The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 28, 2000
Filed:
Mar. 12, 1998
Albert C Chen, East Brunswick, NJ (US);
Kenneth G Waguespack, North Brunswick, NJ (US);
Douglas J Hohlbein, West Trenton, NJ (US);
Colgate-Palmolive Company, New York, NY (US);
Abstract
A toothbrush having a novel bristle configuration and trim pattern is described. The bristles of the tufts are of varying lengths and are so arranged to form a concave shape resembling the shape of a rubber prophy cup used by dentists and hygienists for polishing teeth. The individual bristles are of varying length and so placed into or mounted in the head to yield tufts having the same concave shape but without the requirement for trimming the bristle ends. In a variant construction, the upper ends of a number of tufts are so contoured, either by trimming or by insertion of various length bristles, that each tuft upper end has a surface which is a portion of a larger concave surface. Thus in one type of arrangement each tuft has its own prophy brush shape at its upper end. In another type of arrangement there is only one prophy brush shape for the entire head, each tuft making its own partial contribution to the single prophy shape. In between these two arrangements, other arrangements are possible, with each subset of the total number of tufts defining a single prophy shape. The tufts may be single-bristle tufts, as well as the more common plural bristle tufts.