Patent ID: 8449482

Claim:
A hand-held tool for vibration anesthesia, comprising: a hollow body having opposite forward and rearward ends, and a hand-grip portion adapted to be held between the thumb and at least one finger during use of the tool; a battery operatively mounted in the body; a door removably mounted on the body to provide access to the battery; a hollow head at the forward end of the body and having opposite proximal and distal ends; an electric vibratory motor mounted in the head and electrically coupled to the battery; a switch on the body or the head to turn the motor on and off; and a tip having a proximal end extending into the head and a distal end extending forwardly from the head configured for transferring vibrations from the motor to an anesthesia zone on a person's skin when the tip touches the skin, thereby numbing the zone; the tip having a concave surface extending between the ends of the tip, the concave surface terminating in a C-shaped edge adapted to provide a continuous line of contact with the skin; the proximal end of the tip and the motor being adjacent one another inside the head; the anesthesia zone defining a target area configured to be positioned on the skin adjacent the C-shaped edge for a needle insertion; the tip having a longitudinal axis extending between the proximal and distal ends of the tip; the body having a longitudinal axis extending between the forward and rearward end of the body; the longitudinal axes of the tip and the body being non-parallel to one another; a substantially continuous line extending along a lower portion of the distal end of the head and extending along the proximal end of the tip to the distal end of the tip; and the tip having an increasing diameter from the proximal end of the tip to the distal end of the tip.