Removable dental implant appliance mounting

Abstract

An improved dental prostheses includes an implant abutment mounted to an abutment tooth and having an endless O-ring groove formed about the outer axial surface of the implant abutment in a plane generally transverse to the implant abutment axis. The implant abutment has a tapered surface which mates closely with a similarly tapered retainer cavity in the dental prosthesis to frictionally support the same and has a complementary O-ring groove defined in the retainer surface. A resilient O-ring retentive element is fitted over the implant abutment such that the ring cross section is partly received within the implant abutment groove and partly within the retainer groove, thereby forming a resilient interference fit between the dental prosthesis and the implant abutment. The arrangement enables easy removal of the prosthesis for hygiene related activities and application to multiple abutments to support an appliance.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.