Device for encouraging children to brush their teeth regularly
First Claim
1. A device for aiding and encouraging a child to brush his teeth, comprising;
- a mounting frame;
a pair of shafts nonrotatably mounted by said mounting frame;
a plurality of independently and individually rotatable, spaced-apart blocks each mounted for independent and separate rotation about a respective one of said pair of shafts;
each said shaft being mounted horizontally by said mounting frame, said shafts being mounted parallel to each other and vertically spaced apart;
each said shaft mounting a plurality of said blocks for said independent and individual rotation in spaced-apart relationship;
said blocks thus defining a first row and a second row, said rows being positioned very close to each other; and
each said block comprising an upper concave exterior surface and a lower concave exterior surface, so that the first row of blocks may be positioned very close to said second row of blocks and allow for the independent and separate rotation of each block with respect to the juxtapositioned block in the other row;
each said block having a front surface face and a rear surface face;
each said front surface face comprising a printed design forming a portion of a frowning mouth; and
each said rear surface comprising a printed design forming a portion of a smiling mouth.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A device for aiding and encouraging a child to brush his or her teeth regularly. The device is provided with a pair of nonrotatable shafts each of which mounts seven rotatable blocks shaped like a molar tooth, each block representing either the morning or night of a particularly day during which a child should brush his teeth. The front surface faces of the blocks form a frowning mouth with dirty teeth, while the rear surface faces form a pattern of a smiling mouth with white teeth after all of the blocks have been rotated 180 degrees. Each block is rotated to expose a portion of the smile and to remove a portion of the frown after each tooth brushing in the morning and evening of each day.
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Citations
11 Claims
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1. A device for aiding and encouraging a child to brush his teeth, comprising;
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a mounting frame; a pair of shafts nonrotatably mounted by said mounting frame; a plurality of independently and individually rotatable, spaced-apart blocks each mounted for independent and separate rotation about a respective one of said pair of shafts; each said shaft being mounted horizontally by said mounting frame, said shafts being mounted parallel to each other and vertically spaced apart;
each said shaft mounting a plurality of said blocks for said independent and individual rotation in spaced-apart relationship;
said blocks thus defining a first row and a second row, said rows being positioned very close to each other; andeach said block comprising an upper concave exterior surface and a lower concave exterior surface, so that the first row of blocks may be positioned very close to said second row of blocks and allow for the independent and separate rotation of each block with respect to the juxtapositioned block in the other row; each said block having a front surface face and a rear surface face;
each said front surface face comprising a printed design forming a portion of a frowning mouth; and
each said rear surface comprising a printed design forming a portion of a smiling mouth.
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2. A device for aiding and encouraging a child to brush his teeth, comprising:
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end column means; a pair of shaft means nonrotatably mounted by said end column means; a plurality of indepently and individually rotatable, a spaced-apart block means each mounted for independent and separate rotation about a respective one of said pair of shafts means; each said shafts means being mounted horizontally by said end column means, said shafts means being mounted parallel to each other and vertically spaced apart;
each said shaft means mounting a plurality of said blocks means for said independent and individual rotation in spaced-apart relationship;each said shaft means comprising a central longitudinal section, and a plurality of pairs of circular disc means spaced apart along said central section, each said disc means having a diameter greater than diametric extension of said central longtudinal section;
each said pair of disc means positioning therebetween at least a portion of a respective said block means to prevent movement of said respective said block means therepast, each said pair of disc means retaining the respective said block means in spaced relationship from an adjoining said block means;each said block means further comprising a hollow interior in which is received a respective said pair of disc means. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. The method of encouraging and aiding a child to brush his teeth, in which there is provided a device having a plurality of independently rotatable block members with each block member defining a front surface face and a rear surface face, each front surface face having formed thereon a portion of a mouth design shaped as a frown, or the like, and each rear surface face having formed thereon a portion of a mouth design shaped as a smile, or the like, wherein said method comprises:
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arranging all of the front surface faces in approximately the same vertical plane so that the frown design is completed and visible from the front; rotating an end-most one of the block members after a child brushes his teeth at the beginning of a brushing cycle to replace a portion of the frown design with a portion of the smile design; rotating another block member next to the endmost block member after the same child has brushed his teeth at the end of the first interval of said brushing cycle; rotating the next-to-be-rotated block member after the same child has brushed his teeth at the end of the second interval of said brushing cycle to replace still another portion of the frown design with the smile design; and rotataing each remaining block member after the same child has brushed his teeth at the end of each subsequent time interval, respectively, in progression, until, at the end of said brushing cycle, all of the rear surfaces having the smile design now face frontward to display a complete smile.
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Specification