Molded dental press

A dental press for tensioned holding during a curing period of a workpiece such as a body of moldable material adhesively supporting a matching pair of dentures and corresponding oral models, at least one of which dentures bears curable relining material conformably held intermediate the denture and its model, said press comprising in combination:

• an open frame formed of upper and lower, generally annular plates, each plate having an obverse work-contact face and a reverse face, with the obverse faces being planar and disposed vertically spaced apart facing each other, said reverse faces each being formed with a pattern of upstanding, axially-outward directed, generally diametric ribs plus a peripheral ring which ring together with the diametric ribs form multiple spill-over catch basins, each of said plates being formed with at least one transverse aperture connecting its obverse and reverse faces and opening to one of said basins so as to enable passage thereto of small amounts of said moldable material which may be thus extruded from said workpiece upon initial pressure of the plates thereagainst when the workpiece is disposed therebetween,
• a trio of support posts laterally spaced apart about the perimeter of said vertically spaced plates, each post being of equal height and fixedly upstanding from the obverse face of said lower plate, the height of each being marked by an upper, plate abutment shoulder, each post having a radially reduced, threaded shaft arising from said shoulder and said upper plate being formed with transverse bores for reception of the threaded shafts therethrough when the plate is supported jointly upon said shoulders, and tensioning nut means threadedly disposable upon each of said threaded shafts for frictional registration with the reverse face of said upper plate, thereby to dispose the obverse faces of said upper and lower plates mutually parallel when disposed in frictional registration with said workpiece held therebetween, said press when holding a tensioned workpiece being disposable as a unit in a pressure chamber for accelerated curing of the relining material to its denture.