Abstract:
A dental floss holder for storing and manipulating dental floss used for cleaning a person&#39;s teeth comprises a housing, a spool, a fork, a bottom board, a fasten wheel, a block member, a sleeve, a retrieving wheel, a retaining portion and a roll of dental floss which is reeled in the spool, wherein the housing has a position base and an assembling zone at two ends thereof being opposite to each other. The fork is fitted on the position base, the block member is assembled on the housing, the retaining portion is assembled on the bottom board, and the spool, the fasten wheel, the retrieving wheel, the sleeve are defined to coaxially assemble with the assembling zone.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   1. Field of the Invention 
   The present invention relates to devices for storing and manipulating dental floss used for cleaning a person&#39;s teeth, particularly to an improved dental floss holder manipulated in mechanical means to tighten up dental floss or to replace, and the dental floss holder can be used repeatedly. 
   2. Related Art 
   As is well known, oral hygiene is very important. A basic approach to maintain a well oral hygiene is to brush teeth after every meal. However, it is difficult to brush teeth everywhere after a meal and is not easy to scale the teeth by brushing. Therefore, for the importance of oral hygiene, dentists appeal to everyone to brush teeth cooperatively with picking teeth by dental floss. Conventional dental floss holder is generally classified to two types: one is spooling type and the other one is Y-shaped type; dental floss of the preceding type is reeled in paper spool, when use, users have to draw the floss and tighten the floss up to scale teeth; in this way to clean teeth particularly requires cleanness of hands, or oral hygiene may be affected; besides rear molar teeth are difficult to clean in this way since manipulation angles. 
   As to the Y-shaped dental floss holder, dental floss thereof has been fixed on a gap of the Y-shaped holder, when use, users only need use one hand to manipulate it, therefore, the hand will not touch floss directly. However, rear molar teeth are still hard to clean due to the manipulation angles problem. Furthermore, the Y-shaped dental floss holder is usually thrown away after cleaning, which may cause garbage pollution and waste resources; so, aforementioned two types of dental floss holder need to be improved. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a dental floss holder for easily manipulating, replacing dental floss and repeatedly use. 
   Further object of the present invention is to provide a dental floss holder, which enables users to adjust proper angle to clean rear molar teeth and keep well oral hygiene. 
   To achieve the above-mentioned objects, a dental floss holder comprises a housing, a spool, a fork, a bottom board, a fasten wheel, a block member, a sleeve, a retrieving wheel, a retaining portion and a roll of dental floss which is reeled in the spool, wherein the housing has a position base and an assembling zone at two ends thereof being opposite to each other. The fork is fitted on the position base, the block member is assembled on the housing, the retaining portion is assembled on the bottom board, and the spool, the fasten wheel, the retrieving wheel, the sleeve are defined to coaxially assemble with the assembling zone. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  is an exploded perspective view of a dental floss holder of the present invention. 
       FIG. 2  is a transverse cross-sectional view of  FIG. 1  being assembled. 
       FIG. 3  is a plan view when a block member engaged with a fasten wheel. 
       FIG. 4  and  FIG. 5  are perspective views of a process of a spool engaged with a retaining portion. 
       FIG. 6A  and  FIG. 6B  are schematic views of how to thread and fix dental floss in the dental floss holder. 
       FIG. 7  is a perspective view of fold arms of the dental floss holder turned to different angle. 
   

   DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
   With reference to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , a dental floss holder  1  comprises: a housing  2 , a spool  3 , a fork  4 , a bottom board  5 , a fasten wheel  60 , a block member  61 , a sleeve  70 , a retrieving wheel  71 , a retaining portion  8  and a roll of dental floss  9 , wherein the housing  2  being substantially rectangle has a position base  20  at an end thereof and an assembling zone  21  at another end opposite to the position base  20 . The position base  20  unitarily and horizontally extends from an end of the housing  2  being annular and defines an annular aperture  201  therein and forms a gap  202  thereon being located through the annular aperture  201  for providing the position base  20  with elasticity. Furthermore, leading holes  203  are defined positioned apart at two sides of the housing  2  and opposite to the gap  202  for leading the floss  9  threading over. 
   The assembling zone  21  being defined interior hollow forms an upper opening  210  and a lower opening  211 , wherein the lower opening  211  is covered by a bottom board  5 . A partition  212  being defined inside the assembling zone  21  has a hollow column  213  thereon. The hollow column  213  is defined transversely perforating the partition  212 , wherein the partition  212  further has protrusions  214  on a side of the upper opening  210 . 
   The spool  3  includes a central tube  30 , a serrated wheel  31  and a tray  32  for reeling a roll of dental floss  9 , which is pivotally mounted to the hollow column  213  and adjacent to the lower opening  211 . The serrated wheel  31  having zigzag recesses  311  on peripheral sides thereof is defined positioned at a side of the central tube  30  being adjacent to the bottom board  5 . The tray  32  is located on a side of the central tube  30  opposite to the serrated wheel  31 . 
   The fasten wheel  60  is positioned at a side of the central tube  30  being adjacent to the upper opening  21  having grooves  601  on peripheral sides thereof, and unitarily forms a driving plate  63  there above. The driving plate  63  has a larger diameter than the fasten wheel  60  and has ribs  631  on peripheral sides thereof for turning the fasten wheel  60 . 
   The block member  61  has an opening  611  on the face  610  thereof wherein the opening is fixed to the housing by a peg  29  and the opposite end  612  is a pawl that sticks to the fasten wheel  60  for forcing the fasten wheel  60  only to turn in one direction. 
   The retaining portion  8  abutting on the assembling zone  21  of the housing  2  for controlling wheeling of the spool  3  comprises a slidable plate  80 , a flute  81  and fixing plate  82 . The slidable plate  80  has at least one location hole  802  thereon and defines saw teeth  801  at an end thereof for engaging with the serrated wheel  31 . The flute  81  is positioned on the bottom board  5 . The fixing plate  82  has a peg  821  being mounted to the location hole  802  through the flute  81  to fit together with the slidable plate  80  for transversely moving through the flute  81 . Referring to  FIG. 2  to  FIG. 5 , when the fixing plate  82  move to the serrated wheel  31 , the slidable plate  80  will hit the zigzag recesses  311  becoming an engagement with serrated wheel  31  (shown as  FIG. 5 ), therefore, the spool  3  is retained by the engagement. Namely, when use the dental floss holder  1 , the spool  3  is retained to prevent the dental floss  9  being loose. When fixing plate  82  moves in reverse, the saw teeth  801  of the slidable plate  80  disengages from the zigzag recesses  311  of the serrated wheel  31  (shown as  FIG. 4 ), therefore, the spool  3  reverts to be available, and the floss  9  can be drawn at will. 
   Referring to  FIG. 1 , the fork  4  includes a root  40  which defines hollow therein and being mounted on the annular aperture  201 , a pair of spaced-apart fork arms  41  extending from the root  40  wherein position holes  410  located on a top of two sides of the fork arms  41  and guiding grooves  411  located along two sides thereof communicating with the position hole  410 . The fork arms  41  further have an engaging hole  412  with a smaller diameter than the annular aperture  201  being corresponding to the root  40  (shown as  FIG. 2 ). Moreover, a coaxial column  42  is defined to coaxially mounted to the annular aperture  201  and the root  40 ; the coaxial column  42  defines a longitudinal cavity  420  thereon and has a first diameter portion  421 , a second diameter portion  422  and a third diameter portion  423  which are smaller in sequence. The first diameter portion  421  is fitted into the annular aperture  201 , the second diameter portion is fitted into the root  40  and the third diameter portion  423  is fitted into the engaging hole  412  (shown as  FIG. 2 ), wherein the third diameter portion further has a lip fringe  424  extending outwardly from an end thereof for engaging with peripheral fringes of the engaging hole  412 . Through aforementioned devices, the fork  4  can be turned directly as shown in  FIG. 7 , thus different angles of the fork  4  can facilitate cleaning teeth. 
   The bottom board  5  assembles with a bottom of the housing  2  having the flute  81  mentioned before, a cutter  23  adjacent to a front of the flute  81  for cutting the floss  9  and a hang plate  51  which unitarily extends from a side of the bottom board  5  having a hang hole  52  thereon for hanging the dental floss holder  1 . 
   The sleeve  70  defines hollow axis  701  therein and is fitted into the hollow column  213 . The retrieving wheel  71  has a shaft  711  being fitted to the hollow axis  701  and a plurality of threading holes  712  being defined whereon for the floss  9  threading over. In addition, a first driving member  73  and a second driving member  74  are defined arranged between the retrieving wheel  71  and fasten wheel  60  and which are engagable with each other. The first driving member  73  is evenly-spaced arranged on a bottom of the retrieving wheel  71  and projects outwardly there from and the second driving member  74  is arranged on a top of the driving plate  63  corresponding to the first driving member  73  and projects inwardly from the driving plate  63 . Accordingly, referring to  FIG. 2 , when the first driving member  73  engages with the second driving member  74 , the retrieving wheel  74  thereby only can turn toward one direction same as the fasten wheel  60 . 
   Through aforementioned devices, with reference to  FIG. 1  to  FIG. 5 , the present dental floss holder  1  in assembly, fit the fork  4  to the annular aperture  201  by coaxially mounting the coaxial column  42 , then set the spool  3  with a roll of dental floss  9  on the hollow column  213  of the assembling zone  21 , and assemble the slidable plate  80  and the fixing plate  82  with the bottom board  5 , fit the fasten wheel  60  on the hollow column  213  and insert the sleeve  70  through the fitting hole  600  of the fasten wheel  60  into the hollow column  213 , and then fit the shaft  711  of the retrieving wheel  71  into the hollow axis  701  of the sleeve  70 . 
   Referring to  FIGS. 6A and 6B , in use, an length of the dental floss  9  is drawn from the spool  3  (shown as the direction of arrows) through the leading hole  203  at one side of the housing  2  and the position hole  410  at one side of the fork arms  41 , then appropriately thread over the guiding grooves  411  and pass through from another position hole  410  to the leading hole  203  at another side of the housing  2  and the threading holes  712 , finally turn the retrieving wheel  71  to tighten up the floss  9 . The fork  4  and the housing  2  form as straight after assembling (shown as  FIG. 2 ). When replace the dental floss  9 , move the fixing plate  82  toward a reverse direction of the serrated wheel  31 , thereby, the saw teeth  801  of the slidable plate  80  is then disengaged from the zigzag recesses  311  of the serrated wheel  31 . Accordingly, the spool  3  is available for turning. 
   To clean molar teeth, only need to turn the fork  4  at right angle. Therefore, the dental floss holder  1  of the present invention is easy to manipulate and to replace the dental floss  9 . 
   It is understood that the invention may be embodied in other forms without departing from the spirit thereof.