Diamond dust polishing cloth for natural tooth enamel and dental veneers

The present invention relates to the field of dental hygiene and cosmetics, particularly as applied to preservation of good facial appearance. The invention is directed to maintaining the luster of tooth enamel and dental veneer, prevention of discoloration of particularly the front tooth region by facilitating removal therefrom of common residual staining substances between regular brushings, promptly after exposure to such substances.

The present invention relates to dental products and particularly to a disposable tooth cleaning article usable after eating and at any convenient time or location during the day for removing food deposits and/or oral cavity juices from the teeth to help reduce plaque build-up and relates to a product and system for permitting both the professional and home polishing of natural tooth enamel and veneers that are applied to the teeth of individuals without the need to have the natural tooth enamel or veneers polished by a dentist in their office. The invention provides for the coating of a quantity of precious and/or semi-precious dust having an overall dimension of approximately 500 nanometers or less with an organic, or synthetic, non-toxic coating held thereon and the integration of the coated precious and/or semi-precious dust onto a cloth via a paste or other form of emulsion,

Facial appearance is of prime importance to most individuals, and is greatly enhanced by the appearance of clean white teeth. This applies both to natural tooth enamel and veneers. Conversely, facial appearance is greatly degraded by stain discoloration that develops over time from the cumulative effects of frequent and repeated exposures to staining substances, despite normal regular brushings.

Modern lifestyles, including increased public travel trends, have tended to intensify the exposure of many to teeth-staining substances such as nicotine, coffee and many other beverages and foods. Due to lack of convenient facilities, often the period between regular brushings can extend to as much as 16 hours or more. Consequently, especially for the appearance-conscious, there is an unfulfilled need for a convenient way to remove these unwanted residuals from at least the frontal areas of the teeth as promptly as possible after each of numerous incidents of daily exposures between regular brushings and to maintain the polish and luster of both natural tooth enamel and dental veneers.

There is a demand in the marketplace for a tooth polishing system that can be used away from home by the consumer on both natural tooth enamel and dental veneers which is safe and easy to use.

Dental veneers have, for many years, been employed to enhance facial appearance and particularly the look and regularity of front teeth that are visible. Dental veneers (sometimes called porcelain veneers or dental porcelain laminates) are wafer-thin, custom-made shells of tooth-colored materials designed to cover the front surface of teeth to improve appearance. These shells are bonded to the front of the teeth changing their color, shape, size or length.

Dental veneers can be made from porcelain or from resin composite materials. Porcelain veneers resist stains better than resin veneers and better mimic the light reflecting properties of natural teeth. Resin veneers are thinner and require removal of less of the tooth surface before placement. Generally, the best choice of veneer material for is determined by the patient in consultation with their dentist.

Even though porcelain veneers resist stains, certain stain-causing foods and beverages for example, coffee, tea or red wine, can discolor the veneer. Similarly, the surface of the veneer can become marred or otherwise not reflect light in a pleasing manner so that the appearance of the veneer needs to be restored by polishing.

All toothpastes help remove surface stains because they have mild abrasives. Some whitening toothpastes contain gentle polishing or chemical agents that provide additional stain removal effectiveness. Whitening toothpastes can help remove surface stains only and do not contain bleach; over-the-counter and professional whitening products contain hydrogen peroxide (a bleaching substance) that helps remove stains on the tooth surface as well as stains deep in the tooth. However, commercially available toothpastes do not contain any polishing agent that would permit a veneer surface to be polished to restore its original luster. A patient cannot polish the veneer surface at home or on a regular basis inasmuch as the current technology requires that such polishing be done by a dentist in their offices. Moreover, when a person is away from home there is no ability to even use a tooth paste to polish or otherwise remove staining material immediately from teeth or dental veneers. Plaque which builds up on the teeth should be removed from the teeth as frequently as possible. Because plaque is responsible for harboring injurious organisms on the teeth, its frequent removal is desirable. In addition, the feel of the teeth to the tongue is very pleasant after removal of plaque from the teeth. It is customary for people to rely upon toothbrushes and tooth paste, dental cream or tooth powder for the day to day cleansing of their teeth and gums. Toothbrushes are effective for this purpose, and in the ordinary home environment they are entirely satisfactory.

On many occasions when a person is away from home, it may be desirable for the person to brush his teeth after ingesting food. For example, a traveler may wish to do so after a meal on an airplane to feel more at ease when talking to fellow travelers, etc., and to maintain good dental hygiene while traveling. A person may prefer to brush his teeth after dinner before continuing on a date or attending a meeting. Parents may desire that their children brush after every meal even when away from home in order for the children to acquire good dental hygiene habits. In each of the foregoing examples, a person could carry his toothbrush with him. However, that is usually inconvenient or many reasons including the fact that a tube of tooth paste would also normally have to be transported with the toothbrush and because return of a wet toothbrush to pocket or purse after use is undesirable. To overcome the toothpaste problems, a tooth brush has been marketed in the form of a pen including a clip for attachment to a pocket and cartridge containing hygiene problem when returned to a pocket in wet condition after use, they are inconvenient for children to carry, and if lost by children, they are relatively costly to replace.

Attempts have been made to provide a portable dental article in various forms. One form of a portable dental article is a sheet-like article. Such a sheet-like article is disclosed in e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,335,731. The article is wrapped around the wearer\'s finger during use of the article. While such a sheet-like article is beneficial in its simple form of a product when manufactured and/or carried, it is problematic that the article may come off from the wearer\'s finger during use of the article because the article does not have any means to directly attach the article to the wearer\'s finger. Similarly, it provides no benefit in terms of polishing or cleaning teeth enamel. It merely serves to wipe the surface and not perform any other function.

Another form of a portable dental article is a fingertip-like article. Such a fingertip-like article is disclosed in e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,902,509, U.S. Pat. No. 4,134,172 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,247. U.S. Pat. No. 3,902,509 discloses a disposable tooth cleaning device made of a high wet strength material which is shaped and sealed in the form of a pocket or flat thimble. The device is formed with two sheets which have been joined in such a manner at three sides as to provide stiff lap edges.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,134,172 discloses a toothbrush comprising a bristle-incorporating brushing element which is attached to a flexible sheath into which a person\'s finger can be inserted to control the brushing action of the brushing element. Such devices are usually produced such that they fit the wearer\'s finger tight when the device is worn. Therefore, these devices may be too tight if the wearer\'s finger is quite thick, or the devices may be too loose if the wearer\'s finger is quite thin. Thus, the devices disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,902,509 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,134,172 are not be adaptable to various sizes of fingers. Furthermore, the devises have no means to attach the device to the wearer\'s finger. Accordingly, these devices may come off from the wearer\'s finger during use of the article in the oral cavity if the wearer\'s finger is thin. This is quite dangerous (especially for infants) because a user may swallow such a device coming off from the wearer\'s finger during use of the article in the oral cavity.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,247 discloses a disposable tooth cleaning product comprising a sheet of thin, flexible material such as paper, cloth or synthetic foam material which may also be formed and contoured. The disposable tooth cleaning product also fits the wearer\'s finger tight when the device is worn. The disposable tooth cleaning product comprises the finger cover portion and the elongated band having the releasable adhesive surface such that the elongated band is wrapped around the wearer\'s finger. However, the finger cover portion of the disposable tooth cleaning product has a tight fit shape to the wearer\'s finger before the elongated band is wrapped around the wearer\'s finger. This may cause various sizes of fingers tightness or looseness. Thus, the disposable tooth cleaning product disclosed in U.S. Pat. No.4,875,247 is not adaptable to various sizes of fingers and do not have any material which would be capable of polishing tooth enamel or dental veneer.

JP Utility Model Laid-open publication No. H6-143 discloses a portable dental article comprising a fingertip-like finger cover portion and a grip portion. The finger cover portion has a tight fit shape to the wearer\'s finger. This may cause various sizes of fingers tightness or looseness. Furthermore, the dental article disclosed in JP H6-143 needs to be held by the wearer\'s palm with the grip portion during use of the article in order to prevent the article from coming off from the wearer\'s finger. This may cause the size of the article to get larger and inconvenience operation during use of the article. JP Utility Model Laid-open publication No. H5-29516 discloses a portable dental article comprising a pouch-like finger cover portion and a grip portion. The dental article disclosed in JP H5-29516 needs to be held by the wearer\'s palm with the grip portion during use of the article in order to prevent the article from coming off from the wearer\'s finger. This may cause the size of the article to get larger and inconvenience operation during use of the article.

None of the publications above disclose a portable dental article that can be used to provide the necessary abrasive quality to polish tooth enamel or dental veneer. Thus, none of the existing arts provided all of the advantages and benefits of the present invention.

Diamond is the hardest material known and is commonly used as a superabrasive for removing excess materials. Diamond superabrasives have been commercially available in a number of mesh sizes. For example, diamond saws typically incorporate diamond particles having a U.S. mesh size of 18 (about 1 mm) to 60 (about 0.25 mm). Polishing applications typically require diamond fines down to about 0.1 micron. Until recently, diamond particles smaller than about 100 nm were not commercially available.

Diamond micron powders are commonly made by pulverizing waste diamond grains that are not otherwise suitable for ultrafine polishing where nanometer scale smoothness is desired. However, typical pulverized diamond particles may include sharp corners and irregular shapes which are not suitable for polishing of surfaces which require smoothness and luster to remain. Thus, they would generally be unsuitable for use as a tooth polish or veneer polish. Recently, nanoparticles of diamond have become commercially available. Such nanodiamond particles are commonly formed by explosion where the graphite is compressed with a shock wave and the dynamite (e.g. TNT and RDX mixture) itself is converted to nanodiamond during less than a microsecond at high pressure and temperature. Nanodiamonds so formed are typically smaller than 10 nm (e.g. 5 nm) and tend to have a very narrow size distribution, i.e. from about 4 nm to about 10 nm. More importantly, the surface of these nanodiamonds contains diamond or diamond-like carbon, such as bucky balls (C60), layered shells, carbon nanotubes, and amorphous carbon which makes these nanodiamonds extremely hard without sharp corners. Such nanodiamond has been used as abrasives for the ultra-fine polishing of hard materials (e.g. gems), but there has been no use of them to permit the polishing of natural tooth enamel or dental veneer.

A disposable tooth cleaning article for manually cleaning tooth surfaces is disclosed. The disposable tooth cleaning article extends in a longitudinal direction and a transverse direction, and has a finger faced surface and an outer surface. The disposable tooth cleaning article comprises a single sheet. The outer surface is provided with a diamond dust polishing agent for home use and professional use in the care of natural tooth enamel and dental veneers comprised of a quantity of diamond dust coated with a lubricant in conjunction with a paste for carrying the lubricant coated diamond dust, or other semi-precious, non-toxic abrasive dust, said diamond dust being of a size of approximately 500 nanometers or less to a size of approximately 5 nanometers. The present invention encompasses a nanodiamond or semi-precious dust component dental whitening composition embedded or otherwise carried on a disposable sheet for both home and out of home use which, when applied to teeth, contains a combination of a polishing diamond dust compound and carrier material whereby both heightened whitening and stain removal from teeth is attained.

The present invention is based upon the discovery that when a dentifrice component and an abrasive containing dentifrice component which abrasive is retained within the composition, are combined and applied to the surface of the teeth, an enhanced whitening effect is obtained, when the teeth are brushed, as a result of the combined presence of the carrier and abrasive ingredients.