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US 6,270,343 B1Granted
Endodontic thermal condenser dental instrument
OwnerHoward Martininventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A self-contained root canal dental instrument that combines the operations of a root canal spreader, a root canal condenser, and a root canal filling material heater in a less expensive and easier to replace plugger unit. A different heating circuit using balanced resistor elements in both the hand piece and the tip makes use of the instrument more cost effective for the dentist. The instrument combines a sterilizable condenser tip with the capability of achieving the correct heating temperature via standard AA alkaline batteries.
Claims2
A self-contained root canal heated condenser dental instrument, comprising:
- a hollow handle component for gripping and including a conductive path substantially from end to end;
- a removable closure mountable at one end of said handle and having a first terminal therein for connection to said conductive path;
- a battery power source seated inside the hollow of said handle and having a first terminal in contact with the first terminal of said closure;
- a switch mounted on said handle for selectively applying a second terminal of said power source to a balance resistor located inside said handle;
- a plugger component having a heat-dissipating resistive tip bonded to an extended portion and a pair of conductive leads internal to said extended portion and in contact with said tip, said plugger coPonent being insertable into another end of said handle such that said resistor makes electrical contact with one of said pair of conductive leads, and the other of said conductive leads completes a conductive circuit to said conductive path;
- whereby upon depression of said switch power is applied through said pair of internal conductive leads to generate heat at the heat-dissipating tip for heating, spreading and condensing root canal filling material when filling root canal cavities.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.