Patent ID: 7316046

Claim:
A cleaning implement, comprising: a handle having a clamping jaw with a mouth and throat; and a brush head formed from a stack of water-degradable material so as to be suitable to be held in the jaw with a portion in the throat, wherein the brush head has a series of undulations extending along a longitudinal axis of at least one of its top or bottom surfaces and the brush head having a narrowed middle portion having said undulations and having a thickened rearward end; wherein the mouth has a having means to secure the brush head and inhibit side-to-side movement of the brush head in the mouth when the jaw is fully closed; wherein said means to secure are a series of essentially parallel openings, where a plurality of the openings have the characteristic of extending along the longitudinal axis of the brush head, and along a longitudinal axis of the jaw, wherein at least two of those openings having that characteristic are separated by a narrowed linking opening; wherein the undulations extend along a longitudinal axis of the brush head, beginning adjacent, but not at, a rearward end of the brush head; and wherein the jaw has a side cheek opening linked to the throat that is suitable to permit the rearward end of the brush head to be slid into the cheek opening from a side of the jaw when the jaw is partially closed to an extent that inhibits the rearward end of the brush head from thereafter being slid out of the jaw in a direction from the throat towards the front of the jaw.