Patent ID: 8573974

Claim:
An oral care cleaning apparatus adapted for successive single uses for cleaning teeth using liquid droplets, comprising: a reservoir of compressed gas ( 12 ); a reservoir of liquid ( 14 ); a gas chamber ( 26 ) separate from the reservoir of compressed gas and a one-way metered valve ( 22 ) for selectively holding and permitting a selected amount of compressed gas for a single cleaning use into the gas chamber from the compressed gas reservoir; a liquid chamber ( 34 ) separate from the reservoir of liquid to which an amount of liquid is moved from the reservoir of liquid, including a connecting line therefrom; a one-way valve ( 38 ) connecting the gas chamber and the liquid chamber, such that when the compressed gas in the compressed gas chamber, expanding as it leaves the one-way metered valve, reaches a certain pressure, the one-way connecting valve opens, permitting a small amount of compressed gas from the selected amount of compressed gas into the liquid chamber to move a single use of liquid therein along the connecting line ( 15 ) from the liquid chamber; a gas line ( 13 ) separate from the connecting line extending from the gas chamber, terminating in an exit orifice ( 16 ), wherein the connecting line connects with the gas line prior to the exit orifice, resulting in a stream of liquid droplets for a single use when the amount of liquid encounters a remainder part of the selected amount of compressed gas in the gas line, the resulting stream of liquid droplets exiting from the gas line at the exit orifice; and a control member which when operated permits a single use of gas to move into the one-way metered valve and then into the gas chamber and also results in a single use of liquid being moved into the liquid chamber.