Dental appliance
AssigneeSnap On Smile LLC
InventorM. Leichtung
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An appliance fabricated to improve the appearance of a patient's smile includes a plurality of simulated teeth. The interior surfaces of each of the teeth closely fits and conforms to the surface of a patient's real teeth while the outer surfaces of each of the simulated teeth has an ideal surface configuration. The dental appliance provides the patient with the appearance of a perfect set of teeth and an ideal smile without a need to alter the dental structure of the patient's teeth.
Claims13
A dental appliance comprising a plurality of hollow teeth with said hollow teeth forming a dental arch, with each hollow teeth comprising an outer surface and an inner surface wherein selected teeth of said plurality of hollow teeth have thicker walls relative to adjacent hollow teeth.
(canceled)
A method of fabricating a dental appliance comprising the steps of:
- creating an impression of a patient's dental arch;
- creating an impression of a patient's counter arch;
- creating a bite registration impression;
- fabricating an appliance with an arch of hollow teeth using the impression of the patient's dental arch, the impression of the patient's counter arch, and the patient's bite registration impression and forming selected teeth on said arch with thicker walls relative to adjacent teeth on said arch.
A dental appliance comprising a plurality of hollow teeth with said hollow teeth forming a dental arch, the hollow teeth having walls on a buccal aspect of the appliance which increase in wall thickness from anterior to posterior location.
A method of fabricating a dental appliance comprising the steps of:
- creating an impression of a patient's dental arch;
- creating an impression of a patient's counter arch;
- creating a bite registration impression;
- fabricating a dental appliance arch of hollow teeth using the impression of the patient's dental arch, the impression of the patient's counter arch and the patient's bite registration impression, and wherein the appliance arch on a buccal aspect has walls forming hollow teeth with increasing thickness from anterior to posterior location.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.