Dentistry – Prosthodontics – Tooth construction
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-12
2001-09-25
Lucchesi, Nicholas D. (Department: 3732)
Dentistry
Prosthodontics
Tooth construction
C433S223000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06293797
ABSTRACT:
This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) to Belgian application BE 09900248, filed Apr. 12, 1999.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a process for producing artificial teeth imitating natural teeth. Such artificial teeth may be, like natural teeth, one-, two- or three-rooted teeth.
The invention also relates to the products being obtained through said process.
1. Technological Background
To improve training for future dentists, for learning dentistry techniques, in the past jaws provided with their natural teeth were used which were taken particularly from corpses.
For obvious reasons of hygiene, it has been proposed to work on jaws comprising artificial teeth imitating natural teeth the best possible.
An additional use of artificial teeth is to test or demonstrate new care techniques and/or new dental treatment or hygiene devices.
It is known to produce only one artificial crown so as to allow already the practitioners to complete the most current manipulations such as burring, stopping, scaling, etc.
The absence of complete teeth with roots does not allow for a simulation of orthodontics care and proethesis positioning in clinically encountered situations.
2. Prior Art
FR-A-09409450 proposes to produce tooth copies with transparent epoxy resin so as to imitate internal and external tooth anatomies. Such artificial teeth are manufactured by moulding a radicular part upon positioning one or many metal tapering uprights in a mould. The coronary part is made separately also by moulding.
After release and removal of the one or many uprights, those two parts, respectively radicular and coronary, are associated together.
The use of one or many metal supports to be removed to provide canals involves that these must be rectilinear or tapered.
Thus, it is not feasible with said technique to propose bent canals or with a diameter which narrows down and then enlarges as going down to the root tip.
Moreover, it is quite difficult to suit this process to an industrial scale production for said artificial teeth.
Aims of the Invention
The present invention aims to propose a process for producing artificial teeth having a configuration quite close to natural teeth for each type of tooth (incisor, canine, premolar and molar).
The present invention also aims to propose a process for producing artificial teeth by using ; materials the characteristics of which give properties very close to natural tooth components.
The present invention also aims at proposing artificial teeth having shapes and sizes, internal as well as external, which reproduce as much as possible the anatomy of a natural tooth.
The present invention aims more particularly to propose the production of such artificial teeth that have radicular canals the shape of which does not need to be rectilinear, but may be bent and the diameter of which may change as going down within the tooth.
Main Characteristic Elements of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for producing artificial teeth imitating natural teeth, each tooth comprising a crown and a radicular element comprising one, two or three roots, each of said roots comprising at least one radicular canal, said process comprising the steps consisting in
providing a crown by injection into a mould of a plastics having high mechanical strength and hardness properties,
providing the radicular element as at least two radicular parts having a junction surface including at least a slot for providing a radicular canal, said production of the different radicular parts being carried out by injection of a material, preferably a material having light s transparency or translucence properties,
assembling and joining together the different radicular parts mutually so as to obtain the radicular element of the tooth, and
assembling and joining together the crown with said radicular element.
The junction surface is preferably a junction plane provided with the slot(s) that, upon assembling, form a radicular canal, but a junction surface different from a plane may be also provided.
The joining together of the different radicular parts is carried out either by welding through ultrasonic irradiation or by welding through laser ray irradiation.
Moreover it may be provided along the slot(s) provided to create the canal(s) on one of the radicular parts, a material in excess forming an energy leader and on the other radicular part a groove so as to favour the welding of the different radicular parts upon assembling.
Advantageously, joining together the crown and the radicular element is carried out through gluing possibly associated with a polymerization through a UV irradiation.
The present invention also relates to an artificial tooth imitating a natural tooth comprising a crown formed with a material having high hardness and strength properties and a radicular element, preferably light transparent or translucent, consisting in at least two radicular parts joined together along a junction surface including at least a radicular canal
Advantageously, the crown of such an artificial tooth is formed with a material reinforced with glass fibres and/or mineral elements, of polyphenylene-sulfone (PPS) or polyarylamide (PAA) type, preferably filled, and the radicular element is formed with a transparent or translucent methyl polymethacrylate (PMMA) or polycarbonate type material.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5773794 (1998-06-01), Zimet-Sternberg et al.
patent: 2723240 (1994-07-01), None
patent: 05241498 (1993-09-01), None
patent: 11085009 (1999-03-01), None
patent: WO 97/34278 (1997-09-01), None
Lepage Jean-Philippe
Melot Charles
Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP
Lucchesi Nicholas D.
Simonis Plastics S.A.
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