Electric toothbrush
An electric toothbrush is a toothbrush that makes rapid automatic bristle motions, either back-and-forth oscillation or rotation-oscillation, in order to clean teeth. Motions at sonic speeds or below are made by a motor. In the case of ultrasonic toothbrushes, ultrasonic motions are produced by a piezoelectric crystal. A modern electric toothbrush is usually powered by a rechargeable battery charged through inductive charging when the brush sits in the charging base between uses.[1]
History
The earliest example of an electric toothbrush was first produced by Tomlinson Moseley. Sold as the Motodent, a patent was filed by his company, Motodent Inc on December 13, 1937. In Switzerland in 1954 Dr. Philippe Guy Woog invented the Broxodent.[2] Woog's electric toothbrushes were originally manufactured in Switzerland for Broxo S.A. The device plugged into a standard wall outlet and ran on line voltage. Electric toothbrushes were initially created for patients with limited motor skills and for orthodontic patients.
Classification
Electric brushes can be classified according to their type of action:[3]
- Side to side vibration, which has a brush head action that moves laterally from side to side.
- Counter oscillation, indicates a brush action in which adjacent tufts of bristles rotate in one direction and then the other, independently. Each tuft rotating in the opposite direction to that adjacent to it.
- Rotation oscillation, indicates a brush action in which the brush head rotates in one direction and then the other.
- Circular, indicates a brush action in which the brush head rotates in one direction only.
- Ultrasonic, indicates a brush action where the bristles vibrate at ultrasonic frequencies.
- Ionic, indicates a brush that aims to impart an electrical charge to the tooth surface with the intent of disrupting the attachment of dental plaque.
