This invention relates to a teeth cleaning apparatus, especially a teeth cleaning apparatus and method that uses piezoelectric ceramic discs to generate cavitation bubbles that propagate upward and downward concurrently to reach the inner and outer surfaces of all upper teeth and lower teeth in similar distances.
The principles of the teeth cleaning device described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,236,889 has been in use for more than 40 years. A patient lays on his/her back, face up with mouth open; A hygienist directs such a device around the mouth to clean each tooth's surface areas. U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,594 introduces an ultrasonic scaler to augment the effectiveness of the cleaning efforts while the process remains about the same. An ultrasonic cleaner, unrelated to teeth cleaning, was revealed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,896,648 for industrial use and today can be seen used to fast cleaning of various articles including dentures. Taiwan patent number TW I-290460 uses such ultrasonic cleaning technology in a teeth cleaning apparatus. However, the fact that no such teeth cleaning products exist in the market is an evidence that such a design has some deficiencies. For example, vibrations generated by its ultrasonic vibrating elements are meant to agitate cleaning liquid above and below its hinged cleaner channels. However, the hinged cleaner channels are in contact with the vibration absorbing soft tissues of the user's inside surfaces of lips and cheeks. At the same time, the user must close his/her lips tight in order to keep cleaning liquid from leaking out of his/her mouth. This holding force direction is in the same direction as the vibrations generated by the ultrasonic vibrating elements. Therefore, ultrasonic vibrations are absorbed by the user's soft tissues of lips and cheeks. The end result totally defeats the purpose of the ultrasonic vibrating elements. There is room for improvement.
This invention embodies a teeth cleaning apparatus, comprising a mouthpiece, a transducer, a cleaning liquid supply unit and a power and control unit. Said mouthpiece comprises a containment wall, a hollow ingress connector and a vibrator holder. Said containment wall is a U-shaped structure. Said hollow ingress connector provides a passage through said containment wall. Said vibrator holder comprises a vibrator holder hole and a vibrator holder body, wherein said vibrator holder body is located near the center of said U-shaped containment wall and has a hollow body. Said vibrator holder hole is a hole through said vibrator holder body. Said transducer, which generates high frequency vibrations and is synonymous with a vibrator in this invention, comprises a stationary part and a vibratory part, wherein said stationary part is held in said vibrator holder for assembling with said mouthpiece and positioning said vibratory part near and surrounded by said containment wall. Said cleaning liquid supply unit comprises a cleaning liquid container, at least one connecting tube and a cleaning liquid delivery element, wherein said connecting tube is connected to said hollow ingress connector of said mouthpiece and said cleaning liquid delivery element delivers cleaning liquid in said cleaning liquid container through said connecting tube and said hollow ingress connector. Said power and control unit is connected to said transducer to provide electricity for operating said transducer at a frequency to generate cavitation bubbles to clean teeth.
In one embodiment of this invention, said transducer is a piezoelectric transducer.
In said one embodiment of this invention, said stationary part comprises a stationary end and a hollow bolt, and said transducer comprises a transducer body, a first lid, a first piezoelectric disc, a second lid and a second piezoelectric disc wherein said transducer body has a void space and said first piezoelectric disc and said second piezoelectric disc are positioned in said void space of said transducer body.
In said one embodiment of this invention, ultrasonic vibrations from said first piezoelectric disc and said second piezoelectric can pass through said first lid and said second lid, respectively, to agitate said cleaning liquid surrounding said transducer so as to generate cavitation bubbles that propagate upward and downward concurrently from the external surfaces of said first lid and said second lid, to reach the inner and outer surfaces of all upper teeth and lower teeth in similar distances.
In another embodiment of this invention, said containment wall has short flanges along its edges.
In another embodiment of this invention, said transducer is an electro-mechanical vibrator.
In another embodiment of this invention, said transducer is a mechanical vibrator.
In another embodiment of this invention, said cleaning liquid delivery element is a pump.
In another embodiment of this invention, said cleaning liquid delivery element is a gravity driven element.
This invention describes a teeth cleaning method using a teeth cleaning apparatus as said first embodiment of this invention in cleaning a user's teeth, comprising:
Partially inserting said mouthpiece in a user's mouth, positioning said vibratory part of said transducer in the user's work cavity and the bottom area of said containment wall of said mouthpiece below the user's mouth opening so as to keep said cleaning liquid inside the user's work cavity;
Using said cleaning liquid supply unit to deliver said cleaning liquid supply into the user's work cavity until a cleaning liquid level higher than all teeth of the user;
And then, turning on said power and control unit to operate said transducer to vibrate and thus generate cavitation bubbles to clean all teeth of the user submerged in said cleaning liquid in the user's work cavity below said cleaning liquid level.
Referring to an embodiment described below will explain the purpose, technical merit and effectiveness of this invention.
The inventor has spent multiple years in researching issues with teeth cleaning with ultrasonic devices to improve shortcomes of existing technologies. Descriptions below explains how this invention improves the effectiveness of a teeth cleaning apparatus.
Refer to
To use Teeth Cleaning Unit 100 in a user's work cavity, Teeth Cleaning Unit 100, including Mouthpiece 110 and Transducer 120, is connected to Cleaning Liquid Supply Unit 303 and Power And Control Unit 305 shown in
Mouthpiece 110 is an injection molded component with many functional areas including U-shaped Containment Wall 111, Hollow Ingress Tube Connector 112, Vibrator Holder VHR (including Vibrator Holder Body 113 with Vibrator Holder Hole 114 inside), Upper Range 115 along one edge of Containment Wall 111, Tongue Guard 116 and Lower Flange 117 along the other edge of Containment Wall 111, Hollow Ingress Tube Connector 112 is located on the outside of Containment Wall 111 and has a passage through Containment Wall 111. Tongue Guard 116 is surrounded by U-shaped Containment Wall 111.
As a component of Teeth Cleaner Unit 100, Transducer 120 is described below about its functional areas. Refer to
To assemble Teeth Cleaner Unit 100, Stationary End 121 of Transducer 120 is first inserted into Vibrator Holder Hole 114 of Containment Wall 111, with First Wires 124A, Second Wires 124B and Hollow Bolt 123 extended below Vibrator Holder Body 113. Washer 130 and Nut 140 are then applied to Hollow Bolt 123 through Vibrator Holder Hole 114 to secure Transducer 120 tightly against the bottom of Holder Body 113 which has a smaller diameter than Stationary End 121. The resulting Teeth Cleaner Unit 100 is shown in 4 different views in
Refer to
Refer to
Containment Wall 111 of Mouthpiece 110 is partially inserted into a user's mouth between his/her outer gums surfaces and internal surfaces of his/her lips and cheeks, forming Work Cavity 301 surrounding his/her teeth (not drawn to avoid cluttering) and Transducer 120 (of which only the top of Transducer Body 122 is drawn.) Upper Flange 115 and Lower Flange 117 (both not drawn and will be explained in
Connecting Tube 302 connects Hollow Ingress Tube Connector 112 of Mouthpiece 110 to Cleaning Liquid Supply Unit 303 and serves as a conduit for delivering cleaning liquid from Cleaning Liquid Supply Unit 303 into Work Cavity 301. Cleaning Liquid Supply Unit 303 comprises Cleaning Liquid Container 303A, Connecting Tube 302 and Cleaning Liquid Delivery Element 303B that can be turned on and off to deliver cleaning liquid into Work Cavity 301 via Connecting Tube 302 and Ingress Tube Connector 112. In embodiments of the present invention, Cleaning Liquid Delivery Element 303B can be a pump driven element or a gravity driven element. Cleaning Liquid Delivery Element 303B can also be installed inside Cleaning Liquid Container 303A.
Electric Wires 304 are connected to Power And Control Unit 305 to deliver electric power via First Wires 124A and Second Wires 124E to Transducer 110 which is inside Work Cavity 301 and only the top portion of Transducer Body 122 is drawn in
The user turns on Cleaning Liquid Delivery Element 303B (which is a pump in one embodiment of this invention) of Cleaning Liquid Supply Unit 303 to fill cleaning liquid in Work Cavity 301 up to liquid level 306 so as to partially submerge tongue 307 and totally submerge all of his/her teeth, which will be illustrated in
Refer to
First Piezoelectric Disc 126A and Second Piezoelectric Disc 126B are affixed to the inside surfaces of First Lid 125A and Second Lid 1253, respectively, with high strength epoxy so as to ensure ultrasonic vibrations generated by First Piezoelectric Disc 126A and Second Piezoelectric Disc 126B can be passed to the external surfaces of First Lid 125A and SecondLid 125B, respectively. First Lid 125A and Second Lid 125B are fixed to the internal surfaces of Transducer Body 122 in Void Space 1221. Ultrasonic vibrations of First Piezoelectric Disc 126A and Second Piezoelectric Disc 126E can generate cavitation bubbles on external surfaces of First Lid 125A and SecondLid 125B, Tongue Guard 116 keeps tongue 307 from touching Second Lid 125B held in Transducer Body 122. Upper Flange 115 is in contact with the user's upper gum 401. Upper teeth 402 are totally submerged in cleaning liquid below liquid level 306. Upper teeth 402 are also located close to First Lid 125A, Lower Flange 117 is in contact with the user's lower gum which is not drawn to avoid cluttering, Lower teeth 502, also not drawn to avoid cluttering, are totally submerged in cleaning liquid below liquid level 306. Lower teeth 502 are also located close to the external surface of Second Lid 125B held in Transducer Body 122. Cavitation bubbles generated by ultrasonic vibrations of First Piezoelectric Disc 126A and Second Piezoelectric Disc 126E at the external surfaces of First Lid 125A and Second Lid 125B can propagate over similar distances to reach both inside and outside surfaces of all upper teeth 402 and all lower teeth 502 and achieve similar cleaning efficacy.
Refer to
In
Refer to
When power is applied, First Piezoelectric Disc 126A and Second Piezoelectric Disc 126B affixed to the inside surface of First Lid 125A and Second Lid 125B, respectively, (which in turn are fixed to Transducer Body 122) vibrate along the axle directions of First Piezoelectric Disc 126A and Second Piezoelectric Disc 126B. The vibration direction is perpendicular to the center line of Center Hole 604, or, the direction of force holding together Transducer Body 122 and Stationary End 121. Therefore, the force holding Transducer 120 onto Mouthpiece 110 does not impede the vibrations of First Piezoelectric Disc 126A and Second Piezoelectric Disc 126B and the ultrasonic cleaning efficacy is greatly improved upon prior arts.
In addition, the above described embodiment of this invention reveals a new method for using Teeth Cleaning Unit 100 in a face-down posture when cleaning teeth. Refer to
Step S710 Partially inserting said mouthpiece in a user's mouth, positioning said vibratory part of said transducer in the user's work cavity and the bottom area of said containment wall of said mouthpiece below the user's mouth opening so as to keep said cleaning fluid inside the user's work cavity;
Step S720 Using said cleaning fluid supply unit to deliver said cleaning fluid supply into the user's work cavity until a cleaning fluid level higher than all teeth of the user;
Step S730 Turning on said power and control unit to operate said transducer to vibrate and thus generate cavitation bubbles to clean all teeth of the user submerged in said cleaning fluid in the user's work cavity below said cleaning fluid level.
What has been described in detail above are sample embodiments of the present invention and shall not be interpreted as limitations of this invention.
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 17/219,843 filed on Mar. 31, 2021 and titled “Teeth Cleaner and System” which is expressly incorporated by reference herein in its entirety for all purposes.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 17219843 | Mar 2021 | US |
Child | 17875110 | US |