Oral care implement

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11266226-B2
Application number	US-201816616187-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 13, 2018
Priority date	Dec 13, 2018
Publication date	Mar 8, 2022
Grant date	Mar 8, 2022

Abstract

An oral care implement having a head with a bristle bearing surface. The oral care implement may include a central bristle tuft extending from a central portion of the bristle bearing surface, the central bristle tuft terminating in a domed distal surface. Furthermore, the oral care implement may include a plurality of perimetric bristle tufts extending from the bristle bearing surface and arranged to circumferentially surround the central bristle tuft. Each of the perimetric bristle tufts may have an inclined distal surface that slopes downward towards the central bristle tuft. The bristle bearing surface of the head may have a total surface area (TSA), and the toothbrush may include a tooth cleaning element field having X number of tooth cleaning elements that collectively occupy a total cleaning element area (TCEA) such that1X×T⁢C⁢E⁢AT⁢S⁢A=Zand Z is in a range of 0.04 to 0.065.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An oral care implement comprising:
a head extending along a longitudinal axis and having a bristle bearing surface, a rear surface opposite the bristle bearing surface, and a side surface extending between the bristle bearing surface and the rear surface;
a central bristle tuft extending from a central portion of the bristle bearing surface, the central bristle tuft terminating in a domed distal surface; and
a plurality of perimetric bristle tufts arranged to circumferentially surround the central bristle tuft, each of the plurality of perimetric bristle tufts comprising an inclined distal surface that slopes downward toward the central bristle tuft;
wherein the central bristle tuft has a transverse cross-sectional area that occupies between 5% to 15% of the total surface area of the bristle bearing surface, and wherein each of the plurality of perimetric bristle tufts occupies less than 9% of a total surface area of the bristle bearing surface.

2. The oral care implement according to claim 1 wherein the central bristle tuft is formed by a plurality of first bristles having a first root diameter and each of the plurality of perimetric bristle tufts is formed by a plurality of second bristles having a second root diameter, wherein the first root diameter is less than the second root diameter.

3. The oral care implement according to claim 1 wherein each of the perimetric bristle tufts is immediately adjacent the central bristle tuft and immediately adjacent an outer perimeter of the bristle bearing surface.

4. The oral care implement according to claim 1 wherein the central bristle tuft extends along a central tuft axis, the domed distal surface of the central bristle tuft having an apex located along the central tuft axis, wherein the central tuft axis is located at an intersection of the longitudinal axis of the head and a transverse axis of the head.

5. The oral care implement according to claim 1 wherein the central bristle tuft has an elliptical transverse cross-sectional profile having a major axis and a minor axis, the major axis extending along the longitudinal axis of the head.

6. The oral care implement according to claim 1 further comprising
the central bristle tuft having a sidewall that intersects the domed distal surface to form an outer edge of the domed distal surface, the central bristle tuft having a first height at the outer edge of the domed distal surface;
each of the plurality of perimetric bristle tufts comprising an inner sidewall that intersects the inclined distal surface to form an inner edge of the inclined distal surface and an outer sidewall opposite the inner sidewall that intersects the inclined distal surface to form an outer edge of the inclined distal surface;
each of the plurality of perimetric bristle tufts having a second height at the inner edge and a third height at the outer edge; and
wherein the second height is less than the first height, and the first height is less than the third height.

7. The oral care implement according to claim 1 further comprising:
each of the plurality of perimetric bristle tufts comprising an inner sidewall and an outer sidewall opposite the inner sidewall that intersects the inclined distal surface to form an outer edge of the inclined distal surface;
each of the plurality of perimetric bristle tufts having a second height at the inner edge and a third height at the outer edge; and
wherein the second height is less than the third height.

8. The oral care implement according to claim 7 wherein each of the plurality of perimetric bristle tufts comprises a convex first-side sidewall and a concave second-side sidewall opposite the convex first-side sidewall, each of the convex first-side and concave second-side sidewalls extending between the inner and outer sidewalls, and wherein for each of the plurality of perimetric bristle tufts, the convex first-side sidewall opposes the concave second-sidewall of an adjacent one of the plurality of perimetric bristle tufts.

9. The oral care implement according to claim 1 wherein there are no more than ten of the perimetric bristle tufts.

10. An oral care implement comprising:
a head extending along a longitudinal axis and having a bristle bearing surface, a rear surface opposite the bristle bearing surface, and a side surface extending between the bristle bearing surface and the rear surface;
a central bristle tuft extending from a central portion of the bristle bearing surface, the central bristle tuft terminating in a domed distal surface; and
a plurality of perimetric bristle tufts arranged to circumferentially surround the central bristle tuft, each of the plurality of perimetric bristle tufts comprising an inclined distal surface that slopes downward toward the central bristle tuft;
wherein the plurality of perimetric bristle tufts comprises a first perimetric bristle tuft having a first transverse cross-sectional profile, a second perimetric bristle tuft having a second transverse cross-sectional profile, a third perimetric bristle tuft having a third transverse cross-sectional profile, a fourth perimetric bristle tuft having a fourth transverse cross-sectional profile, a fifth perimetric bristle tuft having the first transverse cross-sectional profile, a sixth perimetric bristle tuft having the second transverse cross-sectional profile, a seventh perimetric bristle tuft having the third transverse cross-sectional profile, and an eight perimetric bristle tuft having the fourth transverse cross-sectional profile; and wherein the plurality of perimetric bristle tufts are circumferentially arranged around the central bristle tuft in a clockwise order of the first perimetric bristle tuft, the second perimetric bristle tuft, the third perimetric bristle tuft, the fourth perimetric bristle tuft, the fifth perimetric bristle tuft, the sixth perimetric bristle tuft, the seventh perimetric bristle tuft, and the eight perimetric bristle tuft.

11. The oral care implement according to claim 1 wherein no plane exists that is perpendicular to the front and rear surfaces of the head and that passes through a gap between adjacent ones of the perimetric bristle tufts on a first side of the longitudinal axis and a gap between adjacent ones of the perimetric bristle tufts on a second side of the longitudinal axis without intersecting at least one of the perimetric bristle tufts.

12. The oral care implement according to claim 1 wherein any plane that is perpendicular to the front and rear surfaces of the head that passes through a gap between adjacent ones of the perimetric bristle tufts located on one side of the longitudinal axis without intersecting the adjacent ones of the perimetric bristle tufts located on the one side of the longitudinal axis intersects the central bristle tuft and one of the perimetric bristle tufts on the other side of the longitudinal axis.

13. The oral care implement according to claim 1 wherein adjacent ones of the perimetric bristle tufts are spaced apart by an arcuate shaped gap.

Assignees

• Colgate Palmolive Co

Inventors

• Xie Fan Gang
• Xi Wen Jin
• Ji Yanmei
• Zhou Jiang
• Hohlbein Douglas

Classifications

• A46D1/0276

  Bristles having pointed ends · CPC title

• A46B9/028

  Bristle profile, the end of the bristle defining a surface other than a single plane or deviating from a simple geometric form, e.g. cylinder, sphere or cone · CPC title

• A46B9/04 Primary

  {Arranged like in or} for toothbrushes · CPC title

• A46B2200/1066

  Toothbrush for cleaning the teeth or dentures (A61C17/16 takes precedence; bristles arrangements for toothbrushes A46B9/04) · CPC title

• A46D1/08

  Preparing uniform tufts of bristles · CPC title