Powered cutting surface with protective guard for equine teeth

An arrangement of a tool insertable into the mouth of a house for the care and maintenance of teeth while providing protection of soft tissue within the mouth of the horse and comprising in combination:

• an electric rotary motor having a means to hold said tool along the axis of rotation of said motor, said tool having a tooth cutting surface of a preselected size and shape;
• a shaft having one end mounted to said cutting surface and the other end attachable to said motor holding means thereby supplying rotational motion to said tool;
• a shaft support means having a bearing mounted at a preselected position within said shaft support means and a bearing seal mounted at a position between said bearing and said cutting surface through which said shaft may be inserted and supported for rotary motion without binding;
• a hand piece having a channel through which said shaft support means is removably insertable;
• and,
• a cutting surface guard fabricated as a portion of said hand piece and shaped to be in encircling relation about a selected portion of said cutting surface thereby exposing only a portion of said cutting surface under the condition of said shaft support means, having said shaft inserted therein, is mounted within said shaft support channel of said hand piece and said shaft engaged within said holding means thereby allowing a user of the arrangement to guide said hand piece containing the partially guarded tool into the mouth of the horse to separate said soft tissue from a preselected portion of a tooth with said cutting surface guard and position the unguarded portion of said cutting surface against a tooth to remove a selection portion of said tooth by means of said tool in rotary motion;
• a flexible shaft having one end adaptively mountable to said motor thereby supplying rotational motion to said flexible shaft and the other end having a means to hold said tool along the axis of rotation of the flexible shaft thereby separating said motor from said tool so that said motor may be supported at a position remote from said tool;
• a clutch mounted with one end in communication with said motor and another end remote from said motor in communicated with said flexible shaft thereby providing interruptible transmission of motion from said motor to said cutting surface in communication with said flexible shaft said clutch further comprises means to adjust the threshold of torque at which said motion is interrupted.

An electric motor powered arrangement insertable into the mouth of a horse for the care and maintenance of equine teeth while providing protection of soft tissue within the mouth of the horse and comprising in combination:

• a tool having a tooth material removal surface;
• a shaft having a first end mounted to said tool and a second end attachable to said electric motor whereby said tooth material removal surface has a powered motion;
• a hand piece fabricated with an internal shaft channel;
• a bearing support sleeve;
• at least one bearing mounted within said support sleeve at a preselected position whereby said bearing accepts the insertion of said shaft through said bearing thereby exposing the end of said shaft remote from said tooth removal surface, said bearing support sleeve mounted with said internal shaft channel whereby said exposed end of said shaft is attachable to said electric motor, said bearing providing support for said shaft under the condition of said tooth material removal surface tool being guided into contact with a preselected tooth and pressed against the tooth until a preselected portion of the tooth is removed while said tooth material removal surface is under powered motion;
• a protective shield fabricated as part of said hand piece at a preselected position and shaped to expose a preselected portion of said tooth material removal surface of said tool retained within said hand piece, said exposed portion guided into contact with a preselected portion of the tooth whereby the remaining non-exposed surface is separated from other portions of the horses mouth including said soft tissue;
• and,
• a sleeve mountable over said shaft within said shaft hand piece whereby said sleeve provides additional bearing means between said shaft and said hand piece without binding.