Mouthguard with conformable arch liners
AssigneeTrident Laboratories, Inc.
InventorLoren S. Adell
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A mouthguard that has a body having upper and lower troughs conforming generally to the upper and lower arches. Liners of impression material are disposed in the respective troughs for conformance to the actual impressions of the teeth of the arches. The body has an occlusal wall that contains a series of spaced-apart air/saliva ducts extending in a lingual/buccal sense to establish lingual/buccal fluid communication. The liners are mechanically interlocked to the mouthguard body by interlocking material that extend along the edges of the respective troughs and also by integral connections which extend through the occlusal wall between the two troughs in bridging portions of the occlusal wall that separate the air/saliva ducts.
Claims10
A mouthguard preform comprising a body having at least one trough for an arch, liner material disposed in said trough for securing an impression of the teeth of the arch when deformed by said teeth and thereby conforming the mouthguard to the teeth of the arch when the preform subsequently becomes a usable mouthguard;
- and joining means joining the liner material to said body comprising mechanical interlocking means for mechanically interlocking the liner to the body, in which said interlocking means is disposed at the occlusal wall of the trough and comprises material integral with said liner which extends through one or more apertures through said occlusal wall and interlocks with the side of the occlusal wall opposite the side containing said trough both before and after the teeth of the arch are impressed in said liner material, said joining means further comprising the liner material being directly molded onto said body and extending through said apertures and engaging the opposite side of said occlusal wall while in its undeformed state.
In a mouthguard comprising a body that has a lingually disposed portion, a buccally disposed portion, and an occlusal wall which is disposed between said two portions and which is adapted to be bitten upon by the teeth the improvement comprising one or more air/saliva ducts passing completely horizontally from said lingually disposed portion through the occlusal wall to said buccally disposed portion to establish a lingual/buccal communication for the user of the mouthguard when the mouthguard is in use.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.