Orthodontic feeding nipple

An orthodontic feeding nipple adapted for attachment to a feeding bottle, comprising:

• a one-piece, single-walled hollow body of elastomeric material and having a longitudinal axis, including:
• an annular connecting part adapted for attachment to the feeding bottle, said annular connecting part having an inner face and an outer face, with said outer face being disposed in a base plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis;
• a shell portion having a form of a body generated by revolution and being approximately hemispherically shaped, said shell portion including a first end integrally connected to said inner face of said annular connecting part and having a second end disposed from said base plane, said shell portion forming an opening for the passage of liquid therein;
• a hollow nozzle portion having a first end which is closed by a rounded tip and a second end including a narrowed neck part which is integrally connected to said second end of said shell portion, said second end of said hollow nozzle portion having a substantially constant cross section around its circumference in a region having the smallest outer diameter, said region being further defined as being taken in a reference plane that is parallel to said base plane, said hollow nozzle portion forming a continuation of the opening formed by said shell portion for the passage of liquid therein;
• and wherein
• said hollow body is mirror-symmetrical with respect to a plane of symmetry passing through the longitudinal axis;
• said rounded tip includes a point which is disposed further away from said base plane than all the remaining material of said hollow nozzle portion and said point is offset from the longitudinal axis of said body;
• said hollow nozzle portion includes an inner surface contoured such that all transverse planes which are parallel to said base plane from said reference plane to an inner surface of said rounded tip are substantially in the shape of an ellipse which has a minor axis located along the plane of symmetry;
• the elliptical shapes of the inner surface which are formed by the transverse planes parallel to said base plane between said reference plane and said rounded tip are sized such that when the ellipses are projected parallel to the longitudinal axis onto said reference plane, the ellipses are located at least 0.5 mm within an ellipse formed by the outer surface in said reference plane;
• a reference line located in said reference plane and perpendicular to said plane of symmetry centrally divides the ellipse formed by the outer surface in said reference plane, said reference line is offset between 2.3 to 3.3 mm from the longitudinal axis of said body in the same direction that said point of said rounded tip is offset from the longitudinal axis;
• a plane of division which divides said hollow nozzle portion into a first wall section and a second wall section, said plane of division is disposed through said point of said rounded tip and said reference line, the first wall section has a substantially constant cross section equal to the wall thickness of said hollow nozzle portion in said reference plane;
• and
• the second wall section has a wall thickness continuously increasing from said point of said rounded tip to a centrally located point between said point of said rounded tip and said neck part of said hollow nozzle portion, the wall thickness at said centrally located point of said second wall section being 1.5 to 3 times the wall thickness in said reference plane.