Orthodontic archwire, apparatus, package and method
AssigneeUniversity of Iowa Research Foundation
InventorGeorge F. Andreasen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Mesial-distal slippage of an orthodontic archwire is deterred by manufacturing a parabolic archwire with a bend at its vertex. The bend has a height incapable of entering the wire-receiving slots of the brackets on a patient's teeth.
Claims23
An orthodontic archwire, comprising,
- a single piece of wire, said wire having a generally parabolic shape and having a slip-preventing lateral protrusion thereon, said lateral protrusion being located approximately midway along the length of the wire so as to lie between brackets mounted on the central incisors of an orthodontic patient, said lateral protrusion having a direction and size which is incapable of slipping through slots in orthodontic brackets.
An orthodontic apparatus including a plurality of bracket means and an archwire, said apparatus having means for attaching two of said bracket means to the central incisors of an orthodontic patient, each said bracket means having a wire-receiving slot formed therein, said archwire extending through said slots, said archwire having a lateral protrusion thereon at a location which lies between said two brackets, said lateral protrusion having a direction and size which is incapable of sliding through said slots so as to limit sliding movement of the archwire relative to the brackets in a mesial-distal direction.
A package for supplying archwires to orthodontists, said package including
- a container,
- a plurality of archwires in said container,
- each of said archwires being in the shape of a parabola provided with a localized lateral protrusion which has a size and shape which is incapable of sliding through a slot of an orthodontic bracket so as to limit the extent to which an archwire may slide in a mesial-distal direction when it is connected to orthodontic brackets attached to a patient's teeth,
- said lateral protrusion being a V-shaped bend in the wire having a length of about 1 to 3 mm and a height of at least about 0.7 mm.
A method of manufacturing and handling orthodontic archwires including the steps of,
- preshaping a plurality of archwires at a manufacturing facility, said preshaping step including the steps of forming a wire into a parabolic shape which has a a lateral protrusion at its vertex, said lateral protrusion having a size which is incapable of passing through the notch of an orthodontic bracket, and sending a plurality of preshaped archwires from said manufacturing facility to an orthodontist for installation in the mouths of orthodontic patients.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.