Patent attributes
An oral care appliance comprises an gas-liquid cleaning assembly which comprises a fluid pump assembly (46); a source of liquid (50); and a source of gas(12). The pump is in operative communication with the sources of liquid and gas to produce a series of gas-injected fluid pulses, directed to a nozzle assembly (80) from which the resulting pulses are directed to the teeth by a user. The individual pulses have a pulse width within the range of 0.001-0.5 seconds, a pulse height from 0.1-10 Newtons, a rise/fall time range of 0.5-250 ms, a repetition rate in the range of 2 Hz to 20 Hz. The gas/liquid mixture range from 40-95% volume to volume, gas to liquid. The appliance also includes a mechanical teeth cleaning assembly, in combination with the gas-liquid assembly. The mechanical assembly includes a drive system (160) and a brush assembly in operative contact with the drive system, the brush assembly having a set of bristles (152) at the distal end thereof, wherein in operation, the nozzle assembly is positioned within the brush assembly.
