Abstract:
This invention is a combination dental flosser and tongue scraper in a single injection molded hand-held disposable device. The tongue scraper portion serves as a handle for the dental flosser for the flosser portion, and the dental flosser portion serves as a handle for the tongue scraper portion. The dental flosser and tongue scraper components serve as oral hygiene elements for cleaning surfaces of the teeth and between the teeth and cleaning surfaces of the tongue respectively.

Description:
[0001]    This application claims benefit of the file date of applicant&#39;s co-pending provisional application No. 60,371,000 filed Apr. 8, 2002. 
     
    
     
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0003]    This invention is in the field of dental hygiene devices, including dental flossers and tongue scrapers.  
           [0004]    2. Relevant Prior Art  
           [0005]    Relevant prior art includes dental flosser patents of applicant incorporated herein by reference U.S. Pat. Nos. D401,701, D291,412, 4,807,752, D250,214, D244,609, D244,376, 4,006,750, 4,016,892, 5,538,023, 6,065,479, 5,911,229, D410,115, 5,692,531, 6,085,760, 5,829,458, 5,086,792, 5,538,023, D408,589, D443,113 and D455,232. Relevant prior art tongue scraper patents include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,388,600, 4,079,478, 4,455,704, 4,488,327, 4,610,043, 4,638,521, 5,005,246, 5,061,272, 5,217,475, 5,226,197, 5,569,278, 5,779,475, 5,868,769, 5,893,860, 5,910,151, 6,099,540 and 6,152,939.  
           [0006]    Known oral hygiene devices include dental flossers, tongue scrapers and of course the ubiquitous toothbrushes. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,273,719, 4,488,327 and 5,005,246 each disclose an oral hygiene implement which provides toothbrush and tongue scraper components at opposite ends of a central part; however, in each of these implements the components have a traditional bulky shape and corresponding complexity and expense of manufacturing.  
           [0007]    U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,217,475, 5,779,475 and 5,893,860 for example, disclose tongue scrapers, which are large, bulky and expensive implements. The other prior art references cited herein disclose a large variety of oral hygiene implements.  
           [0008]    It is an object of the present invention to provide a combination tongue scraper and dental flosser that is extremely compact, effective and easy to use, and is highly economical to manufacture. If the latter objective is not achieved, then it is impractical to commercialize this kind of product, because very high volume and very low cost are prerequisites.  
           [0009]    It is thus a further object to provide a design which can be readily injection molded in a multicavity mold.  
           [0010]    It is a still further object to design this oral hygiene implement so that the multicavity mold will be as small, efficient and inexpensive as possible, while the implement itself is comfortable, easy to use and attractive.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0011]    This invention is a oral hygiene device which combines a dental flosser with a tongue scraper into a single, unitary, disposable device, where the flosser portion serves as part of the handle for the tongue scraper and the tongue scraper portion serves as part of the handle for the flosser. The objects described above have been achieved in a new injection molded plastic design that is essentially flat and thus extremely easy and inexpensive to mold. A further aspect of the new design is the use of the dental flosser component as a portion of the handle for the tongue scraper, and use of the tongue scraper component as a portion of the handle for the flosser. This achieves compactness, reduces overall size, and provides a novel and highly esthetic appearance.  
           [0012]    The tongue scraper portion is an oval loop element having beveled or flared inner edges that rise above the surface or plane of the loop. This oval form has the advantage of providing scraping surfaces on the complete periphery no matter which direction the scraper is moved. The scraping surfaces are the top and bottom edges of the inner wall surface of the oval. These edges are sufficiently sharp and shaped to provide adequate scraping without damaging or hurting the tongue surface.  
           [0013]    This product is preferably molded by injection molding apparatus which is known as disclosed in the prior art cited herein where the molded plastic and dental floss are selected from materials described in various of said prior art patents. The embodiment seen as FIGS.  1 - 5  differs from the embodiment of FIGS.  6 - 10  in that the former has a sharper taper along the oval scraping edge, namely at the oval edge of the scraper. Outward of this scraping edge is a smooth bullnose edge to avoid hurting or irritating the tongue or any other part of the mouth, lips or gums. The flosser portion has dual strands of floss situated parallel and spaced apart and molded ‘in situ’ when the product is made, but single strands are also possible.  
           [0014]    This particular product is unique in that its shape and configuration not only provide a set of ideal handles for the two functions of scraping and flossing, but allow optimum use of mold space to produce the maximum number of units in minimum mold size and minimum mold cycle time, thus a most economical molding operation. More specifically, this product design and resulting mold design allow the products to be positioned and aligned in a manner where they fit and conform to each other so closely that there is essentially no wasted space or wasted plastic. Furthermore, the tongue scraper shape is ideal as a handle for the flosser and the flosser shape is ideal as a handle for the tongue scraper. Finally, the overall shape of this combination article is new, modem and attractive. 
       
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0015]    [0015]FIG. 1 is a top, rear and right side perspective view of a first embodiment of a Dental Flosser/Tongue Scraper Combination showing my new design;  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 2 is a front, bottom left side perspective view thereof;  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 3. is a top plan view thereof;  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 4. is a left side view thereof;  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 5 is a front view partially broken away taken along the lines  5 - 5  of FIG. 4.  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 6 is a top, rear and right side perspective view of a second embodiment of a Dental Flosser/Tongue Scraper Combination showing my new design;  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 7 is a front, bottom left side perspective view thereof;  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 8. is a top plan view thereof;  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 9. is a left side view thereof;  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 10 is a front view partially broken away taken along the lines  10 - 10  of FIG. 9; and  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 11 shows schematically an injection mold for molding multiple parts. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0026]    FIGS.  1 - 5  illustrate a first embodiment of the new combination tongue scraper and dental flosser device  10  which includes flosser portion  12  at one end and tongue scraper portion  14  at the opposite end. Between these opposite ends is a body portion  16  which is common to both the flosser and tongue scraper portions.  
         [0027]    The tongue scraper portion  14  in combination with body portion  16  comprises a handle for the flosser portion  12 , and similarly the body portion  16  in combination with the flosser portion  12  serves as a handle for the tongue scraper portion  14 . The entire device  10  is injection molded of plastic as a single integral unit. As described in greater detail below, the strands of floss  18  according to a preferred method of manufacture are molded ‘in situ’ onto the flosser at the time a plurality of complete devices are injection molded. It is optional whether the floss consists of a single strand or of a pair of parallel and spaced apart strands  18  as seen in FIGS. 1 and 2, or consists of even more than two strands.  
         [0028]    This device as seen in FIGS. 1 and 2 and also in FIGS.  3 - 5  is a generally planar or flat thin article where the flosser part defines a U shape and the tongue scraper part  14  is formed by an oval rim  20 . As seen in FIG. 5 which is a sectional view taken through said oval  20 , the thickness of the inner surface indicated by reference T 1  is greater than the thickness T 2  of the body portion  16 . The height of the scraping edge may be in the range 0.5 mm to 2 mm or other as desired. Further as seen in FIG. 5 the outer surface  22  of the oval is tapered, whereas the inner surface  24  is a relatively straight wall so as to produce an edge  26  which is effectively a curved scraping blade. Edge  26  obviously extends around the entire periphery of the inside surface of the oval. The outer edge of the tongue scraper  14  is formed as a rounded bull nose  28  which is smooth to avoid scratching or irritating any part of the mouth while the tongue scraper is being used.  
         [0029]    As further seen in FIG. 5, the strands of dental floss  18  are located centrally in the plane of the flosser  12  and extend with their ends embedded in the arms  30  of the flosser component. As shown in FIG. 4 the floss has its ends extending slightly out of the flosser arms and formed into small beads  19 . These beads have diameter slightly greater than that of the original strands, with the result that the beads prevent the floss ends from being pulled out of flosser arms  30  when the floss is pulled during use. This preferred structure of beads is to anchor the floss but not mandatory and is shown only in FIG. 4.  
         [0030]    FIGS.  6 - 10  illustrate a second embodiment that is substantially similar to the first embodiment and for which the same reference numbers are used for parts which are essentially the same in both embodiments. Accordingly, the combination tongue scraper and dental flosser  30  of FIGS.  6 - 10  has a flosser part  12 , a tongue scraper part  14 , a body part  16  and dental floss  18 .  
         [0031]    The principle difference between these embodiments is in a portion of the tongue scraper where taper  22 A in FIG. 10 is at a lower angle than taper  22  in FIG. 5. This slower or milder taper  22 A is also seen in FIG. 7 and  9  which produces a somewhat different look; however, the tongue scraper  30  has essentially the same scraping edge  24  at the top and bottom of the inner wall  24  of oval  20 A, as seen in FIG. 6 and  10 .  
         [0032]    The preferred method of manufacturing the articles of this invention is known from various of applicant&#39;s own patents cited above in the sub-section entitled relevant prior art. More particularly, cavities are formed in a multi-cavity mold. These cavities are oriented in such a way that a strand of dental floss can be positioned to span all the arms of all the dental floss holder components at once while the strand is extended in one continuous straight line. While FIG. 11 does not show a mold, this Figure does illustrate a rack of injection molded parts that have been removed from such a mold. Accordingly, the rack  40  of a plurality of devices  42  includes a central strip of plastic  44  and runners  46  by which these devices were formed. At a subsequent stage of manufacture the various devices are each separated by being broken at the gate  48  from the runner  46  and central plastic stem  44 .  
         [0033]    The continuous strand of floss  50  is severed at points  52  between each individual dental floss components. The severing is done as a separate stage, usually with heat or flame apparatus that leaves a tiny segment of the floss extending out of the arm and coalesced into a bead which had diameter greater than that of the original strand of floss and which then acts as a blocking element to prevent the floss from being pulled through the arms, if the floss is severely strained during use.  
         [0034]    Further, as seen in FIG. 11, the oval shape of these devices and the arrangement and orientation of one relative to the other is such that they line up in an extremely compact formation in an absolute minimum of space and thus in a smaller mold. Each device has a gentle S shape which is not only esthetically pleasing, but is functionally advantageous because it allows the handle formed by the body  16  plus one end component to easily and comfortably fit into a user&#39;s palm while the remaining end, whether it be the flosser  12  or the tongue scraper  14 , extends at an angle which is particularly useful and convenient for a user. As seen in FIG. 11, a typical device has the flosser extending generally horizontally, while the handle extends at an angle downward therefrom, and the tongue scraper extends at a slightly different angle from the axis of the body portion  16  of the handle. The intersection of the flosser and central part axes may vary from 00 to 900.  
         [0035]    Although this invention has been described with a certain degree of particularity, it is to be understood that the present disclosure has been made only by way of illustration and that numerous changes in the details of this article may be applied without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention as defined by the claims herein.