Ultrasonic dental tool with wear threshold indicator, wear indicator tool, and method of determining tool wear
AssigneeUltrasonics Plus LLC
InventorRichard H. Paschke
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A dental ultrasonic tool configured to connect to a magnetostrictive or piezoelectric transducer of a dental instrument operating in the frequency range between 18 kHz and 50 kHz. The tool includes a tip and a singular surface marking having a minimum width of 0.5 mm disposed on the tip. The tip includes a distal point as a datum. The singular surface marking is spaced-apart from the distal point of the tip and defines at least one edge. The at least one edge is not coincident with a first flexural node of the tip at an operating frequency of the tip. Dental ultrasonic tip wear measurement tools for measuring the wear on a tip are also provided.
Claims20
A dental ultrasonic tool configured to connect to a magnetostrictive or piezoelectric transducer of a dental instrument operating in the frequency range between 18 kHz and 50 kHz, the dental ultrasonic tool comprising:
- a tip defining a distal point as a datum;
- and
- a singular surface marking having a minimum width of 0.5 mm disposed on the tip, the singular surface marking spaced-apart from the distal point of the tip and defining at least one edge, the at least one edge being not coincident with a first flexural node of the tip at an operating frequency of the tip, wherein the first flexural node is measured from the distal point of the tip along the tip in a mesial direction.
A dental ultrasonic tip wear measurement tool, comprising:
- a surface;
- a reference point disposed on the surface and configured for placement of a distal point of an ultrasonic dental tip thereon as a datum;
- a first reference line intersecting the reference point;
- a second reference line perpendicular to the first reference line, the second reference line configured for alignment of a distal portion of the ultrasonic dental insert tip thereon;
- a third reference line parallel to the first reference line and spaced-apart from the first reference line a distance equal to a wear threshold limit of the ultrasonic dental tip.
An dental ultrasonic tip wear measurement tool, comprising:
- a body defining a hole through a surface thereof into an interior thereof, the hole configured to receive a distal portion of a dental ultrasonic tip, wherein at least one dimension of the hole is complementary to at least one dimension of the distal portion of the dental ultrasonic tip to substantially constrain the distal portion of the dental ultrasonic tip within the hole in at least one direction;
- and
- a wear threshold limit indicator defined by or disposed on the body.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.