Patent ID: 8551107

Claim:
A bending tool and bone plate combination for reshaping a bone plate to conform to contours of a bone surface, the combination comprising: a bone plate having a pair of spaced-apart threaded, cylindrical elements removably attached to the bone plate and extending above a top surface of the bone plate; and a bending tool comprising: a handle; and a distal head attached to a distal end of the handle and having a cavity that is sized and shaped so that opposing surfaces of the cavity engage the threaded cylindrical elements at a first spacing between the threaded, cylindrical elements of approximately 5 mm and engage the threaded cylindrical elements at a second spacing between the threaded, cylindrical elements of approximately four to five times more than the first spacing; whereby a user, while holding the bone plate, may manually apply a leverage force to the bending tool while the cavity of the distal head is fitted over the pair of spaced-apart threaded, cylindrical elements to transmit a sufficient, regionalized bending moment to the bone plate through the pair of threaded, cylindrical elements to reshape the bone plate.