Dental night guard
OwnerEdward N. Yousifinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A dental guard is provided with a two layer construction wherein a soft layer is bonded to a hard layer. The soft layer makes contact with the user's upper set of teeth while the hard layer forms the exterior of the dental guard. The soft layer provides a dental guard which is comfortable to wear and less stressful on the user's teeth while the hard layer provides the desired durability.
Claims15
A dental guard used to protect the teeth of a user comprising:
- a hard layer created from an impression of both sets a user's set of teeth, said hard layer comprising an interior surface, said interior surface having a shape conjugate to a first set of the user's teeth wherein said interior surface has been altered to remove facial and lingual impressions created by the first set of teeth and an exterior surface contacting the user's opposite set of teeth when said guard is in use, said exterior surface having indentations from the second set of the user's teeth;
- and
- a soft layer bonded to said interior surface of said hard layer, said soft layer having an exterior surface, said exterior surface having a shape conjugate to said interior surface of said hard layer.
A method for making a dental guard comprising the following steps:
- forming a hard guard, said hard guard having an interior and an exterior surface;
- placing said hard guard on a model of a user's first set of teeth;
- sealing any gap between said model and said hard guard;
- flasking said model and said hard guard so that said lower half of said flask will contain said model and said upper half of said flask will contain said hard guard when said flasking is completed;
- applying a soft layer material to said model;
- assembling said flask so that said soft layer material comes in contact with said hard guard;
- exerting pressure on said flask causing said soft layer to take the shape of said interior surface of said hard guard;
- curing said flask containing said hard guard and said soft layer and;
- bonding said soft layer to said hard guard.
A method for making a dental guard comprising the following steps:
- forming a hard guard;
- placing said hard guard on a model of a user's first set of teeth;
- sealing any gap between said model and said hard guard with wax;
- forming two tube-like structures with said wax behind a rear-most molar on each side of said model;
- injecting a soft material through said tube-like structures so that said soft material will spread between said model and said hard guard, bonding to said hard guard;
- and
- removing said bonded hard and soft material.
A dental guard used to protect a first set of teeth having a first profile comprising:
- a hard layer comprising an interior surface and an exterior surface;
- said interior surface of said hard layer comprising impressions having a shape conjugate to said first profile;
- a soft layer having an inner surface and an outer surface,
- said inner surface is in contact with said interior surface and comprises impressions having a shape similar to the first profile,
- said outer surface comprises impressions having a shape conjugate to said first profile.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.