Patent ID: 7213604

Claim:
A dental flossing tool and dispenser, comprising: a case forming an enclosed chamber; a partition wall separating the chamber into a floss spool compartment and a take up reel compartment; a hub within the floss spool compartment; a floss spool on the hub; a take up reel, rotatable in the take up reel compartment; a rotator connected to the take up reel and at least partially disposed outward of the take up reel compartment; a floss out-feed opening in the case, communicating with the floss spool compartment; a floss in-feed opening in the case, communicating with the take up reel compartment; a length of floss wound on the floss spool and extending outwardly through the floss out-feed opening and back into the take up reel compartment through the floss in-feed opening to connect with the take up reel, forming a bight in the floss outward of the case; a unidirectional motion limiter comprising a thumb wheel connected to the take up reel, and a biased pawl formed as part of the case and which protrudes outwardly from the case and is configured to slidably and yieldably engage the thumb wheel, to thereby allow rotation of the take up reel to take up the length of floss and to inhibit rotation of the take up reel to pay out floss.