Surgery – Instruments – Oral pacifier
Patent
1995-10-12
1997-08-05
Dawson, Glenn
Surgery
Instruments
Oral pacifier
A61J 1700
Patent
active
056537310
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This application is a 371 of PCT/AT94/00043 filed on Apr. 13, 1994.
The invention relates to a pacifier comprising a nipple portion projecting from a shield portion and a handle portion as well as a chewing portion suitable for chewing.
Babies and infants tend to put objects into their mouths and to chew on them. This particularly holds for pacifiers, on which the child often sucks and chews not only the nipple portion provided therefor, but also other portions, such as the shield portion. Since the shield portion of pacifiers is generally made of relatively stiff, solid material, which in most instances is harder than the material of the nipple portion to guard against swallowing as well as for reasons of stability, this harbours the risk of injury to the child.
In GB-A-1 516 249 a pacifier is disclosed whose nipple portion is designed such as to keep the front teeth of the child using the pacifier free of the nipple portion. The nipple portion which is particularly designed for this purpose is provided with separate lateral arms for a front nipple body proper, and biting is enabled only on these lateral arms, with the side teeth. However, these arms are not suitable as specific chewing zones, but are to be considered only as holding arms, so that this known pacifier does not offer an improvement for the above-described situation--chewing on the shield portion, etc.--despite its complex design.
In babies or infants the urge to chew is particularly pronounced if they experience pain during teething, and biting on a chewing object, which preferably is not too hard, causes a temporary alleviation of the pain (caused by the initial cutting of the teeth).
From EP-B1-116 003 as well as from U.S. Pat. No. 3,267,937 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,669,117 it has already been known to equip pacifiers with handle rings designed as teething rings to serve as teething aids. However, this solution involves hygienic problems, since the ring provided as handle portion at the same time forms the teething ring, apart from the fact that the teething ring forms a separate element on the pacifier and is foreign thereto.
The invention aims at providing a pacifier of the initially defined kind which meets the needs and habits of babies and infants and which allows for a natural integration of a chewing zone into the pacifier in a simple and hygienically satisfying manner.
The pacifier according to the invention set out above is characterised in that at least one chewing zone forming a rim region of the shield itself is provided as the chewing portion.
With the pacifier according to the invention, thus at least a rim region of the shield portion itself forms a chewing zone, the material in this chewing zone or rim region of the shield portion being accordingly soft and fit for chewing. Hence results a natural incorporation of the chewing zone into an existing part of a pacifier, which then may be taken into the mouth as chewing portion without any problems. A further advantage involved is that sharp impressions often caused by a conventional shield rim about the mouth region of the baby due to vigorous sucking on the nipple portion and skin irritations connected therewith can be reduced at least substantially because the soft chewing-zone material contacts the area of the mouth region of the baby. In this connection it is furthermore particularly advantageous if a respective chewing zone is formed in each of two lateral rim regions of the shield portion which, in use, lie in the region of the corners of the mouth. This not only enables a symmetrical design of the pacifier in general, but equally ensures a gentle contact of the pacifier with its shield portion, on either side of the mouth, in the region of the corners of the mouth. This is particularly important for pacifiers having an elongate, in particular a lemniscate-shaped or oval shield portion, such as in AT-C-338 440 or AT-C 379 508.
It should be noted that from DE-C-33 47 876 as well as from DE-U-92 13576 it has already been known to inject nipple material around the entire shield
REFERENCES:
patent: 3923067 (1975-12-01), Hurst
patent: 4577632 (1986-03-01), Grasset
Dawson Glenn
Mam Babyartikel Gesellschaft m.b.H.
LandOfFree
Pacifier having a shield with chewing beads does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Pacifier having a shield with chewing beads, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Pacifier having a shield with chewing beads will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-1071452