Dental floss holder apparatus

Claim 1

Apparatus for retaining a relatively short length of dental floss in a taut condition and for positioning and manipulating the taut length of dental floss in hard to reach areas of a user''s mouth, comprising: a one piece moldable dental floss holding member Having a handle portion sized and adapted for convenient grasping by one hand of a user and having, at one end thereof, a pair of straight longitudinally extending arm members, said arm members lying in a plane with each other and spaced apart a distance sufficient to allow a relatively short length of dental floss disposed therebetween to be of sufficient length to span the largest molar tooth of a user, but a short enough distance to allow easy insertion of the device into a user''s mouth without opening the mouth unduly widely, the plane of said pair of spaced arm members being inclined at an obtuse angle with respect to the plane of said handle portion, said handle portion and each of said arm members having an end portion and edge portions being of a generally rounded configuration to avoid uncomfortable contact with the inside of a user''s mouth, each of said arm members having, near the end thereof, a relatively narrow floss retaining groove of generally at least semi-circumferential extent and of a depth adequate to contain therein at least two turns of conventional dental floss overlying each other, the plane section of each of said arm members through said floss retaining grooves being generally different from the section through other portions thereof in that such floss retaining groove plane sections comprise a quadrilateral polygon having at least two interior angles less than or equal to 90*, two or more turns of floss being wound in said grooves and about the sharp edges of said quadrilateral polygon plane section thereof and overlying each other providing sufficient frictional force to retain tautness in the relatively short length of floss suspended between said arm members, and floss anchoring means on said handle portion, said anchoring means comprising a shaft member integral with said handle portion and of a first diameter, and a head member of a second, larger diameter than said shaft member and suspended by said shaft member a relatively short distance above the plane of said handle portion, the surface of said head member toward said handle portion being generally parallel to the plane of said handle portion to provide a generally U-shaped or sectioned circumferential groove about said shaft member in the space between said head member and said handle portion, and a generally toroidally shaped resilient member sized to fit in said groove and about said shaft member, whereby any turns of floss taken about said floss anchoring means are retained by frictional forces produced by restoring forces in said resilient member.