Patent ID: 7588576

Claim:
A bone plate to bone material affixing system comprising: a holder comprising screw guide means temporarily retaining and aligning for proper insertion bone screws adapted to affix a bone plate to bone material, and further comprising bone plate retainer means temporarily retaining a bone plate; a bone plate releasably mounted to said holder, said bone plate comprising screw receiving apertures to receive said bone screws; and bone screws having screw heads, said bone screw heads being disposed within said screw guide means, wherein said screw guide means are sized such that said bone screw heads pass completely through said holder when fully inserted into said screw receiving apertures of said bone plate, whereby said bone plate is affixed to bone material by said bone screws, and further wherein said holder is removable from said bone plate when said bone plate is so affixed wherein said screw guide means comprise a plurality of bores, and wherein the diameter of said bores essentially corresponds to the diameter of said screw heads, such that said screws are frictionally retained within said bores.