A bioactive borate glass adhesive system is described for its composition and use in adhering a plurality of dental restorative components onto a tooth surface. The adhesive system comprises silanated borate bioactive glass particles and a biocompatible resin blend. The bioactive adhesive system functions as a non-degradable, permanent adhesive in tooth restoration in the presence of saliva. In addition, the bioactive borate adhesive system may be used for re-mineralization, de-sensitization and self-healing of dentin and enamel by releasing and depositing calcium and phosphate ions onto the exposed and damaged tooth surface.

The present invention relates in particular to the storage of dental material in a device (10, 10′) and the application of the dental material (20) from such a device (10,10′), and a method for treating dental material (20). In order to provide a solution that allows the simple and practical handling of a dental material (20) in the sense of storage, application and/or treatment thereof, inter alia, a device (10, 10′) for storage and application (20) comprising a cavity (12) for storage of the dental material (20) and a wall (14) surrounding the cavity (12) is proposed, wherein the wall (14) in at least a first temperature range is impermeable to radiation of at least a first wavelength or a first wavelength range in the range of 100 nm to 500 nm, wherein the wall (14) comprises at least one area that at least in a second temperature range is permeable to radiation of at least a second wavelength or a second wavelength range in the range of 600 nm to 50,000 nm.

A patient support apparatus includes a plurality of primary sensors adapted to measure different parameters used in the control of the patient support apparatus. One or more suites of secondary sensors are added to the patient support apparatus to provide data about the primary sensors. The secondary sensors may be used to detect errors in the primary sensors, to modify outputs from the primary sensors, and/or to provide usage and/or diagnostic data about the use of the patient support apparatus. The suite(s) of secondary sensors may measure parameters that affect the outputs of one or more of the primary sensors. In some embodiments, the suite(s) of secondary sensors include one or more dormant sensors that are not used on the patient support apparatus until a code modification is received from one or more external sources instructing the control system of the patient support apparatus to begin using the dormant sensor(s).

A dental material dispensing device has a plunger means which for dispensing the dental material is movable for urging at least one component of a dental material toward a dispensing area. The device further has cure control means with an energy source and a flow path on which the dental composition and/or the dental material flows past the energy source during dispensation. The device is operable for exposing the dental composition and/or the dental material to a specific energy by control of the energy source and/or by control of the speed of the flow of the dental composition and/or the dental material on the flow path. The device is configured for dispensing a coherent strand of dental material in a dispensing cycle. The device is further configured for operating in a first dispensing mode and additionally in a second dispensing mode during the same dispensing cycle. The ratio between the specific energy in the second dispensing mode and the specific energy in the first dispensing mode is smaller than 1.

A dental apparatus is disclosed that includes an elongated body, a plurality of light-emitting elements distributed along the elongated body, and a controller configured to individually enable the plurality of light-emitting elements.

Systems and methods for additive manufacturing of ZrO.sub.2 ceramic objects, and in particular ZrO.sub.2-based ceramic dental crowns. A method includes mixing a doped ZrO.sub.2 powder with a photo-curable resin to produce a printing mixture, 3D printing of a dental crown green body structure using the printing mixture, wherein the 3D printing includes an advanced digital light processing (ADLP) process using a gradient printing technique to form a color gradient in the dental crown green body structure, debinding the dental crown green body structure to remove organic polymers using one of a thermal debinding process, an infrared debinding process, and a laser debinding process, sintering the debound dental crown structure to produce a densified dental crown structure using one of a pressureless sintering process, a laser sintering process, and an electric field sintering process, and surface engineering the densified dental crown structure to produce a finished dental crown structure using one of a mechanical polishing process, a laser polishing process, a laser shock peening process, a shot peening process, and a water jet process.

The invention relates to a method for sealing of a circumferentially closed canal. A closure element is secured to one free end of a light guide conducting a laser beam. The light guide with the closure element is introduced into the canal. The closure element is positioned in the region of the canal to be sealed and after positioning of the closure element energy is introduced, so that the closure element melts or softens and remains in this position in the canal and seals it tightly.

A method of charging a battery of a dental light irradiation device has the steps of powering the battery at a first charging current and measuring a first terminal voltage of the battery; powering the battery at a different second charging current and measuring a second terminal voltage of the battery; calculating a battery source voltage; and powering off the battery as soon as the battery source voltage reaches or exceeds the threshold voltage.

This invention relates to a tooth repair system including a method of: drilling an aperture in, e.g., a broken anterior tooth to a predetermined depth; providing a fiber optic—preferably of a diameter of between 0.3 and 1 millimeter and elastic modulus of between 22 GPa and 83 GPa—with a length longer than the predetermined depth; placing and adhering the fiber optic within the first aperture so that a portion of the fiber optic is exposed beyond the broken tooth surface; and restoring the broken tooth surface around the exposed fiber optic so that the fiber optic anchors a restored tooth portion to the broken tooth surface. The system also provides a tooth repair pin with the above characteristics, being acid-etched and silane coated with a carrier sleeve.

The invention relates to a dental light curing apparatus, having a display device on or at a housing wall of the light curing apparatus, especially on the upper face of the light curing apparatus, having a plurality of light sources, which are arranged below said wall and facing the wall, wherein at least part of the wall is transparent to the light radiation emitted from the light sources, wherein the wall comprises a smooth outer surface, and an equally essentially smooth inner surface of the wall is provided with a negative pattern (18), and especially is printed, leaving the symbols (14) free, which negative pattern (18) is light-impermeable or essentially light-impermeable, and that the wall is superimposed onto the light source structure, which comprises partition walls (32), which separate the light sources (30) from each other.