Patent ID: 8113837

Claim:
An oral appliance for delivering a medicament to teeth and soft tissue areas inside a mouth, the oral appliance being custom fit to the mouth and comprising a non-porous exterior surface that prevents the medicament from being diluted by saliva and an interior surface having a porous material disposed on at least a portion of the interior surface of the oral appliance, the porous material comprising a sponge or foam pre-filled with one or more doses of the medicament and the interior surface being custom fit and formed to fit contours of the teeth and soft tissue areas inside the mouth and being capable of supporting and holding the porous material to deliver the medicament, wherein the interior surface is formed from a hard thermoplastic material molded to correspond to the contours of the teeth and soft tissue areas inside the mouth and the porous material is supported and held within a cargo area of the interior surface of the thermoplastic material of the oral appliance and the cargo area is continuous and is configured to extend adjacent to the gums and all the teeth and the sponge or foam is a single continuous piece disposed in the cargo area and is configured to extend, along a length of the sponge or foam, from buccal surfaces of the teeth and surrounding gingival tissue, over occlusal surfaces of the teeth, over lingual surfaces of the teeth, and over adjacent gingival tissue on a lingual side of the teeth and the sponge or foam has a surface that corresponds to the cargo area and the sponge or foam has a portion having increased thickness, extending in a direction transverse to the length of the sponge or foam, that is complementary to and locks into the cargo area.