When babies or infants are growing or “cutting” new teeth, it often leads to painful gums and general discomfort. Teethers are well known devices for offering relief for babies who are cutting new teeth by providing hard or semi hard surfaces for them to bite and chew on. A variety of teether shapes and designs are known in the art.
Generally, the biting surface of known teethers is U-shaped in order to match the profile of an infant's teeth and gums. The U-shaped biting surface is inserted into the infant's mouth and a handle, flange or other formation protrudes outside the mouth for safe insertion and removal of the teether.
One known teether is the “Gummy” teether, which is described in EP 1471869, Bellett Leasing Pty Limited. The Gummy teether has a U-shape biting surface which is wider and thicker at the extremities than at the axial centre of the U-shape, in the vicinity of the infant's front teeth. Different profiles of biting surface may be provided according to different embodiments of the Gummy teether, dependent on the age of the infant and thus the extent of development of the infant's teeth.
There are various problems associated with prior art teethers. As with the Gummy teether described above, prior art teethers are often designed so that different embodiments or product types are suitable for different respective development stages, according to the teeth that are protruding through the infant's gums. For example, usually the front incisor teeth are the first teeth to appear, with teeth further back in the mouth coming later. Therefore a U-shaped teething surface with uniform thickness is only useful for very early stages of development, before the front teeth have emerged. Once the front teeth have already grown into place, it is more suitable to use a soother embodiment which is thicker towards the back of the mouth than at the front, so that the infant's ability to bite on the teether at the back of the mouth is not impeded by the front teeth that have already formed.
It will be appreciated that using several different teethers during different development stages of an infant's teeth is inconvenient and cost ineffective. Furthermore, it is difficult to select the precise profile of teether that would be appropriate for an infant at any given point of their teeth development.
The invention is set out in the claims.
Because the mouthpiece of the teether includes a substantially U-shaped biting section having a central portion, wherein at least part of said central portion is resiliently collapsible upon application of pressure thereto during use of the teether by an infant, a flexible and variable teether is provided. If the infant has already developed teeth in the front of his or her mouth, in the vicinity of the central portion during use of the teether, at least part of the central portion will collapse in order to accommodate those front teeth whilst still enabling the infant to bite down on the rear portions formed by the arms of the U-shaped biting section. Because at least part of the central portion is resiliently collapsible, it will return to its uncollapsed state when the pressure thereon is released.
By providing a hollow formation in the central portion of the mouthpiece, resilient collapsibility can be achieved. The formation will not collapse merely due to being hollow, but will require some force or pressure to be applied thereto by infant teeth or gums. Therefore the teether is effective both for very early stages of tooth development when an infant has no front teeth, and in later stages when the front teeth are partly or fully developed.
By providing a support ring between the substantially U-shaped biting section and the exterior portion of the teether, a secure method of attaching the mouthpiece to the exterior portion is achieved. This is important to ensure that the mouthpiece does not become dislodged and form a choking hazard. Furthermore, since the support ring is made form a more rigid material than the substantially U-shaped biting section, the overall robustness and safety of the teether is enhanced.
By providing a layer of flexible material forming a surface of the teether against an infant's face during use, enhanced comfort is provided. Furthermore, by providing a groove, flex channel or undulation within the flexible material, improve flexibility and accommodation of infant mouth movement is provided.
Because the U-shaped biting section may comprise a protrusion, indentation or groove on the surface thereof, enhanced massaging and comforting effects are provided for the infant's gums.
By forming the exterior portion of the teether from a relatively rigid material, a secure anchor is provided for the teether, outside the infant's mouth, which cannot be swallowed by the infant. By providing holes in the exterior portion, this rigidity and resistance to collapse is combined with the goal of safely reducing hardness against the infant's face.
Hence a user friendly, safe and flexible teether is provided, which can be used during various stages of infant development to provide relief from discomfort for teething infants.
Embodiments will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the drawings, of which:
In overview, a teether is provided that enables an infant to obtain biting and chewing relief for gums during various stages of teeth development. In particular, the teether enables relief for gums at the back of the mouth without being impeded by the infant's front teeth that have already developed. This is achieved by providing a teether having a substantially U-shaped teething surface in which an area corresponding to the infant's front teeth is resiliently collapsible. As a result of this, the teether can be used for young infants in which the front teeth have not yet been cut, since an accessible, biteable surface is provided across the entire U-shape. The same teether can also be used at later stages of infant development, when the front teeth have already grown into place, since the presence of the front teeth can cause the collapsible area at the centre of the U-shape to collapse, hence not preventing the infant from biting down at the back of the mouth where tooth cutting is still in progress.
It is preferable to include as little rigid material in a teether 10 as possible, to minimise hardness against an infant's face. However, this must be balanced with the need to provide a sufficiently safe teether arrangement, which will not collapse into an infant's mouth, which would present a substantial safety hazard. The cap 12 shown in
The second part of the teether 10 as shown in
The relatively rigid support ring 22 is sized so as to fit together with the rigid plastic cap 12. The mouthpiece 18 and rigid cap 12 may be assembled together by any suitable means, for example using ultrasonic welding of the support ring 22 and the cap 12.
The mouthpiece itself as shown in
As can be seen from
In order to provide collapsibility of the central portion 26 of the U-shaped biting section 20, the neck 28 is cored out so that at least part of it is hollow. The remainder of the flexible material comprised within the mouthpiece 18 is solid. Although the neck 28 is made from relatively flexible material, it is still sufficiently rigid and self-supporting that it does not cave in on itself when no force is applied thereto. Instead, the neck 28 is arranged so that a biting force or other compression from infant teeth or gums will cause the neck 28 to flatten out in response to that force. When the force is released, the neck 28 returns to its unflattened configuration for future use. Therefore it is resiliently collapsible. In use, the central portion 26 of the U-shaped biting section 20 may be collapsed or compressed to varying degrees, dependent on the extent of development of the infant's front teeth and the force with which the infant bites or presses down thereon, and returned to its original configuration when the force is removed therefrom.
In order to provide flexibility and enhanced infant comfort, the relatively flexible material of the flexible membrane 30 preferably extends from the periphery of the support ring 22, and continues therefrom to form the U-shaped biting section 20 of the mouthpiece 18. The relatively rigid material of the support ring 22 does not touch the infant's face in such an embodiment. This arrangement ensures maximum comfort for the infant as the flexible membrane 30 of soft material is the only region to contact the infant's face in use. In addition, the flexible membrane 30 provides a “flex and stretch” effect which enhances infant comfort and serves to accommodate the natural movement of an infant's mouth during use of the teether. This “flex and stretch” effect is further described with respect to soother embodiments in earlier patent application number WO 2007/028971, in the name of Jackel International Limited. As can be seen from
The flexible material extending from the support ring 22 may be attached in any suitable manner. For example it may be clamped between the support ring 22 and the rigid cap 12, or may be ultrasonically welded to the support ring 22, or it may be adhered to the support ring using known over-moulding techniques.
Whilst
Other cavity shapes are also possible for teethers such as the one shown in
According to other variations, it is possible to make the cavity inside the relatively flexible mouthpiece of a teether asymmetric, to account for children whose top and bottom teeth do not develop at the same rate. The embodiments described herebelow include particular features in the lower section of the flexible mouthpiece but not in it upper section, but such features could be provided in the top and/or bottom sections of the teether without departing from the concepts embodied by the particular arrangements described herein. By providing a series of features on the bottom collapsible wall as shown in the soothers of
In the embodiment shown in
In the arrangement shown in
Any suitable shape or profile of grooves may be provided on or in a surface defining a cavity within the mouthpiece of a teether, in accordance with manufacturing and operational requirements for the teether. Furthermore, although three grooves are shown in
In the embodiment shown in
Although three slits are shown in each of
As an alternative, thickening ribs may be provided on the inner and/or outer surfaces of the upper and/or lower biting portions surrounding a cavity in the mouthpiece of a teether. The thickening ribs can be arranged so that they reduce collapsibility in certain regions of the teether whilst allowing other regions of the teether, which do not include thickening ribs and which may or may not include grooves or recesses therein, to flex easily and thus be more pliant than the thickened rib portions.
It is also possible to have thickening ribs on the inner surface which define a cavity within a teether. Such ribs can be provided with complementary grooves or recesses on an opposing side of the surface which defines the cavity. With such an arrangement, when a force is applied to the biting surfaces of the teether to press them together, for example when a child with incisors bites the teether, the strengthening ribs fit into the grooves or recesses and the child's gums will not feel unevenness or point pressure.
In all the teether embodiments described above, the U-shaped biting section 20 of the mouthpiece 18 may comprise any suitable surface texture. For example, as shown in
Whilst the teether has been described as having a rigid plastic cap it will be appreciated that any suitable rigid formation on the outer of the teether may be used. It may include a handle for easier removal and insertion of the device. The outer cap may be slightly domed, as shown in
Whilst a two part construction has been described herein, any suitable construction method may be used. The flexible mouthpiece material, the support ring and the outer cap may be made as a single entity, or may be manufactured in three or more parts and assembled together in any suitable manner.
Alternative Construction
Instead of manufacturing a teether in two parts as described above, it can be moulded as three separate parts as shown in
The three separate parts in such an arrangement are a shield 92, a shield cap 94 and a flexible mouthpiece 96. The shield 92 and shield cap 94 are relatively rigid whilst the mouthpiece 96 is relatively flexible and soft. In the embodiments shown in
In the embodiment shown in
As shown in
In the embodiments shown in
Variations
Whilst the biting portion of the teether has been described as being substantially “U-shaped”, it will be appreciated that any suitable shape which accommodates the profile of an infant's teeth and gums may be used. The purpose of the biting section is to provide a surface area in the mouth on which the infant can press down during teething, whilst at the same time fitting comfortably inside the infant's mouth and not posing any choking hazard or other safety risk. Therefore it is important that the biting section is connected securely to the rigid outer portions of the teether, which themselves should be sufficiently hard and large that they cannot be swallowed or inhaled.
In the embodiments described the collapsibility of certain portions of the U-shaped biting section is achieved by providing hollow, and hence compressible, formations of relatively flexible material therein. It will be appreciated that resilient or releasable collapsibility of portions of the teether may be achieved in other ways, for example by using a region of solid material of a different softness, having suitable elastic properties, in order to collapse and reform as appropriate during use. Alternatively or additionally, the formation may be only partially hollow, and/or may have supporting ribs to assist in the resilient compression and decompression of the formation. Alternatively or additionally, the formation may be cored out and have a sponge-like material therein, to assist with collapsing and reforming of the collapsible region of the mouthpiece. The hollow or compressible portions may be provided in any suitable portion of the flexible membrane which forms the mouthpiece of a teether—not just in the central portion or arms of a substantially U-shaped mouthpiece as described in detail herein.
Whilst a substantially U-shaped teether has been described herein, other teether shapes are possible without departing from the inventive concepts embodied in the particular arrangements shown and described herein. For example, a teether which includes discontinuities or gaps to accommodate an infant's teeth in certain regions of the mouth may be provided.
Whilst the methods of construction described herein have been applied to teethers, it will be appreciated that the same methods could be used to construct a soother in two or three parts. Like a teether, a soother comprises a relatively flexible portion or membrane which is trapped by and extends from one or more relatively rigid portions as described in detail hereabove. The relatively flexible portion in a soother is not used for teething but instead comprises a mouthpiece for an infant to suck on, to soothe the infant.
Hence a teether is provided which provides comfort and relief for an infant during various stages of teething. The infant can press down on the biting surface and the region of the teether located between the infant's front teeth or gums will collapse to a desired extent, so that biting and chewing pressure can be felt by the gums at the rear of the mouth, where the teeth are less developed. The teether is provided in a simple construction, using a minimal number of parts and avoiding very small parts that could pose a choking hazard. Preferably, the teether provides a soft, flexible surface next to the infant's skin, for enhanced comfort and accommodation of typical mouth movements during use. The teether can be constructed using a variety of techniques, in a straightforward, efficient and cost-effective manner.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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0922607 | Dec 2009 | GB | national |
This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/518,720 filed Jul. 26, 2012 which was a national stage filing of International Application Serial No. PCT/EP2010/070431 filed Dec. 21, 2010 which claims priority to Great Britain Application No. 0922607.7 filed Dec. 23, 2009, all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
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Parent | 13518720 | US | |
Child | 15351526 | US |