towards each other to gain increased resilient support, rather than to splay outward in individual weakness as in present cases.