An electric toothbrush that detects plaque on the teeth, ensures accurate plaque detection, and performs cleaning of plaque. The electric toothbrush may include a drive module having a first drive for oscillating a brush unit in a first direction and a second drive for oscillating the brush unit in a second direction; a light emitting module; a reflected light detector; a plaque detector for detecting plaque based on reflected light detected by the reflected light detector; a liquid spray part for spraying liquid from the brush unit; and a liquid spray controller for controlling a spray timing of the liquid. The liquid spray controller may spray the liquid when the amount of plaque detected by the plaque detector exceeds a threshold. The drive module may stop the first drive and perform only the second drive while the liquid is being sprayed.

A powered toothbrush includes a plurality of rows of bristle tufts that project through a perforated top shell of a hollow toothbrush head. Ends of individual bristles are held in buckets to form the tufts and the bristle ends opposite the bucketed ends are free (where the opposite ends contact the toothbrush user's teeth). The bucketed ends of the bristle tufts are captured within the internal space within the head but are not fixedly attached to any other toothbrush component or structure. This non-fixed attachment feature enables the bristle tufts to have multiple degrees of freedom (DoF) of motion with respect to the perforations in the top shell and can rotate, move axially, and tilt.

The power toothbrush includes a brushhead arm (36) and a brush element (38) at a distal end thereof. A V-spring assembly (14) converts the movement of a power drive assembly in a back-and-forth movement. A mounting member (55) at the rear end of the V-spring assembly provides a base for a magnet (56). The back end of the V-spring assembly is displaced in accordance with pressure applied to the brush member. A Hall effect sensor (58) is mounted within the changing magnetic field produced by the magnet as the rear end of the V-spring assembly is displaced due to pressure on the brushhead. A processor (65) is responsive to the output from the Hall sensor and provides an indication when the pressure exceeds a threshold value.

A toothbrush head for an electric toothbrush, comprising a toothbrush head handle (1); a first plate (4) is arranged below the toothbrush head handle (1); and a first bristle sheet (9) and a second bristle sheet (8) are longitudinally arranged below the first plate (4). Tooth cleaning demands of people different in oral cavity and tooth size can be satisfied by means of surrounding effects of the three-sided bristles and self-adaptive effects of automatic bristle fitting along with thickness changes from front teeth to molars.

An oral care implement having a housing, a functional element mounted at the housing for driven oscillatory rotation relative to the housing around a rotation axis, at least one rocking lever that is on a first end pivotably supported at the housing at an essentially fixed position that is eccentric with respect to the rotation axis and the rocking lever is on a second end coupled with the functional element at a position eccentric with respect to the rotation axis such that the functional element carries the second end of the rocking lever along when it is driven into oscillatory rotation around the rotation axis, while the first end of the rocking lever is kept at its fixed position at the housing.

An electric toothbrush that detects plaque on the teeth, ensures accurate plaque detection, and performs cleaning of plaque. The electric toothbrush may include a body having a gripping part and a stem with a brush unit detachably coupled to the body. The electric toothbrush may include a light emitting element for emitting light onto the tooth and a light receiving element for receiving light that reflects off of the tooth. A controller may be included to determine an amount of plaque on the tooth based on the amount of reflected light detected. The electric toothbrush may also include a fluid dispensing system that dispenses fluid based on the amount of reflected light detected. In some aspects, the electric toothbrush may operate in multiple oscillation modes, and it may only dispense fluid in some of the modes but not all of the modes.

A device for brushing teeth having multiple brushes that provide rotary and/or oscillating motion. The device has a right lateral brush, a left lateral brush, and an upper brush. Each of the three brushes is connected to, and driven by, a respective supporting rod. Each of the supporting rods is driven by a respective gear. The device includes a motor or engine for generating rotational movement which is transferred to each of the gears by a transmission. The transmission is configured to simultaneously provide both rotary and lateral movement to the brushes, thereby creating an oscillating motion.

Systems and methods of generating sweeping and/or tapping motions in an oral cleaning device such as a power toothbrush device to perform optimally at all target areas of the user's mouth. The systems and methods are configured to periodically move a drivetrain shaft in a first direction about a central axis of the device or along a line that is tangential to a cleaning unit of the device, and periodically drive the drivetrain shaft in a second direction, different from the first direction, so that a set of cleaning elements that are attached to the cleaning unit move in a vertical up-down motion. The systems and methods are further configured to dynamically modify an output of the drivetrain assembly to target different areas of the user's mouth.

A power toothbrush device (100) including a brush head member (104) having bristles and a drivetrain assembly (400, 800) having a drivetrain shaft (124, 824) configured to drive the brush head member. The drivetrain assembly includes a resonator (410, 810) configured to rotate about a central axis (A) to move the bristles in a first movement pattern; a resilient member (420, 820); a magnet (700A, 700B, 830A, 830B) connected with the resonator; and a conductor (710A, 710B, 840A, 840B). As the resonator rotates and the magnet moves toward the conductor in a first direction, a force is generated upon the magnet in a second direction that is opposite the first direction, and the force generated upon the magnet thereby causes a rotation of the resilient member about a second axis that is different than the central axis.

A power toothbrush device (100) including a brush head member (104) having a set of bristles (116); a body portion (102) coupled with the brush head member; and a drivetrain assembly (122). The drivetrain assembly includes an actuator (840) configured to generate periodic linear movement and a drivetrain shaft (124, 824) configured to transmit the generated periodic linear movement to the brush head member. The set of bristles are configured to be driven in a first direction (TM) at an amplitude equal to or greater than 0.25 mm and less than 3 mm and a frequency equal to or greater than 0.25 Hz and less than 520 Hz in the first direction. The drivetrain shaft is further configured to periodically rotate the set of bristles in a second direction (SM) about a central axis of the power toothbrush device.