Inhaler for powdered medications

A powder inhaler comprising:

• powder housing means for holding a supply of powdered material to be dispensed, said powder housing means including an inhalation conduit extending therethrough in a first direction, in displaced relation to said supply of powdered material;
• metering plate means for holding a metered amount of said powdered material, said metering plate means including metered dose hole means for holding said metered amount of said powdered material, said metering plate means being positionable below said supply of powdered material, and said metering plate means and said powder housing means being relatively bi-directionally rotatable with respect to each other about a common central axis so that said metered dose hole means can be placed in fluid communication selectively with said supply of powdered material or said inhalation conduit;
• spring means for biasing said metering plate means and said powder housing means toward each other to maintain contact therebetween;
• a base having an axially extending retaining post thereon coaxial with said central axis;
• rotation limiting means for restricting relative rotation between said powder housing means and said metering plate means to a predetermined angle;
• counter means for providing a visual count of the number of doses of said powdered material that have been dispensed or remain to be dispensed in response to said relative restricted rotation of said powder housing means and said metering plate means, said counter means including:
• counter ring means for providing said visual count and including a continuous counter ring and a coaxially mounted intermittent counter ring, said counter ring means being mounted on said base in surrounding relation to said retaining post, being rotatable about said common central axis and having counting indicia thereon for displaying said visual count, and
• actuating means for incrementally rotating said counter ring means in response to said relative rotation between said metering plate means and said powder housing means, said actuating means including gear teeth around each of said continuous counter ring and said intermittent counter ring, and pawl means including a pawl for engagement with gear teeth of one of said counter rings and a pawl extension for engagement with gear teeth of the other of said counter rings, for rotating said continuous counter ring one increment each time that a dose of said powdered material is dispensed and for rotating said intermittent counter ring one increment every predetermined number of rotational increments of said continuous counter ring;
• spring means for biasing said pawl means into engagement with said gear teeth, said spring means having said pawl extension secured to the end thereof, at a height above said pawl;
• and
• display means through which at least one of said counting indicia is displayed to indicate a count corresponding to a number of doses of powdered material that have been dispensed or remain to be dispensed.