Background

Conventional toothbrushes come in various shapes and sizes with the bristles set on a straight horizontal plane to the handle. Some have various curvatures at the base of the head.

It is generally accepted that dentists keep stressing that front teeth be brushed with a vertical up and down movement rather than a horizontal or side-to-side movement.

The swivel toothbrush with the section with the bristles rotating through a 360-degree plane allows the tooth brush to be used for vertical brush movements when set at 90 degrees to the handle and horizontal movements when set along the line of the handle.

A swiveling head tooth brush, which can be used with the head in the traditional position and a second setting with the head perpendicular to the handle. Despite dentists constantly stressing that front teeth should be brushed up and down as opposed to side-to-side; traditional toothbrushes make the motion inconvenient. By having a swiveling head the process is made simple!

By sliding a toggle at the tip of the handle a spring-loaded mechanism is activated, which rotates the head by a 90-degree angle and clicks in place; thus aligning the head perpendicular to the handle. This allows the front teeth to be brushed in the recommended up and down motion as opposed to left to right which causes damage to the enamel, and does not clean plaque effectively.

D - I side on view - with bristles in horizontal slot

D - 2 side on view - with bristle head at 90 degrees to handle.

D — 3 topside view - Bristles head facing upwards in horizontal slot

D - 4 topside view - bristle head facing upwards 90 degrees to the handle.

The Swivel Head Tooth Brush with a rotating bristle head will be made using polypropylene for the handle and Dupont Nylon Tynex for the bristles. The spring- loaded mechanism will be similar to that of a pen and will be housed within the toothbrush handle.

The spring mechanism will be released on sliding a toggle on the toothbrush shaft, which will unload the spring and will orient the toothbrush to perpendicular to the handle. When the normal orientation is required the toggle can be slid back to its initial position which will cause the spring to load and re orient the toothbrush head back to its normal position.