Dental suction appliance

A method of fabricating a dental appliance for deflecting the tongue and aspirating liquids in the mouth of a patient undergoing dental work, comprising:

• disposing a core pin inside a mold cavity;
• wherein the mold cavity is shaped to form an aspirator from a unitary piece of plastic;
• the aspirator comprising a tongue deflector on its distal end and an aspirator tube on its proximal end;
• the aspirator further comprising an aspiration channel spanning along the aspirator tube from the proximal end to a location at the tongue deflector;
• wherein the aspiration channel is formed by the core pin;
• supporting the core pin inside the mold cavity with a support pin;
• and
• injecting plastic in the mold cavity to form the unitary aspirator around the core pin.

A dental apparatus, comprising:

• an aspirator having an aspiration tube portion at its proximal end and a tongue deflector portion at its distal end;
• wherein tongue deflector portion is configured to be positioned at near a treatment location in a patient's mouth;
• wherein the tongue deflector portion extends laterally from an axis of the aspiration tube portion to control movement of the patient's tongue at said location;
• wherein the aspiration tube section comprises an aspiration channel extending from the proximal end to the tongue deflector for aspirating liquids at or near the treatment location;
• and
• wherein the tongue deflector portion and the aspirator tube portion are formed from a single, contiguous, unitary member.