JPH07163420A - Cleaning tool for oral cavity - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve substantially the cleaning effect by giving up and down motions as well as twisting motions to an interdental brush, and making the interdental brush contact even with interdental space surfaces of complicated shapes by means of a shaft member a brush fixing member and a cam means engaging them. CONSTITUTION:The base end portion 41 of an interdental brush is inserted into a spindle hollow shaft 27 to actuate a motor. The actuation transmitted to a drive shaft 24 through gears or the like makes a pin member 26 perform circular motions by a rotational driving of the shaft. Following the circular motions, a spindle 25 which engages with the pin member 26 through a ball 30 within a groove 27, with the hollow shaft 27 as a rotation axis in the horizontal direction, performs twisting motions as arc-like right and left reciprocating motions with a shaft rotation axis 24'' as the center of displacement, and also, following pushing up and down of the bottom of a cover member 28' on the upper part of the spindle and the bottom surface of a spindle groove 29 by means of the ball 30, the spindle 25 moves also upward and downward.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an oral cleaning tool, and more particularly to an electric oral cleaning tool for cleaning an interdental part.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, a general toothbrush or a manual interdental brush is currently used to clean an interdental portion where dental plaque, which causes caries and periodontal disease, is apt to deposit.

[0003]

However, the toothbrush cannot be sufficiently cleaned because the brush does not reach the deep part between the teeth. On the other hand, with an interdental brush for hands, since the interdental brush fitted in the interdental part is simply moved up and down and back and forth, plaque removal is incomplete depending on the shape of the adjacent tooth surface, and because it is a manual type Since the arms and the like are easily tired and cannot be used fixedly, there is a problem that the soft tissue is damaged.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to perform thorough cleaning irrespective of the form of the interdental space, and to use it fixedly without tired arms. To provide an oral cleaning tool.

[0005]

The present invention achieves the above object, and its gist is to removably mount it on a brush fixing member orthogonal to the electric drive source through rotation of a shaft member. A handpiece-shaped oral cleaning tool that gives motion to an interdental brush, the oral cleaning tool including cam means for engaging the shaft member and the brush fixing member, the cam means fixing the brush. An oral cleaning tool characterized by imparting a combined motion of twist motion and vertical motion to a member.

Further, preferably, the cam means includes a pin member which is eccentric with respect to the rotation axis of the shaft member and protrudes from a front end portion of the member, and the pin member is provided so as to be connected to the brush fixing member. it can.

[0007]

The mouth cleaning tool of the present invention is fixed to the brush fixing member by the cam means acting on the brush fixing member to twist and move up and down as the shaft member rotated by the electric drive source rotates. The combined motion of vertical and twist is applied to the interdental brush.

Further, when the pin member is provided, the pin member which is eccentric from the rotating shaft by the rotation of the shaft member makes a circular motion about the shaft rotating shaft. According to the horizontal movement and the vertical movement of the pin member with respect to the shaft rotation axis due to this circular movement, the brush fixing member which is orthogonal to the shaft member and is connected to the pin member is arranged in the horizontal direction around the fixing portion of the interdental brush. It reciprocates, and also reciprocates vertically.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the oral cleaning tool of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a front view of the oral cavity cleaning tool I as seen from the side. The oral cavity cleaning tool I includes a sheath portion 1 serving as a grip portion.
0 and a head portion 20 provided at a slight obtuse angle with respect to the sheath portion 10. The head portion 20 includes a head portion 20 a to which the interdental brush 40 is attached, and the head portion 20 a.
It is formed by a tubular body portion 20b extending from a to the sheath portion 10.

The sheath portion 10 accommodates an electric motor, a rechargeable battery (not shown) and the like inside, and a switch 11 for switching the motor is provided on the upper front portion so as to project outward. The head portion 20 has a mechanism for converting the rotational movement of the motor into a combined movement in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction and giving it to the interdental brush 40. This mechanism will be described in more detail below.

FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view of the head portion 20 of the oral cleaning tool I. The head portion 20 is provided with a head housing jacket 21 integrally formed as a casing for the head portion 20a and the body portion 20b, and the drive shaft 24 is rotated in the body portion 20b via a tubular cover 22 and a metal bearing 23. And a spindle 25 functioning as a brush fixing member for removably receiving and fixing a base end portion 41 of the interdental brush 40 or a collet chuck (not shown) on which the brush is mounted is disposed in the head 20a. It A front end portion 24 'of the drive shaft 24 is formed in a disk shape by expanding its diameter, and the pin member 2 is located at a position eccentric from the shaft rotation axis 24 "on the front surface of the front end portion 24'.
6 is provided so as to project forward. Spindle 25
As shown in the perspective view of FIG. 3, the cylindrical shape is a shape in which the diameter is reduced from upper to lower in three steps, and the hollow shaft portion 27 provided so as to penetrate along the central axis 27 ′ has an interdental space. Brush 4
It becomes a chuck holder that fixes 0 by press fitting. The parts of the spindle 25 having different diameters are specified as three parts from the upper part, that is, the upper part 25a, the intermediate part 25b, and the lower part 25c. Further, the spindle 25 has a hollow shaft portion 2
7 is formed in parallel with the axial direction 7 from the upper surface 25 ′ of the upper portion 25a to the vicinity of the lower end of the intermediate portion 25b, and the void 28 has a circular arc shape including its diameter in the intermediate portion 25b. It becomes a spindle groove 29 having a wall surface (see FIG. 4) in the vertical direction and appears to the outside. The ball 30 is accommodated in the spindle groove 29 from the upper surface 25 'through the void 28, and then the void 2 of the spindle upper portion 25a is accommodated.
8 is closed by a cylindrical lid member 28 '. The ball 30 installed in this way can slide vertically in the groove 29 in the intermediate portion 25b, the ball diameter is contained in the groove 29, and cannot escape to the outside. Further, the ball 30 has a cylindrical hole 31, and the hole 31 fits in the head housing jacket 21 with the pin member 26 projecting from the front surface of the drive shaft 24 with some play. The vertical length of the spindle groove 29 is determined by the front end 2 of the shaft.
It is about 2/3 of the diameter of 4 ', and is designed to be about twice the ball diameter. Further, the shaft rotation axis 24 ″ and the central axis 27 ′ of the spindle 25 are orthogonal to each other, and the spindle 25
Can slide in the jacket 21 in the vertical direction and can move in the circumferential direction around the hollow shaft portion 27.

In the oral cleaning tool I having the above structure, the base end portion 41 of the interdental brush is attached to the spindle hollow shaft portion 27.
Then, the switch 11 is turned on to operate the motor. The rotation of the motor is transmitted to the drive shaft 24 via a gear or the like (not shown), and the rotational movement of the shaft causes the pin member 26 to make a circular motion. Along with this circular movement, the spindle 25 that engages with the pin member 26 via the ball 30 in the groove 29 has a hollow shaft portion 27 as a rotation axis and a shaft rotation axis 24 ″ as a center of displacement in the horizontal direction. While performing a twisting motion as an arcuate right-and-left reciprocating motion, the lid member 2 on the spindle upper part 25a by the ball 30
As the bottom surface of 8'and the bottom surface of the spindle groove 29 are pushed up and down, they also move in the vertical direction. The movement of the spindle 25 will be further described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the direction ABCD of FIG. 2 (the head housing jacket 21 and the like are omitted). In this figure, the pin member 26 is located at the lowermost end of the front surface of the shaft front end portion 24 ',
While coming to a position at the same height as the shaft rotation axis 24 ″ by the circular movement of 0 degree, the spindle 25 rotates about the hollow shaft portion 27 in the horizontal direction by about 45 degrees (represented by a broken line). By the time the pin member 26 has reached the uppermost end by a further 90 degree circular movement, the spindle 25 has returned onto the shaft rotation axis 24 ″ in the horizontal direction. At the same time, the ball 30 is pressed to move upward (FIG. 5),
When the next pin member 26 slides 90 degrees, the spindle 25
Rotates about 45 degrees to the other in the horizontal direction and returns downward. Further rotation of the pin member 26 by 90 degrees causes the spindle 25 to rotate the shaft axis 24 ″ in the horizontal direction.
Return to the top again (Fig. 2). That is, the pin member 26 functions as a cam means for converting the rotational movement of the drive shaft 24 into the twist and vertical movement of the spindle 25. As described above, one rotation of the drive shaft 24 causes the spindle 25 to rotate.
Performs one twisting motion and one vertical motion in the horizontal direction. Therefore, the interdental brush 40 can continuously perform twisting and up-and-down composite movements in association with the movement of the spindle 25 due to the continuous rotation of the drive shaft 24.

[0015]

As described above, in the oral cleaning tool of the present invention, the shaft member, the brush fixing member, and the cam means for engaging these members can simultaneously apply the vertical movement and the twist movement to the interdental brush. Therefore, the interdental brush can be effectively brought into contact with any interdental void surface having any complicated shape, and the cleaning effect can be significantly enhanced. In particular, the twisting motion of the interdental brush can remove the plaque that has entered the subgingival part by scraping it up, so you can push the removed plaque into the periodontal pocket like a conventional manual interdental brush. Absent.

Further, since it is of an electric type, it can be used continuously without causing fatigue of the arms and the like, and it can be used fixedly by applying the tip of the tool body to the teeth, etc. Absent. Therefore, it can be easily used even for the elderly who have a remarkable change in the oral environment such as gingival recession, and it is particularly effective for oral hygiene in the current aging society.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of an oral cavity cleaning tool of the present invention viewed from the side.

FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view showing a head portion.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a spindle and a drive shaft.

FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view seen from above along the direction ABCD of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a schematic sectional view showing a head portion.

[Explanation of symbols]

 I Oral Cleaning Tool 24 Drive Shaft 24 'Front End 24 "Shaft Rotation Axis 25 Spindle 26 Pin Member 27 Hollow Shaft 27' Center Axis 29 Spindle Groove 30 Ball 31 Hole 40 Interdental Brush 41 Base End

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A handpiece-like oral cavity cleaning tool for giving motion to an interdental brush detachably attached to a brush fixing member orthogonal to the shaft member from an electric drive source through rotation of the shaft member, the oral cavity cleaning device comprising: An oral cavity characterized in that the cleaning tool includes cam means for engaging the shaft member and the brush fixing member, and the cam means gives the brush fixing member a combined motion of twist motion and vertical motion. Cleaning tools. 2. The oral cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the cam means includes a pin member which is eccentric with respect to the rotation axis of the shaft member and protrudes from a front end portion of the member, and the pin member is connected to the brush fixing member. Tools.