An impression tray for the lower mouth of an edentulous patient comprises a downwardly opening arch-shaped trough for holding impression material in contact with the gum tissue overlying the patient's mandible. The trough has a downwardly extending buccal flange along its outer side, and a downwardly extending lingual retaining wall along its inner side. The lingual retaining wall extends below the bottom edge of the buccal flange continuously for the length of the mylohyoid ridge in the patient's mandible to hold the floor of the mouth away from the mylohyoid ridge while the impression material covers the gum tissue overlying the ridge. A shelf spans the inside of the lingual retaining wall and projects inwardly toward the patient's tongue to support the tongue in an elevated position away from the mylohyoid ridge while the impression is taken. A single cast impression of the entire lower mouth is made from a first impression material carried in the impression tray, and a second impression material of a different color disposed in the mucobuccal and mucolabial folds and merged with the first impression material.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This is a continuation-in-part of my copending application, Ser. No. 80,269, filed Oct. 13, 1970 and now abandoned, which in turn is a continuation-in-part of my copending application, Ser. No. 15,652, filed Mar. 2, 1970 and now abandoned.
A dental impression tray particularly for the lower jaw which is designed with arcuate outer walls for the buccal side of the dental arch to locate the arch and has inner lingual walls angled to encircle and avoid contact with any tori growths within the dental arch, thus allowing the tray filled with soft and hardenable material to seat well within the dental arch to obtain a full tooth impression down to and below the gum line.
An impression tray for a dentate human jaw having a mobile mucosa and a stationary mucosa with a linear action boundary between the mucosae, the tray having an envelope which in plan follows the U-shape of the dental arch of the jaw and which has a U-shaped trough cross-section near the dental arch, the envelope having a buccal edge and a lingual edge or a palatal edge, the buccal edge and the lingual or palatal edge terminating substantially in the region of the mobile mucosa, the envelope being fillable with an impression material and being pressable onto the jaw. The U-shaped trough cross-section of the envelope extends around the associated dental arch and the stationary mucosa at a distance from them of less than 5 mm, preferably approximately 1 mm. The buccal edge and the lingual edge or palatal edge are pressable onto the mobile mucosa as a sealing strip beyond the action boundary near the mobile mucosa at least with the mobile mucosa mobilized. A narrow gap of, for example, at most 1 mm width can be left in places.
A prefabricated bite block structure is provided comprising a maxillary tray and a mandibular tray, each formed from a heat-deformable thermoplastic material. The maxillary tray generally corresponds to the maxillary alveolar ridge and palate of the human anatomy and is adapted to be positioned on the maxillary alveolar ridge. The mandibular tray generally corresponds to the mandibular ridge, retromolar pad areas, mucobuccal fold areas and mucolingual fold areas of the human mandible and is adapted to be positioned on the mandibular alveolar ridge. The maxillary and mandibular trays each have protrusions terminating in a flat, planar occlusal surface that corresponds at least to the area occupied by the canines, premolars and first molars. The planar occlusal surfaces of the trays correspond approximately to the plane of occlusion as defined by certain anatomical landmarks. The occlusal surfaces of the maxillary and/or mandibular trays are also adapted to receive and retain shim members which serve to increase, to the extent of the thickness of the shim member, the vertical dimension of the protruding occlusal surfaces of the maxillary and mandibular trays.
A dental retractor system used to manipulate positioning of the cheeks and to control saliva flow. The system includes a handle connected to first and second legs that are extended from the handle in a fork or horseshoe configuration. A pair of flaps distend from the legs and are angularly arranged to lie adjacent inner cheeks of the patient with or without interaction with a dry angle.
A system for customizing a dental device (10, 11) includes an arch (12, 14) operable to receive one or more of a user's teeth (16) and a deformable material (20, 32) that includes an aliphatic polyester. A delivery device (40) contains the deformable material (20, 32) and delivers at least some of the deformable material (20, 32) to a selected region of the arch (12, 14) to customize the dental device (10, 11) for the user. The aliphatic polyester may be a polycaprolactone polymer having the formula: ##STR1## where R is an aliphatic hydrocarbon.
