Back to results
US 4,053,983 AGranted
Prophylactic angle head for use with a dental handpiece
OwnerLloyd P. Flatlandinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Loading patent…
Loading patent…
OwnerLloyd P. Flatlandinventor
Estimating the term…
A prophylactic angle head for a dental handpiece having a driver in a threaded casing has a housing made up of an upper housing shell and a lower housing shell. The shells have faces meeting on a common plane. When put together the shells define an approximately spherical interior chamber having an opening to the outside and define a tube in communication with the chamber. The threaded casing engages matching threads on the housing shells to hold them together and to assemble them to the driving handpiece. A driver in the handpiece casing is coupled to a drive shaft in the housing. A bearing sleeve carries the drive shaft and is snugly seated between the two shells and assists in holding them against movement relative to each other. A bevel gear on the end of the drive shaft meshes with another bevel gear on an elongated hub and mounted for rotation on a hard, tungsten carbide pin seated in the upper shell and extending along an axis normal to that of the drive shaft. The hub extends toward the opening and is internally threaded to receive a dental tool.
A prophylactic angle head for a dental handpiece comprising an upper housing shell having a planar face and having a first end portion enclosing an upper half-chamber and having a first shank portion enclosing an upper half-tube, a lower housing shell having a planar face and having a second end portion enclosing a lower half-chamber and having a second shank portion enclosing a lower half-tube, means for holding said upper housing shell and said lower housing shell with said planar faces in abutment and with said half-chambers and said half-tubes facing each other, a bearing sleeve in said half-tubes and substantially abutting said shells, a stationary journal pin fixed in said first end portion and extending through said upper half-chamber and substantially through said lower half-chamber, a hollow gear hub rotatably mounted on said pin and extending substantially through said upper half-chamber and said lower half-chamber, a first bevel gear fast on said gear hub, a shaft extending through said bearing sleeve, and a second bevel gear fast on said shaft and engaging said first bevel gear.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
Drawings are temporarily unavailable. Open the PDF at USPTO
No related US applications are recorded in the indexed filing history.
Machine parts specially adapted for dentistry: angle hand-pieces
Flexible shafts; Clutches or the like; Bearings or lubricating arrangements; Drives or transmissions: drives or transmissions
Devices for cleaning, polishing, rinsing or drying teeth, teeth cavities or prostheses ; Saliva removers; Dental appliances for receiving spittle:…
Dentistry
Term ended 18 Oct 1994 (estimated)
USPTO file history isn’t available for this patent, so only indexed dates are shown.
For use by a dentist or dental assistant or hygienist in cleaning teeth and like operations, there is provided a so-called prophylactic angle handpiece head or "prophy angle" that can be attached to a straight handpiece of the usual sort. Normally such a straight handpiece has a casing enclosing a rotating, axially extending driver, and the casing is designed to receive a working attachment, such as a prophy angle head. The prophy angle head has a relatively difficult role in that it must operate under substantial load and must operate well and long even when considerable abrasive material and the like is present. The prophy angle head is inclusive of an angle drive for best use. It must be relatively cheap as well as effective, since such handpieces are intended to be discarded from time to time as the wear rate is relatively great and the bearings and comparable structures at best have a relatively short life.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a highly effective prophy angle head adapted for attachment to a straight handpiece and having an internal construction that is quite satisfactory as to bearing life and is capable of operating under relatively abrasive surroundings.
Another object of the invention is to provide a prophy angle head that is simple enough and can be economically enough manufactured so that after a relatively short time of use it can economically be discarded and replaced.
Other objects, together with the foregoing, are attained in the embodiment of the invention described in the accompanying description and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a prophylactic angle head assembled with a straight driver handpiece;
FIG. 2 is a side elevation of the device of FIG. 1; and
While the prophy angle head can be variously mounted and employed, it has with considerable success been embodied as shown herein. In this representative instance there is made available a prophy angle head having an end section 6 with internal threads 7 ending at an internal shoulder 8. The end section has an aliging notch 9 adapted to engage a pin 10 or screw on the nose cone of the handpiece. Within the handpiece is a power driven collet 11 or chuck rotatable about a longitudinal axis 12.
Pursuant to the invention a housing 14 is provided. This is made up of an upper housing shell 16 and a lower housing shell 17. These shells include a generally spherical or first end portion 18 and a communicating, tubular shank portion 19. The upper shell 16 on a lower face has a planar surface 20, whereas the lower shell 17 has a planar upper surface 21. The arrangement is such that when the shells are positioned with the planar surfaces 20 and 21 in abutment, the so-formed housing 14 can be assembled symmetrically with the planar surfaces 20 and 21 on the axis 12. The shells are held in assembled location partly by engagement of the threads 7 with external threads 22 on the upper shell and 23 on the lower shell.
Within the upper shell 16 there is provided a hollow journal pin 26 having a shoulder 27. The pin extends through an opening 28 in the upper shell and is held in position by an enlarged or riveted cap 29. The journal pin 26 extends along an axis 31 at right angles to or normal to the axis 12 and intersects such axis on a center 33 that is also the center of the outer spherical portion of the shells. There is also provided a generally circular-cylindrical compartment 36.