A TUBE AND A METHOD FOR PREPARATION OF A BITE REGISTRATION

Abstract

A tube (2) is formed of surgical mesh and has a closed end (4) and a filling end (5) including an opening (6). The tube (2) is packed with unset activated dental bite registration material forming a package. The package is located in an edentulous region of a patients jaw and teeth, particularly where two or more adjacent teeth are missing. A line of impression material is dispensed from a conventional impression material dispensing gun onto the upper surface of the located package and the occlusal surfaces of the subject's remaining teeth. The subject is then encouraged to bite normally into the package the line of impression material so that the impression material records the relative location of the occlusal surfaces of the subjects teeth during a bite. When the material has set the resulting bite registration (9) is removed. Models of the subjects dentition are fabricated from the conventional tray impressions and are then articulated using the bite registration (9) without requiring a wax block step.

Claims

1. A tube of mesh for preparation of a bite registration, closed at one end and open at the opposite end, whereby the tube can be packed with an impression material, forming a package and, in use can be located in an edentulous region of a patient's lower or upper jaw to take the bite registration of the edentulous region of the jaw and the respective opposing jaw or teeth, to facilitate the formation of a bite registration without a wax block procedure.

2. A tube according to claim 1 wherein the mesh, when packed with impression material, is sufficiently flexible to conform to the surface of teeth.

3. A tube according to claim 1 wherein the mesh is sufficiently porous to bond with a dental bite impression material and form a resilient record of the subject's bite when the impression material sets.

4. A tube according to claim 1 having at least a side wall and two opposing end walls, wherein a first end wall closes off the package to substantially resist the passage of unset impression material and a filling end wall includes a hole to receive the nozzle of a filling gun whereby the tube can be filled with impression material.

5. A tube according to claim 4 wherein the hole is tailored to closely fit a standard sized nozzle of an impression material gun.

6. A tube according to claim 4 including a resilient band extending around the filling end wall, wherein the resilient band encourages the filling end wall to an expanded condition to facilitate handling the tube.

7. A method of forming a bite registration of a patient's dentition where the patient is partially edentulous, comprising the steps of: packing a tube of mesh with an impression material forming a package; locating the package in the edentulous region of a patient's jaw; dispensing a line of impression material across the top of the package and the occlusal surfaces of the subject's remaining teeth; causing the subject to bite onto the package for a period sufficient to allow the impression material to set; removing the resulting bite registration.

8. A method according to claim 7 comprising packing the tube before locating the tube in the edentulous region.

9. A method according to claim 7 comprising the step of forming tray impressions of the patient's upper and lower jaw dentition during the same dental session; fabricating models of the subject's upper and lower jaw dentition from the tray impressions; using the bite registration to articulate the subject's dentition models without the need for a wax block step.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0025] A tube of surgical mesh and a method of taking the jaw registration of a patient's dentition where the patient is partially edentulous using a tube of surgical mesh, will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying figures in which:

[0026] FIG. 1 is a right side elevation of a patient's jaw;

[0027] FIG. 2 is a right side elevation impression of a patient's lower jaw taking an impression using a conventional impression tray;

[0028] FIG. 3 is a right side elevation illustrating a first step in the use of the surgical mesh tube;

[0029] FIG. 4 is a right side elevation illustrating a second step in the use of the surgical mesh tube;

[0030] FIG. 5 is a right side elevation illustrating a third step in the use of the surgical mesh tube;

[0031] FIG. 6 is an isometric view of the underside of a bite registration formed by the process;

[0032] FIG. 7 is an isometric view of an impression material gun in use to inject impression material into a tube;

[0033] FIG. 8 is an enlarged sectional view of the empty tube and gun;

[0034] FIG. 9 is a further enlarged sectional view of the tube; and

[0035] FIG. 10 is an enlarged isometric view showing a filling wall of the tube.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0036] FIG. 1 shows a model of a patient's jaw and dentition where the first and the second molar teeth, are missing from the right side of the lower jaw forming a vacancy. A model is used for illustration purposes because in a real patient much would be obscured by the surrounding facial tissue.

[0037] In the process of the invention the dentist takes a substantially conventional impression of the lower teeth and upper teeth. As illustrated in FIG. 2 a conventional impression tray 1 is filled with a conventional impression material and pressed down onto the patient's lower dentition. This is then left in place until the material sets and is removed. An impression of the upper jaw dentition is also taken using a new tray and similar conventional technique.

[0038] In order to securely take a bite registration utilising the edentulous area of the lower left first and second molars a tube 2 formed of surgical mesh is first filled with an impression material dispensed from a conventional gun 3 to form a package.

[0039] The tube of the embodiment is configured to have a length (L) of 12 mm height (H) of 5 mm and width (W) of 7 mm and is nominally cuboid, although the flexibility and porosity of the mesh and plasticity of the impression material prior to setting means that the package formed by the mesh tube and impression material can be significantly deformed. One end wall 4 is closed off by the surgical mesh. An opposite filling end wall 5 is partially closed off but incorporates a filling hole 6. Filling hole 6 is tailored to closely accommodate a nozzle 7 fitted to the gun 3. To facilitate handling and filling a resilient band 8 extends around the edge of the filling end wall 5.

[0040] With the impression material still unset the subject is encouraged to open their mouth and the package formed by the tube and impression material is located in the vacancy and secured in place. The plasticity of the package facilitates manipulation to allow the tube to be secured and manipulated to receive a faithful impression of the patient's jaw and teeth remaining adjacent the vacancy.

[0041] The surgical mesh is flexible and will contain the impression material while deforming to conform to the shape of teeth and jaw pressed into it. The tube 2 is closed at one end and deployed in the vacancy so that the open end faces out of the patient's mouth. With the tube 2 secured in place the practitioner uses the impression material dispensing gun 3 to eject impression material onto the package. Further impression material 8 is then extruded from the gun to overlie the occlusal surfaces of the remaining teeth as shown in FIG. 4. Containment should be understood to be partial as some unset impression material may weep through the mesh.

[0042] The patient is then encouraged to bite normally onto the package and the further extrusion material overlying the teeth as shown in FIG. 5. This action plastically deforms the package 2 and extrusion material to 8 reflect the position and shape of the subject's remaining teeth from each of the upper and lower jaw. The bite is held for a period sufficient to allow the impression material to set in each of the package and the further extrusion material. This setting process step will also bond the package and further material together.

[0043] Once set the subject is encouraged to open their mouth and the resulting bite registration 9 is removed by the dentist. The bite registration 9 now contains indentations 10 forming a record of how the subject's remaining lower teeth and indentations 11 formed by the subject's upper teeth relate to each other in a normal bite. Indentations 12 can also record the shape of the subject's edentulous gum.

[0044] The tray impressions of the patient's upper and lower dentition are used to fabricate models of each of the patient's upper jaw dentition and lower jaw dentition.

[0045] The bite registration 9 can then be used in conjunction with the models constructed from the conventional dental tray impressions to accurately relate the upper and the lower models together. The practitioner and patient can then directly move on to the proposed dental procedure at a second visit. The conventional requirement for a wax block procedure (made in the dental lab) at a second visit is obviated and the required number of patient visits to produce an articulated model of the patient's dentition is reduced from two to one.

[0046] In a variant of the tube the filling end wall may be shaped to be concave in order to better engage the gun nozzle. The concavity of the filling end wall may be conical.