Dental flossing device

A flossing device for flossing the teeth as part of a dental care program. The device includes a central arch made up of two legs connected by a central segment. A length of floss is secured to the free ends of the legs. Two rings sized to fit over finger tips are secured to the outside of each arch leg. Two fingers are inserted into the rings so that the floss can be brought into well controlled contact with teeth interstices. The rings may be metal rings embedded in or bonded to the arch or may be plastic rings with the arch and rings molded as a unitary structure. With plastic rings, the rings may be circumferentially divided so as to be expandable to fit larger finger tips.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates to a device useful in supporting dental floss for 
manually moving floss between the teeth. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Flossing, in which a strand of dental floss is moved into and around the 
space between adjacent teeth has long been recommended by dentists. 
Conventionally, a strand of floss is wrapped around the middle of each 
hand, providing a short tensioned length of floss between the fingers. The 
fingers and floss are inserted into the mouth and the floss is guided 
between pairs of adjacent teeth. 
In order to maintain the floss in position around the fingers and the 
proper tension on the inter finger strand, the floss must be wrapped 
tightly around the fingers. The tight wrap of =very thin floss tends to 
dig into the fingers and become rapidly painful, often limiting the time 
and care spent in flossing. 
Many people find that manipulating the floss while maintaining tension and 
moving from tooth to tooth while looking at a reverse mirror image to be 
very difficult. Further the normal gag reflex can be easily triggered 
while flossing the back molars and touching the palate, much to the user's 
discomfort. 
A number of different flossing devices have been developed in attempts to 
overcome these problems inherent in manual flossing. Zuehlsdorf in U.S. 
Pat. No. 5,222,510 discloses a generally U-shaped device in which floss is 
secured across the ends of the "U" legs and a finger is inserted between 
the legs. While effective with the front teeth, attempts to floss molars 
will be difficult since the device can easily rotate about the single 
finger and not correctly position the floss for entry between adjacent 
teeth. 
Wang describes a flossing system in U.S. Pat. No. 5,503,168 in which two 
thimble-like members are fitted over two finger tips and floss is wrapped 
around the two members. While this arrangement avoids the sometimes 
painful direct wrapping of floss around the fingertips, it has the other 
problems of the manual fingertip approach. Adjusting the floss length is 
difficult and slipping of floss on the two members is likely. In addition, 
two widely spaced fingers must be inserted into the mouth and manipulated. 
A large, flexible U-shaped device having floss extending around the "U" and 
across the space between the ends of the legs is described by Yafai in 
U.S. Pat. No. 4,304,246. While the endless loop of floss eliminates the 
risk of floss slipping off of a winding, such as around a finger tip, it 
the "U" legs are squeezed together at all the floss will fall off the leg 
ends. Further, the size of the device is such that flossing the back 
molars will be difficult. 
Long lengths of floss secured to widely spaced rings (Trecker, U.S. Pat. 
No. 4,034,770) or widely spaced tubes (Wei et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,710 
may help prevent slipping of the floss ends in use, but still require 
manual manipulation of the floss, guided by finger tips. 
Other flossing devices, such as that described by Peng in U.S. Pat. No. 
5,101,843 have a plastic body with projections to the ends of which a 
length of floss is permanently fastened. This type of device is easily 
manipulated by one hand. However, because of the lever action between the 
gripping point and the flossing point, twisting and bending of the device 
cannot be easily prevented with a single hand holding an extension on the 
device and the necessary force and movement of the floss between tightly 
spaced teeth is difficult and require considerable dexterity. 
Thus, there is a continuing need for flossing devices that provide more 
effective flossing, are simpler to manipulate, can be accurately moved 
along the back molars and the floss inserted between tightly spaced teeth 
and is inexpensive to manufacture. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The above-noted problems, ands others, are overcome by the flossing device 
of this invention which basically comprises a central arch having two 
spaced leg ends, a length of floss secured between the leg ends and two 
finger rings secured to the outside surfaces of the arch legs. 
The finger rings may be provided in a single to fit typical fingers, since 
most finger tips are tapered so that thinner fingers will simply be 
inserted into the rings a slightly greater distance for a snug fit than 
would be the case with fingers having greater diameters. If desired, the 
device could be provided with rings of different diameters for fingers of 
different diameter ranges. For example, smaller rings might be sold for 
use by children and larger for adults. Alternatively, the rings may be 
expandable to fit a variety of fingers while providing mild spring 
pressure on the finger to aid in holding the rings in place. 
The flossing device is preferably formed in one piece from a suitable 
plastic by processes such as injection molding. The floss would preferably 
be imbedded across the leg ends during the molding. Alternatively, 
separate rings, such as metal coil rings, could be provided and imbedded 
into a plastic arch during molding or by adhesive bonding after shaping 
the arch portion. 
While the flossing device may have any suitable dimensions, for an optimum 
combination of ease of placement on the finger and thumb or two fingers, 
ease of flossing, and greatest ease of reaching back molars, a width of 
from about 1.75 to 3 inches is preferred. The distance between arch legs 
preferably is about 1.0 to 1.5 inch and an arch height of 0.50 to 1.0 
inches is preferred. 
It is, therefore, an object to provide a flossing device that provides more 
complete and thorough flossing of spaces between all pairs of teeth. 
Another object is to provide a flossing device that is easier and more 
convenient. A further object is to provide a flossing device that can be 
easily used with no practice by those having limited manual dexterity. Yet 
another object is to provide a flossing device that provides balanced 
forces on both sides of a tooth interface to be flossed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
Referring to FIG. 1, there is seen a hand 10 having the flossing device 12 
in place on the index finger and thumb. Device 12 may, of course be placed 
on any desired fingers (including a thumb) of either hand. When a finger 
is referred to in this application, any of the five fingers on either hand 
is included. Device 12 includes a central arch 14 with floss 16 secured 
firmly between the ends of the arch legs. Any conventional floss may be 
used. The floss may be a strand or tape and is preferably a shed resistant 
material. Two rings 18 are secured to the arch legs on opposite sides. 
Since finger tips generally gradually widen from the tip back to the first 
knuckle, a single ring diameter will accommodate most fingers. Of course, 
devices 12 with rings 18 of different diameters could be provided, e.g., 
smaller rings for children and larger rings for adults. 
FIGS. 2 and 3 detail a first embodiment of device 12. Arch 14 is formed 
from a suitable plastic. Typical plastics include acrylics, poly vinyl 
chloride, polyolefins such as polypropylene and polyethylene and 
cominations thereof. Rings 18 are metal coils, preferably fairly stiff to 
be shape retaining in use. Floss 16 is embedded in the ends of the legs of 
arch 14, preferably being taut. Rings 18 are also embedded in the legs. 
Typically, arch 14 is injection molded in a mold that holds rings 18 and 
floss 16 extending into the mold sufficiently to produce the desired 
embediments during molding. If desired, rings 18 and floss 16 could be 
adhesively bonded to arch 14 after molding of arch 14. 
While positioning rings 18 in the same plane as the plane of arch 14 is 
very effective, for a closer match to the "V" formed by adjacent fingers 
as seen in FIG. 1, rings 18 could be secured to arch 14 with the planes of 
the rings each lying at an angle of up to about 20.degree. to the plane of 
the arch as shown in FIG. 4. 
A second embodiment of the flossing device is illustrated in FIGS. 5-8. 
Here, arch 14 and rings 18 are formed as a single, unitary structure. 
Floss 16 is preferably embedded in the ends of the arch legs during 
molding of the device, although adhesive or melt bonding could be used if 
desired. 
For the maximum adaptability of rings 18 to fingers of different 
circumference, rings 18 in the embodiment of FIGS. 58 have a divided 
segment 20 along the circumference, with overlapping portions that produce 
a complete ring of variable circumference. Preferably, the entire assembly 
is injection molded in a mold that can in a conventional manner provide 
the divided segments 20 and can hold floss 16 taut in position for 
embediment in leg ends of arch 14. As with the embodiment of FIG. 4, the 
planes of rings 18 can be formed in the same plane as that of arch 14 or 
at an angle of up to about 20.degree. relative to that plane. 
While certain specific relationships, materials and other parameters have 
been detailed in the above description of preferred embodiments, those can 
be varied, where suitable, with similar results. Other applications, 
variations and ramifications of the present invention will occur to those 
skilled in the art upon reading the present disclosure. Those are intended 
to be included within the scope of this invention as defined in the 
appended claims.