Oral appliance

An oral appliance for placing in a mouth of a user, the appliance including:

• a base member having a generally U-shaped form corresponding to the outline of a jaw of a user, the base member defining at least one channel within which an upper or lower row of teeth of a user can be received, and wherein the base member is made of polyethylene with less than 10% by weight of a thermoplastics material
• a teeth engaging element mounted over the base member in each channel made of a thermoplastics material that is able to be user conformed or user moulded to suit the individual mouth of the user.

A method of manufacturing an oral appliances for placing in the mouth of a user, the method including the steps of:

• molding a base member from plastic material in a first molding step in a first mould, the member having a generally U-shaped form corresponding to the outline of the jaw of a user and inner and outer flanges interconnected by a web which define at least one of upper and lower channels within which the corresponding rows of teeth of a user are received;
• arranging one or more spacings in the base member and;
• removing the base member from the first mould and placing it in a second mould having a larger mould cavity and moulding a continuous layer of thermoplastic material onto the base member to form at least one of the upper and lower teeth engaging elements capable of being customised to suit the mouth of a user, the layer encasing the member to thereby firmly and securely mount the layer of thermoplastic material on the base member.

Base member for an oral appliance for placing in a mouth of a user, having a generally U-shaped form corresponding to the outline of a jaw of a user, the base member defining at least one channel within which an upper or lower row of teeth of a user can be received, the base member further comprising shock absorbing means taking the form of pre-designated compressible sections in order to substantially absorb impact shock.