Toothbrush stem attachment

Claim 1

A toothbrush stem attachment adapted to be attached to and driven by a hand appliance having an opening for receiving said toothbrush stem and an annular projection for retaining the toothbrush stem to said appliance, which attachment comprises a. a molded stem having an integral coupling at the rear end thereof and laterally-extending bristles forming a brush at the front end thereof, b. said coupling including a flared section flaring threedimensionally outwardly and rearwardly, a driving socket section extending rearwardly beyond said flared section, and a pair of narrow longitudinally-extending resilient cantilever detent fingers radially spaced from the socket section and terminating between the rearward ends of the flared and socket sections, c. said socket section having a rotationally symmetrical exterior surface and an interior surface which is cylindrical at the open end thereof and is of non-circular cross-section deeper in the socket, d. a portion of said flared section overlapping a portion of said socket section in spaced relationship therewith and the inside of the socket section extending into the stem beyond the region of said overlapping, e. said resilient fingers being on opposite sides of the stem with the fixed ends of the fingers integral with said flared section and forward of the rear end of the flared section, f. the sides of said fingers being spaced from the adjacent portions of the flared section, g. the free ends of said fingers having respective detent grooves on the inside thereof which are curved in arcs which are rotationally symmetrical about the axis of said socket section, said fingers being adapted to extend over said annular projection, and h. the free ends of said fingers having respective outward projections opposite said detent grooves with the outer faces curved in arcs which are rotationally symmetrical about the axis of said socket section.