Appeal No. 1999-0739
Application 08/747,663
This is a decision on appeal from the examiner's
final rejection of claims 1 through 18, all of the claims
pending in this application.
Appellant’s invention relates to a tongue cleaning
and treating device. Of importance to appellant is the re-
quirement that the device be effective for cleaning the sur-
face of the tongue and particularly that portion of the
tongue’s surface that is located under the taste buds. As
noted on page 1 of the specification, much of the surface of
the tongue is covered with taste buds which protrude from the
tongue and provide small areas between and under such
projections where bacteria, minute food particles, and
cellular debris tend to accumulate. Conventional methods of
cleaning the tongue and applying medication or mouth-rinse to
the tongue are said to be ineffective in dealing with the area
of the tongue surface under the taste buds. A preferred
embodiment of appellant’s invention is said to include a
plurality of hollow, rigid mechanical fingers (5) which gently
part the tops of the taste buds while simultaneously
2
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