Dentistry – Prosthodontics – Holding or positioning denture in mouth
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-09
2001-12-25
Mancene, Gene (Department: 3732)
Dentistry
Prosthodontics
Holding or positioning denture in mouth
C433S214000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06332777
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The invention relates to a device for forming a dental prosthesis having a support and having an element which can be detachably connected using fixing means, where the support has an anchoring part designed to anchor in a bone and/or master model, a head designed to protrude from the bone or master model, and a shoulder present between this and the anchoring part. The dental prosthesis can involve a single false tooth, a bridge or a prosthesis forming several teeth. For example, the support can comprise a one-piece body or an implant and a secondary part, originally separate, which is fixed to the implant. The element which can be fixed on the support can, for example, comprise an impression element. This is also often called an impression cap or molding cap and, with the aid of an impression tray and impression material held by this and plastically shapeable for at least a certain period, is used to make an impression or a mold of the soft tissue surrounding the, or at least one, support in the mouth of a patient and/or perhaps of the bone as well as, if need be, of all natural teeth present near the support and then to produce a master model whose surface corresponds to the impression or mold.
The element which can be affixed to the support can, however, also be a healing element or a healing cap or a structural element and/or a superstructure which, for example, forms a crown and/or a bridge or a prosthesis having several artificial teeth.
STATE OF THE ART
A known device from the book “Oral Implantology”, André Schroeder, Franz Sutter, Daniel Buser and Gisbert Krekeler, 2
nd
edition, 1994 (edition in German) or 1996 (edition in English), Georg Thieme Publishing House, Stuttgart/New York, pages 209-214 (edition in German) or 207-210 (edition in English), has a support with an implant as well as a secondary part and an impression cap. The impression cap is temporarily affixed for the taking of the impression to the secondary part of the support using a screw. This known device has the disadvantage that it is often difficult, time consuming and unpleasant for the patient to first screw the impression cap fast to the support in the patient's mouth and after the impression to unscrew it again. Furthermore, before the taking of the impression, the impression tray must be provided with a hole for the or each support appropriate for the individual situation of a patient so that after the impression the screw which is screwed into the support can be unscrewed from the support and removed through the hole in the impression tray.
A known impression cap from DE 44 15 670 A has springable latch brackets at the edge which surrounds the opening to its interior. Since the latch brackets are located outside on the end designated for attachment with the support, the known impression cap is not suited for taking the impression of the shoulder of the support and the support's surroundings.
The known detachable connection of the healing element using screws and the known attachment of structural elements for forming crowns, bridges or prostheses with several teeth and/or a superstructure using screwing means of attachment is likewise often difficult and time consuming.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is the object of the invention to do away with disadvantages of the known devices and in particular to make a device whose impression element or other element can quickly and easily be attached to a support protruding from either a bone or a master model and again detached from the support, where the element in its attached state should lie against the shoulder of the support tightly and with as small a gap as possible. In addition, it should be possible that the section, resting on the shoulder of the support, of the element attachable to the support be provided with a fully circular outer edge. Furthermore, the fixing means should avoid covering the shoulder so that the surfaces on which the support and the element touch each other preferably can be visible along the total circumference of the shoulder from the outside in an approximately radial viewing direction. If the element is designed as an impression element, an impression of the shoulder and its surroundings along the whole circumference of the shoulder should particularly be made possible.
This object is achieved according to the invention by a device for forming a dental prosthesis having a support and an element which is detachably connected to it by fixing means, where the support has an anchoring part for anchoring in a bone and/or master model, a head for protruding from the bone or master model, and a shoulder present between this and the anchoring part, where, when the device is assembled, the element lies on the shoulder with a supporting surface and, in a cross section, surrounds the head, and where the device is characterized in that the fixing means and/or the support are at least in places elastically deformable and that, when the device is assembled, the fixing means jam and/or latch with the support, either externally on the support on the opposite side of the shoulder from the anchoring part or in an axial hole of the support.
Advantageous further developments of the inventive subject matter follow from the dependent claims.
The element which is attachable to the support comprises, for example, an impression element. The support and the impression element can, for example, be generally straight, so that the anchoring part and the head of the support as well as the impression element are coaxial and generally rotationally symmetric with respect to a axis of symmetry of the support. The head of the support and/or the impression element, however, can be at an angle with respect to the anchoring part of the support and the part forming its shoulder and can define an axis which forms an angle with the axis defined by the anchoring part and the shoulder of the support, which angle is preferably no more than 30° and, for example, is around 10° to 20°.
In an advantageous embodiment of the inventive object, the fixing means in at least one region under elastic deformation are bendable and/or stretchable and/or can be pressed together. The support is preferably made of a metallic material and is preferably for the most part essentially stiff and rigid but can possibly have a fixing section onto which the fixing means grip and which is formed and sized such that the fixing section is elastically deformable, that is, having resilient form, and is more or less spring-like.
The device according to the invention makes it possible with a straight support as well as a support with a head at an angle for the impression element or other element to be connected with it—by sticking it on the support by jamming and/or clipping and/or latching—so as to be quickly detachable and afterwards to be detached again from the support by pulling away without necessitating a screw's being screwed in and later screwed out again.
When the element is held on the support, the fixing means cause, in an appropriate embodiment, a force which presses the impression element against the shoulder of the support. Thus it can be ensured that the element lies against the shoulder of the support at least nearly without a gap.
At the shoulder, the support preferably has an annular shoulder surface. The impression element or other element preferably has an annular supporting surface. The shoulder surface of the support and the supporting surface of the element are, for example, both conical or both flat and preferably, when the device is assembled, lie against each other out to their outer edges. The support and the element are further advantageously designed such that the outer edges of the shoulder surface and of the supporting surface are fully circular and, when the device is assembled, are visible along their whole circumference from the surroundings of the device in viewing directions which are approximately radial and at a right angle to the axis of the anchoring part and the shoulder of the support.
The impression element preferably h
Bumgarner Melba
Crowell & Moring LLP
Mancene Gene
Sutter Franz
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