Abstract:
An oral rehabilitation device for helping patients to expand oral cavity includes a body for prying the upper and lower jaws open and at least one pressure-resistant blade held in the body to expand the oral cavity to an extent desired. The body may also form a support section at one end to contain an expansion element inside. The expansion element has restoration force which couples the expansion force of the support section may further expand oral cavity to an extent desired for achieving oral rehabilitation object.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to an oral rehabilitation device and particularly a device that is simply structured, effective and capable of protecting oral organ, and may be produced at low cost. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Cancer has long been a horror disease like nightmare to human being. With rapid medical technology innovation in recent years, a lot of cancers are curable if found out early and have been treated properly. Oral cancer is one of the instances. Some oral cancer patients will suffer from oral fibrosis at the later stage of oral cancer. Patients who have this problem cannot open their upper and lower jaws properly, or in severe cases, even cannot open the jaws at all. In order to help the patients to recover, oral rehabilitation exercise is very important during therapy treatment. Oral rehabilitation exercise is also needed in some other occasions such as for patients who have cheek surgical operation. Hence a good tool or device for patients to do oral rehabilitation exercise is much needed. 
     There are oral rehabilitation devices available in the market place. FIG. 1-1 illustrates one of the examples. It is constructed like a hand gun. It has a pair of movable upper tooth pad and lower tooth pad located at one end. There is a slant lever at one side which may be pressed to control the opening of the upper and lower tooth pad. When in use, the patient puts the closed tooth pads into oral cavity and uses the teeth to bite the upper and lower tooth pad (Shown in FIG.  1 - 2 ). Then press the slant lever to open the upper and lower tooth pad (shown in FIG. 1-3) for pushing the upper and lower jaws apart. Such a tool can only open the upper and lower jaws in one direction. It does not have elastic restoration power to facilitate opening and closing of the jaws. The rehabilitation effect is limited and takes longer time. Its structure is quite complicated and is costly to produce. 
     Some people use tongue depressor (shown in FIG. 1-4) used mostly by physicians for oral rehabilitation purpose. It usually is an elongate blade made of wood. Put one or more piece of the blade into oral cavity and levering it up and down, the jaws may be opened and extended. It is simple and costs little. However it has some degree of risk when using it. For instance, if the blade is made of wood of relatively hard nature, it might hurt oral tissues. If levering the blade with too much force, it could break or crack and harm oral tissues, and might have hazardous consequence. Hence there is still a need for designing a low cost and simple to use oral rehabilitation device. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In view of the foregoing disadvantages, it is therefore an object of this invention to provide a simple assembly that may be used to expand oral cavity easily for doing oral rehabilitation exercise. 
     Another object of this invention is to simplify the structure for lowering rehabilitation cost. 
     Still another object of this invention is to provide protection for the patients so that they won&#39;t be hurt during doing oral rehabilitation exercise. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The invention, as well as its many advantages, may be further understood by the following detailed description and drawings, in which: 
     FIG. 1-1 is a pictorial view of a conventional oral rehabilitation tool; 
     FIG. 1-2 is a fragmentary close-up view of the oral rehabilitation tool shown in FIG. 1 in use; 
     FIG. 1-3 is anther pictorial view of the oral rehabilitation tool shown in FIG. 1 in use; 
     FIG. 1-4 is a pictorial view of another conventional oral rehabilitation tool; 
     FIG. 2-1 is an exploded view of a first embodiment of the present invention; 
     FIG. 2-2 is a side view of the first embodiment of the present invention; 
     FIG. 2-3 is a side view of an embodiment variation of the first embodiment of the present invention; 
     FIG. 2-4 is a pictorial view of the first embodiment in use; 
     FIG. 2-5 is another pictorial view of the first embodiment in use; 
     FIG. 3-1 is an exploded view of a second embodiment of the present invention; 
     FIG. 3-2 is a side view of the second embodiment of the present invention; 
     FIG. 3-3 is a pictorial view of the second embodiment in use; 
     FIG. 3-4 is another pictorial view of the second embodiment in use; 
     FIG. 4-1 is a perspective view of a third embodiment of the present invention; 
     FIG. 4-2 is a pictorial view of the third embodiment in use; and 
     FIG. 4-3 is another pictorial view of the third embodiment in use. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring to FIGS. 2-1 and  2 - 2  which show the first embodiment of this invention. It includes an elongate body  1  made of a tenacious material (such as plastics, leather, or the like) and one or more pressure-resistant blade  2 . The body  1  has a transverse compartment  11  with two side openings. The pressure-resistant blade  2  is made of a rigid material (such as wood, hard type plastics, metal or the like), and has a size fit for containing in the compartment  11 . When the blade  2  is held in the compartment  11 , the body  1  becomes sturdy and stronger because of the blade  2  and may be used for expanding patient&#39;s oral cavity. As the body  1  is made of a tenacious material, it won&#39;t hurt the patient when used properly. Once patient&#39;s oral cavity has been opened to a selected extent, one or more blade  2  may be added in the compartment  11  (shown in FIG. 2-3) to extend the cross section of the body  1  for expanding oral cavity to a larger extent until it reaches a normal condition desired. 
     FIGS. 2-4 and  2 - 5  depict the first embodiment in use. When a patient has oral illness and cannot open the jaws and mouth properly, and needs oral rehabilitation tools to restore oral cavity expansion capability, the body  1  with one blade  2  contained in the compartment  11  may be used to insert slowly into patient&#39;s mouth between the upper and lower jaws with the teeth crunching on the body  1 . As the body  1  is made of a tenacious material, it won&#39;t hurt the oral tissues when using properly. Once patient&#39;s mouth is pried opened, more blades  2  may be gradually put into the compartment  11  to expand the oral cavity to a larger extent. The addition of the blade  2  may be done gradually depends on patient&#39;s rehabilitation progress unit it reaches a normal condition desired 
     FIGS. 3-1 and  3 - 2  illustrate the second embodiment of this invention. It has a body  1  made of a tenacious material and an expansion element  3 . One end of the body  1  is extended to form a support section  12  which is integrally formed with the body  1 . The support section  12  is substantially an annular hollow member. The expansion element  3  is an elongate strip and is made of a tenacious material, and may be curled to a roll to be disposed in the hollow portion of the support section  12  for expanding patient&#39;s oral cavity. 
     FIGS. 3-3 and  3 - 4  show the second embodiment in use. This embodiment may be used when patient&#39;s oral cavity can open to a certain degree. When in use, curl the expansion element  3  into the support section  12 , then insert the expanded support section  12  into patient&#39;s mouth between the upper and lower jaws. The expansion element  3  has restoration force which exerts a force on the support section  12  to enable the support section  12  to produce an expansion force whereby to hold patient&#39;s oral cavity open. In such an occasion, patient&#39;s oral cavity will produce a reaction force upon the support section  12  and pressing the support section  12  to a contraction state. The expansion element  3  will give the support section  12  a restoration fore again to expand the support section  12 . Such expansion and contraction interaction will proceed repeatedly to produce rehabilitation effect desired. When the expansion element  3  has outdone its elasticity, a new expansion element  3 ′ with a greater elasticity coefficient may be used to replace the used expansion element  3  (shown in FIG.  3 - 4 ). After rehabilitation exercise is finished, user may grasp the body  1  to pull the support section  12  out of patient&#39;s oral cavity. It is a simple operation and hygienic too. 
     FIG. 4-1 shows the third embodiment of this invention. It has a body  1  at one end and a substantially trapezoid-shaped support section  12 ′ at another end. The support section  12 ′ has an upper crunching section  121 ′ formed at a slant upper side thereof and a lower crunching section  122 ′ formed at the bottom side and a taper front end  125 ′. The upper crunching section  121 ′ has a plurality of bulged stubs  123 ′ formed thereon and the lower crunching section  122 ′ has a plurality of ditch grooves  124 ′ formed thereon. 
     Referring to FIGS. 4-2 and  4 - 3 , this embodiment may help patients to maintain rehabilitation result done in day time when they sleep at night. When in use, the patient may gradually insert the support section  12 ′ into the mouth through the taper end  125 ′ and use teeth to crunch the upper and lower crunching sections  121 ′ and  122 ′. The bulged stubs  123 ′ and ditch grooves  124 ′ will help to keep the support section  12 ′ securely in the oral cavity without slipping away during sleep and to maintain patients&#39; oral cavity at an expansion size desired. Depend on patient&#39;s rehabilitation progress, the support section  12 ′ may be gradually inserted into patient&#39;s oral cavity from the relatively thin front end to the thicker rear end for expanding the oral cavity to a larger extent desired. This will help to speed up rehabilitation. 
     All of above embodiments are simply structured and easy to use. They can help doing oral rehabilitation at a lower cost. The characteristics of the materials used also provide suitable protection effect. Take the first embodiment for instance, the pressure-resistant blade  2  is held in the compartment  11 . Hence in the event that the blade  2  is broken incidentally, it won&#39;t hurt the patient. Patient may do rehabilitation safely. 
     While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to preferred embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.