Patent Publication Number: US-2013230826-A1

Title: Dental prosthetic appliance

Description:
CROSS REFERENCES 
     This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2012-0022468, filed 5 Mar. 2012, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety into this application. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a dental prosthetic appliance, and in particular to a dental prosthetic appliance which makes it possible to help recover the functions of damaged teeth in such a way to stably fix a denture made of a metallic material or a ceramic material at its neighboring abutment teeth, respectively, for the purpose of recovering the function of damaged teeth. 
     Generally speaking, a tooth structure of a normal person consists of 16 upper jaw teeth and 16 lower jaw teeth, 32 in total. Deciduous teeth naturally are substituted with permanent teeth as people grow up, so people chew with grown up teeth for their lives. 
     If the teeth get rotten or damaged due to a certain accident after the grown teeth are made, the people with such problems come to suffer from inaccurate pronunciations and hard chewing when eating foods. The people may feel depressed due to the damaged teeth, which may lead to a hard social activity. 
     When the teeth are damaged, a denture generally is used in an attempt to recover the functions of damaged teeth with the aid of a prosthetic appliance. 
     The kinds of dentures consist of an ordinary prosthetic appliance which serves to cover a tooth dysfunctioned by over decays or endodontic treatments for thereby recovering the functions of damaged teeth, an esthetic prosthetic appliance which serves to improve the discoloration, abnormal shapes and spaces between teeth generally in front teeth, and an implant prosthetic appliance which has features in that an artificial tooth root is planted in a portion where a tooth is damage, and a denture is thread-connected at the artificial tooth root. 
     The ordinary prosthetic appliance among the above mentioned lists of prosthetic appliances has features in that so as to fix a denture at a portion of the damaged tooth, a cap is prepared for covering the tops of neighboring healthy teeth, and the cap is covered on the healthy tooth for thereby fixing the denture, which is called a crown bridge. 
     The ordinary prosthetic appliance takes short operation time and is known cheap and easy; however the dentins should be inevitably ground off as much as the thickness of the cap since the denture should be linked to the neighboring teeth. When the dentins are cut off, a dental pulp may be exposed to the outside, which may bring an endodontic treatment. The dental pulp may change after operations, and if air or an impurity is inputted into between the cap and the tops of the teeth, the healthy teeth may easily change to rotten teeth. 
     The implant prosthetic operation has advantages in that the functions of the damaged teeth can be overcome without damaging the dentures and the neighboring healthy teeth in such a way that an implant prosthetic appliance is fixed by engaging the denture with a screw after a metallic artificial tooth root is installed at an upper jaw or a lower jaw in which teeth are arranged; however the implant prosthetic operation takes long time (8-12 months), and it costs a lot. When a metallic artificial tooth root is planted, lots of machine noises occur, so a patient may suffer increased psychological pains. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Accordingly, the present invention is made to improve the above described problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a dental prosthetic appliance which has features in that an operation can be done faster along with an easier operation and a low operation cost when recovering the functions of damaged teeth and it is possible to minimize a patient&#39;s psychological repulsion to operations in terms of the operations of dentures. 
     To achieve the above object, there is provided a dental prosthetic appliance comprising a fixing member which has an engaging groove arranged at an engaging surface contacting with each of an abutment tooth of a denture in an upward direction with respect to a tooth root and an engaging groove engaged to the denture for an engaging surface contacting with each of the abutment teeth not to expose to the sides of a tongue or lips, and a support member which has a support attached to the surface of each of the cut-away portions formed by cutting off by certain thicknesses the engaging surface contacting with the denture and the rim portion of the upper surface and a support portion engaged to the engaging groove of the fixing member. 
     It is preferred that the fixing member engaged to the denture and the support member attached to each of the abutment teeth are formed at the engaging surfaces contacting with the denture and the abutment teeth for them not to be visually seen when viewing them from the sides of a tongue or lips. 
     In addition, there are further provided a pin hole at each of the abutment teeth when attaching the support member to each of the abutment teeth, and a fixing pin formed at an inner surface and fixedly inserted in the pin hole. 
     The dental prosthetic appliance according to the present invention has features in that the functions of damaged teeth can be faster recovered with the aid of the simplified operations when operating the dentures at the portions of the damaged teeth in an attempt to recover the functions of the damaged teeth, and such recovery can be performed in an easier way, and the operation does not cost a lot, and it is possible to minimize the patient&#39;s psychological repulsions to the operations. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The present invention will become better understood with reference to the accompanying drawings which are given only by way of illustration and thus are not limitative of the present invention, wherein; 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view illustrating an example of the operations of a dental prosthetic appliance according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a disassembled perspective view illustrating a dental prosthetic appliance according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 3A  is a cross sectional view illustrating a state before a dental prosthetic appliance is planted according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 3B  is a cross sectional view illustrating a state after a dental prosthetic appliance is planted according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 4  is a plane cross sectional view illustrating a state after a dental prosthetic appliance is planted according to the present invention; and 
         FIG. 5  is a perspective view illustrating a state that the operation of a dental prosthetic appliance is finished according to the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The preferred embodiments of a dental prosthetic appliance according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
     As shown in  FIGS. 1 to 3B , the dental prosthetic appliance according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises a denture  100  installed at a portion of a damaged tooth, and a fixing part  300  for connecting and fixing the denture  100  at its neighboring abutment teeth, respectively. 
     The denture  100  is artificially made in the same shape and size as the damaged tooth (not shown) and may be made of a metallic material or a ceramic material. 
     Here, the abutment teeth  200  each mean a healthy tooth which is near the damaged tooth (not shown). 
     The fixing part  300  serves to fix the denture  100  engaged at a portion of the damaged tooth at the abutment teeth  200 , respectively. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the fixing part  300  comprises a denture  100  to which a fixing member  110  having an engaging groove is engaged for it not to expose to the sides of a tongue or lips at the engaging surfaces coming contact with the abutment teeth  200 , a support  221  which is attached to an engaging surface (not shown) coming contact with the denture  100  and is attached at a cut-away portion which is formed by cutting off a rim portion of the upper surface, and a support member  220  with a support portion  220   a  engaged to the engaging groove  111  of the fixing member  110 . 
     The fixing member  110  comprises a concave engaging part  110   a  with a certain curvature corresponding to the shape of each of the abutment teeth  200  at the engaging surface at the side of the denture coming into contact with each of the abutment teeth  200 . The engaging groove  111  to which the support portion  220   a  is engaged is provided in a vertical direction at the engaging part  110 . 
     The support member  220  is attached to an engaging surface (not shown) of each of the abutment teeth  220  coming into contact with the denture  200 , and the support member  220  comprises a support portion  220   a  inserted in the engaging groove  111  formed at the denture  100  and a support  221  attached to the rim portion of the upper surface of each of the abutment teeth. 
     As shown in  FIGS. 2 to 3B , the support member  220  further comprises a pair of fixing pins  222  which are fixedly inserted in pin holes  202  which are obliquely and downwardly formed with certain depths at the opposing surfaces facing the abutment teeth  200 , respectively. 
     As shown in  FIG. 4 , the support member  220  is attached only to the engaging surface of each of the abutment teeth  200  coming into contact with the engaging part  110   a  of the denture  100 , so the support member  220  is not seen when viewing it from the sides of the tongue and the lips. 
     In addition, the thickness of the support member  220  is decided depending on the depth of the cut-away portions. When the support member  220  is attached to a cut-away portion  203  of the engaging surface of each of the abutment teeth  200  and a cut-away portion  201  of the upper surface, it is preferred that any steps are not formed between the rim surface of the support member and the non cut-away boundary surface of each of the abutment teeth. 
     The abutment teeth  200  each comprises cut-away portions  203  and  201  formed by cutting off by certain thicknesses parts of the engaging surface coming into contact with the denture  100  and the rim portion of the supper surface for the sake of attachments of the support member  220 . It is preferred that the cut-away portion  203  of the engaging surface of each of the abutment teeth  200  and the cut-away portion  201  of the rim portion of the upper surface of each of the abutment teeth are cut off by 1-2 mm from the surface of each of the abutment teeth  200 . 
     It is preferred that the depth of the pin hole  202  formed at the opposed surface facing the abutment teeth  200 , respectively, is 1.5-2 mm for any neuron not to expose to the outside. 
     The support portion  220   a  is inserted in the engaging groove  111  for the purpose of fixing the denture  100 . The support portion  220   a  is arranged in the same direction as the arrangement of the engaging groove  111 , the cross section of which is formed in a T-shape. The T-shaped support portion  220   a  is formed with its width gradually increasing toward the direction of the tooth root. In other words, it is shaped like a trapezoid shape with the upper side being wider and the lower side being narrower. 
     The trapezoid shaped support portion  220   a  has advantages in that it can help more engage tightly the denture  100  when the support portion  220   a  is inserted in the engaging groove  111  of the denture  100  for the purpose of engaging the denture  100  without any spaces, and a smooth engagement can be achieved 
     The operations of the dental prosthetic appliance according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
     In order to accurately engage the denture  100  at a portion of the damaged tooth, the rim portions of the upper surfaces of each of the abutment teeth neighboring with the engaging surface of each of the abutment teeth  200  near the denture  100  is cut away with a depth of 1-2 mm, for thereby forming cut-away portions  203  and  201 . 
     At this time, when forming the cut-away portions at the rim portions of the upper surfaces of each of the abutment teeth  200 , it is possible to for a worker to cut away controlling the size and the portion of the cut-away portion  201  in consideration of the size and state of each of the abutment teeth  200 , and a pair of pin holes  202  are obliquely and downwardly formed at the opposed surfaces facing the abutment teeth  200 , respectively. It is preferred that the pin holes  202  are formed with the angles of 45° with respect to the vertical axis of each of the abutment teeth. 
     It may be considered that the pin holes  202  are formed at the side surface or the upper surface of each of the abutment teeth  200  besides the opposed surface of each of the abutment teeth  200 ; however it is preferred that the pin holes  202  are formed opposite to the opposed surfaces facing the abutment teeth  200 , respectively, for thereby reinforcing the support force of the support member  220  when supporting the denture  100 . In addition, the tolerance can be more easily controlled when engaging the denture. Esthetic feeling can be enhanced since the support member  220  or the fixing member  110  is not visually observed when viewing them from the sides. 
     The cut-away portions  203  and  201  are formed at the engaging surface and the rim portions of the upper surfaces of each of the abutment teeth  200  coming contact with the denture  100 , and the tooth-shaped mold is made using a dental impression material, so the support member  220 , the denture  100  and the fixing member  110  are molded. 
     The thusly made support member  220  is covered on the cut-away portion  203  and the ct-away portion  201  of the engaging surfaces of each of the abutment teeth  200  and at the same time the pin  222  is fixedly inserted in the pin hole  202  of each of the abutment teeth  200 , and the engaging groove  111  of the denture  100  fits the support portion  220   a  of the support member  220  engaged to each of the abutment teeth  200 , so the denture  100  is fixed between the abutment teeth  200 . 
     At this time, a small amount of adhesive or filler is filled in the cut-away portion  203  of the engaging surface of the abutment teeth  200  coming into contact with the support  221  of the support member  220  and the inner surface of the support member, the cut-away portion  201  of the rim portion of the upper surface, so the support member  220  can be attached to the abutment teeth  200 , respectively, in a sealing way.  FIG. 5  is a view illustrating an operation of the dental prosthetic appliance according to the present invention. 
     As described above, the dental prosthetic appliance according to the present invention has features in that the damages which used to happen in the conventional art due to the cutting-away of the abutment teeth can be prevented. It is possible to reduce operation time which was longer in the conventional implant prosthetic operation, and the cost can be reduced, and a patient&#39;s psychological repulsion can be prevented, so the present invention provides a human friendly prosthetic appliance. 
     As the present invention may be embodied in several forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof, it should also be understood that the above-described examples are not limited by any of the details of the foregoing description, unless otherwise specified, but rather should be construed broadly within its spirit and scope as defined in the appended claims, and therefore all changes and modifications that fall within the meets and bounds of the claims, or equivalences of such meets and bounds are therefore intended to be embraced by the appended claims.