Molar appliance for orthodontic therapy
Assignee3M Innovative Properties Company
InventorJirina V. Pospisil
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An orthodontic appliance for a molar tooth has a latch that is movable between an open position to admit or release an archwire into an archwire slot and a closed position to retain the archwire in the archwire slot. In one aspect of the invention, the appliance lacks tiewings and has a mesial archwire guide that is spaced from a distal archwire guide by a channel that extends in a generally occlusal-gingival direction across the appliance. In another aspect of the invention, the appliance includes a flange with at least one groove for retaining a wire segment or other item in place.
Claims15
An orthodontic appliance for a molar tooth comprising:
- a base for connecting the appliance to a molar tooth;
- a body extending from the base, the body having a mesial side portion and a distal side portion;
- a mesial archwire guide connected to the mesial side portion of the body;
- a distal archwire guide connected to the distal side portion of the body;
- an archwire slot extending across the mesial archwire guide and the distal archwire guide in generally mesial-distal direction;
- and
- a latch for releasably retaining an archwire in the archwire slot, the latch being movable from a slot-open position for admitting the archwire in the archwire slot to a slot-closed position for retaining the archwire in the archwire slot, wherein the latch comprises a mesial clip located mesially of the mesial archwire guide and a distal clip located distally of the distal archwire guide,
- wherein the appliance lacks tiewings, wherein the distal archwire guide is spaced from the mesial archwire guide to present a channel that extends in a general occlusal-gingival direction, wherein the mesial clip is smaller in overall dimensions than the distal clip in directions along a buccolabial-lingual reference axis, and wherein the mesial archwire guide is smaller in overall dimensions than the distal archwire guide in directions along buccolabial-lingual reference axis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.