WO2012144596A1

WO2012144596A1 - Tongue-cleaning tool

Info

Publication number: WO2012144596A1
Application number: PCT/JP2012/060715
Authority: WO
Inventors: 直鳥越; 純一鹿野
Original assignee: 小林製薬株式会社
Priority date: 2011-04-22
Filing date: 2012-04-20
Publication date: 2012-10-26
Also published as: JP5812664B2; JP2012228281A

Abstract

[Problem] The invention addresses the problem of providing a tongue-cleaning tool capable of thoroughly removing tongue plaque without causing pain to the user. [Solution] The tongue-cleaning tool (1) is equipped with a handle (2), a connecting part (3) that extends from the handle (2), and a head (4) provided on the tip of the connecting part (3). The head (4) comprises a base (41) that extends from the connecting part (3) and a tongue plaque-removing part (42) formed on the upper surface of the base (41). The Shore A hardness of the tongue plaque-removing part (42) is 10 - 35. The connecting part (3) has an elasticity such that when the handle (2) is fixed and a load of 1 N is applied in a direction perpendicular to the tongue plaque-removing part (42), the range of motion of the tongue plaque-removing part (42) is 5 - 10 mm.

Description

Tongue cleaning tool

The present invention relates to a tongue cleaning tool for removing tongue coating adhering to the tongue surface.

Since food residue and bacteria in the mouth attached to the surface of the tongue (tongue moss) cause bad breath, various tongue cleaning tools for removing the tongue moss have been proposed. For example, in the tongue cleaning tool proposed in Patent Document 1, two plates are provided on the front end side of the gripping hand, and the tongue cleaning tool is moved so as to rub the surface of the tongue with the plates pressed against the tongue. Gather tongue coating on the surface of the tongue to remove tongue coating.

Japanese Patent No. 4275299

However, since the plate for rubbing the tongue in the above tongue cleaning tool is made of plastic, the user feels pain when rubbing the tongue. For this reason, there was a problem that the user could not rub the tongue surface with sufficient force and the tongue coating could not be removed sufficiently. Then, this invention makes it a subject to provide the tongue cleaning tool which can fully remove tongue coating, without making a user feel pain.

The tongue cleaning tool according to the present invention includes a gripping part, a connecting part extending from the gripping part, and a head part provided at a tip of the connecting part, and the head part is a base extending from the connecting part. And a tongue coating removing portion formed on one surface of the base portion, the tongue coating removing portion has a Shore A hardness of 10 to 35, and the connecting portion fixes the gripping portion. In this state, when a load of 1 N is applied to the tongue coating removal part in the vertical direction, the tongue coating removal part has elasticity so that the movable range of the tongue coating removal part is 5 to 10 mm.

According to the tongue cleaning tool of the present invention, the tongue coating removing portion that rubs the tongue to remove tongue coating has a Shore A hardness of 10 to 35, so that even if the tongue surface is rubbed with a strong force, the user does not hurt. The tongue surface can be rubbed with a sufficiently strong force without feeling, and the tongue coating can be sufficiently removed. In addition, since the connecting portion that connects the gripping portion and the head portion has elasticity as described above, the tongue coating removal unit can be pressed firmly against the tongue, and the tongue coating can be sufficiently removed. It is also possible to prevent the tongue coating removal part from being pressed too much against the tongue.

If the tongue coating removal part is formed with the hardness as described above, the tongue coating removal part may not be sufficiently fused to the base part when the tongue coating removal part is formed on the base part by injection molding or the like. . However, the tongue coating removal part covers the one surface of the base part and has a structure in which the periphery is folded back and extends to the other surface, whereby the tongue coating removal part can be firmly attached to the base part. it can. Moreover, since the tongue coating removal part has covered the periphery of the base part, it can prevent peeling from the peripheral part which is easy to occur.

In addition, at least one of a groove, a through hole, and an engaging protrusion can be formed on the tongue coating side of the base portion, and this structure increases the adhesion area between the base portion and the tongue coating removal portion. The tongue coating removal part can be firmly attached to the base part. In addition, it is preferable to form so that a groove | channel may extend in the length direction of a tongue cleaning tool, ie, the direction which cross | intersects the operation | movement direction of a tongue cleaning tool.

Further, the tongue coating removal part has a linear protrusion extending in the width direction, and a rod-like protrusion that is formed closer to the connecting part than the linear protrusion and formed higher than the linear protrusion. You can also. According to this configuration, after the tongue moss is loosened and scraped off with the rod-like protrusions, the scraped tongue moss can be scraped up by the linear protrusions, and the rod-like protrusions are formed higher. At this time, the rod-like protrusion can be reliably applied to the tongue prior to the linear protrusion, and the tongue coating can be sufficiently removed. Note that the rod-shaped protrusions can be, for example, conical protrusions or triangular pyramidal protrusions.

Moreover, it is preferable to integrally form the connecting portion and the base portion.

Also, the tongue coating removal part can be formed so as to be heat-sealed to the base part by injection molding.

Further, the tongue coating removal part can be formed from at least one selected from the group consisting of a thermoplastic elastomer, a silicone resin, a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer, and rubber, and is preferably formed of a thermoplastic elastomer. Examples of rubber include natural rubber (NR), isoprene rubber (IR), butadiene rubber (BR), styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), nitrile rubber (NBR), and ethylene propylene rubber (EPDM). .

In addition, from the viewpoint of firmly attaching the tongue coating removing part to the base part, the tongue cleaning tool includes a gripping part, a connecting part extending from the gripping part, and a head part provided at a tip of the connecting part. The head part has a base part extending from the connecting part, and a tongue coating removing part formed of a thermoplastic elastomer on one surface of the base part, the tongue coating removing part, While covering the one surface of a base part, it can be set as the structure by which the periphery is turned up and it extended to the other surface.

According to the present invention, a tongue cleaning tool that can sufficiently remove tongue coating without causing the user to feel pain can be provided.

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a tongue cleaning tool according to the present embodiment. FIG. 2 is a side view of the tongue cleaning tool according to the present embodiment. FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the tongue cleaning tool according to the present embodiment. FIG. 4 is a plan view of the tongue cleaning tool in which the description of the tongue coating removing unit according to this embodiment is omitted. FIG. 5 is a side view of the tongue cleaning tool according to the present embodiment, and shows the direction of the load applied to the connecting portion.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the tongue cleaning tool according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In this specification, the left side of FIG. 1 is “front end”, the right side is “rear end”, the front side of the page is “up”, the back side of the page is “down”, the left and right direction is “length direction”, The direction is referred to as the “width direction”.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the tongue cleaning tool 1 includes a grip portion 2, a connecting portion 3 extending from the tip of the grip portion 2, and a head portion 4 provided at the tip of the connecting portion 3. Yes.

The grip portion 2 is a portion that is gripped by the user when using the tongue cleaning tool 1, such that the central portion in the longitudinal direction of both side portions is curved in a concave shape or becomes thinner as it goes to the rear end. As a shape, it is easy for the user to grip. The gripping part 2 is a plastic such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, AS resin, ABS resin, methacrylic resin, polytetrafluoroethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polyacetal, polyamide, nylon, polycarbonate, modified polyphenylene ether, polybutylene terephthalate, polyethylene terephthalate, etc. Can be formed. In addition, it is preferable to form the holding | grip part 2 integrally with the connection part 3 and the base part 41 which are mentioned later by injection molding.

The connecting portion 3 extends integrally from the tip of the grip portion 2 and is thinner than the grip portion 2. As shown by the arrow in FIG. 5, the connecting portion 3 is located 8 mm (center in the width direction) from the tip of the tongue coating removing portion 42 in a state where the grip portion 2 is fixed from the width direction by a fixing means such as a vise. Thus, when a load of 1 N is applied downward in the vertical direction, the portion where the load is applied has elasticity so that it is displaced downward by about 5 to 10 mm in the vertical direction. In this way, by setting the elasticity so that the displacement at the tip of the connecting portion 3 is 10 mm or less, the tongue coating removing portion 42 described later can be firmly pressed against the tongue, and tongue coating can be sufficiently removed. . Further, by using elasticity such that the displacement at the tip of the connecting portion 3 is 5 mm or more, it is possible to prevent the tongue coating removal portion 42 from being excessively pressed against the tongue during use. In addition, the measurement mentioned above can be measured with the precision universal testing machine AGS-500D (Shimadzu Corporation).

The head part 4 is composed of a base part 41 extending integrally from the connecting part 3 and a tongue coating removing part 42 formed on the upper surface of the base part 41. The size of the head portion 4 is preferably such that the width and length are 20 to 30 mm and the thickness is 3 to 10 mm in order to prevent vomiting reflection when the head portion 4 is inserted into the oral cavity.

As shown in FIG. 4, the base portion 41 has an annular groove 411 formed on the upper surface along the periphery thereof, a plurality of through holes 412 formed in the center portion, and a plurality of engagement protrusions. 413 is also formed.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the tongue coating removing portion 42 is formed on the upper surface of the base portion 41, and its peripheral edge is folded back to extend to the lower surface of the base portion 41 to cover the peripheral edge of the base portion 41. In addition, the groove 411 and the through hole 412 of the base part 41 are also filled. The tongue coating removal portion 42 is formed of, for example, a thermoplastic elastomer, and specifically, a thermoplastic elastomer such as styrene, olefin, vinyl chloride, polyamide, polyester, polyurethane, nylon, or the like. Can be formed. The Shore A hardness of the tongue coating removal part 42 is preferably about 10 to 35, more preferably 15 to 30. By setting this range, the user does not feel pain even when the tongue surface is rubbed with a strong force, and the tongue surface can be rubbed firmly to sufficiently remove the tongue coating. The tongue coating removal part 42 can be formed by heat-sealing to the base part 41 by injection molding. The Shore A hardness of the tongue coating removal part 42 can be measured according to JIS K6253.

The tongue coating removal part 42 has a plurality of conical protrusions 421 formed in the rear end region of the head part 4 and a plurality of rows of linear protrusions 422 formed in the front end side area of the head part 4. Yes.

The conical protrusion 421 is used to loosen and scrape tongue moss adhering to the tongue, and since it is formed in the rear end region of the head portion 4, the tongue protrudes before the linear protrusion 422 in use. It hits. Further, the height of the conical protrusion 421 is preferably about 1.5 to 5 mm so that the tongue comes into contact with the tongue before the linear protrusion 422 more reliably, and 0.5 mm higher than the linear protrusion 422 described later. It is preferable that the height is about 2.0 mm higher.

The linear protrusion 422 is for scraping the tongue coating scraped out by the conical protrusion 421 described above, and is formed in a circular arc shape in plan view extending in the width direction of the head portion 4. The height of each linear protrusion 422 is designed so as to increase toward the center. The height of the central portion of the linear protrusion 422, that is, the maximum height is preferably about 1.0 to 3.0 mm.

The method of using the tongue cleaning tool 1 configured as described above will be described. First, the user holds the grip portion 2, inserts the head portion 4 into the oral cavity, and presses the tongue coating removal portion 42 against the tongue. Then, when the tongue cleaning tool 1 is pulled to the rear end side with the tongue coating removing portion 42 pressed against the tongue, the conical protrusion 421 of the tongue coating removing portion 42 scrapes the tongue coating attached to the surface of the tongue, and this scraped out. The tongue coating is scraped off by the linear protrusion 422 and removed.

As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not limited to these, A various change is possible unless it deviates from the meaning of this invention.

For example, the grip portion 2 is wider and thicker than the connecting portion 3, but the width and thickness can be the same as the connecting portion 3.

Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the cyclic | annular groove | channel 411 is formed in the peripheral part in the base part 41, the shape and position of this groove | channel 411 are not specifically limited to this, For example, the base part 41 It is also possible to provide a groove 411 or a plurality of linear grooves 411 over the whole.

In the above embodiment, the tongue coating removal part 42 is formed of a thermoplastic elastomer, but other materials can be used as long as the Shore A hardness is 10 to 35, for example, silicone resin, thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer. , And at least one selected from the group consisting of rubbers.

A total of 30 types of tongue cleaning tools 1 having the same shape as those shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 and having different shore A hardness of the tongue coating removing portion 42 and elasticity of the connecting portion 3 were produced. The tongue coating removal part 42 was formed using SEBS, and the height of the conical protrusion 421 was 3 mm, and the height of the linear protrusion 422 was 1.8 mm. Moreover, the holding part 2, the connection part 3, and the base part 41 were integrally formed with the polypropylene.

As shown in Tables 1 and 2, the Shore A hardness has 6 types of 6, 10, 15, 30, 35, and 40, and the elasticity of the connecting portion 3 has 5 types of displacements of 1 mm, 3 mm, 5 mm, 10 mm, and 15 mm. It was. In addition, this displacement that is also in each table is 8 mm (center in the width direction) from the tip of the tongue coating removing portion 42 as shown by the arrow in FIG. When a load of 1N is applied vertically to the location, the location where the load is applied moves downward. Table 1 shows the results of the sensory test conducted on the removal of tongue coating and Table 2 shows the results of the sensory test conducted on the tongue pain using the 30 kinds of tongue cleaning tools thus prepared. Each sensory test was conducted by 10 men and women in their 20s and 50s. From the results of Tables 1 and 2 below, it was found that by setting the Shore A hardness to 10 to 35 and the displacement to 5 to 10 mm, tongue coating could be sufficiently removed without causing pain on the tongue.

In Table 1, those with 7 or more people who felt that tongue coating was removed were marked with “◯”, those with 5-6 people were marked with “△”, and those with 4 or fewer people were marked with “X”.

For Table 2, the number of people who did not feel pain in the tongue was “◯” for 7 or more people, “△” for 5-6 people, and “×” for 4 or less people.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Tongue cleaning tool 2 Gripping part 3 Connection part 4 Head part 41 Base part 42 Tongue moss removal part

Claims

A gripping part;
A connecting portion extending from the gripping portion;
A head portion provided at the tip of the connecting portion,
The head part has a base part extending from the connecting part, and a tongue coating removing part formed on one surface of the base part,
The tongue coating removal part has a Shore A hardness of 10 to 35,
The connecting portion has elasticity such that a movable range of the tongue coating removing portion is 5 to 10 mm when a load of 1 N is applied to the tongue coating removing portion in a vertical direction with the gripping portion fixed. Tongue cleaning tool.
The tongue cleaning tool according to claim 1, wherein the tongue coating removing portion covers one surface of the base portion, and a peripheral edge thereof is folded and extends to the other surface.
The tongue cleaning tool according to claim 1 or 2, wherein at least one of a groove, a through-hole, and an engaging protrusion is formed on the base portion on the surface of the tongue coating removing portion.
The tongue coating removing part includes a linear protrusion extending in a width direction, and a rod-shaped protrusion that is formed closer to the connecting part than the linear protrusion and is higher than the linear protrusion. The tongue cleaning tool according to Crab.
The tongue cleaning tool according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the connecting portion and the base portion are integrally formed.
The tongue cleaning tool according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the tongue coating removing portion is heat-sealed to the base portion by injection molding.
The tongue cleaning tool according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the tongue coating removing portion is formed of at least one selected from the group consisting of a thermoplastic elastomer, a silicone resin, a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer, and rubber.