Patent Application
20250025258
The present invention relates generally to dental loupes with a headlight and hearing protection and more particularly to binocular dental surgical loupes with an LED headlight and hearing protection.
A dental diagnosis of the oral cavity often requires a headlight in combination with magnifying glasses that enables the dentist or technician to clearly see the state of the teeth and gums.
Headlights used for various diagnoses can be a light source simply attached to a head mounting means, or a goggle or glasses with a light source attached to a frame portion. These headlights are used by being mounted to the doctors or technicians head, so that the field of the light is set to face the line of sight when attached to the head. During diagnosis work, the light source brightly illuminates the part to be diagnosed, and there is no need to make adjustments each time a different section is illuminated. Since both hands of the operator are free, the work will be done very quickly and smoothly. It is often desired to protect the eyes of an operator from being injured by flying debris in addition to protecting the hearing of the user from being injured by excessive noise.
Solutions for these problem include providing separate safety glasses and earplugs. A problem occurs when a user can use only one protection device when both are needed for proper protection in the work environment. The problem with these solutions is that the user can wear the safety glasses without using the earplugs, thus, causing damage to his or her hearing or the user can wear the earplugs without the safety glasses thus potentially causing damage to his or her vision.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is disclosed a binocular dental surgical loupes with two transparent lenses mounted in a frame and joined together by the frame. A front guard portion between the two transparent lenses including a bridge portion for supporting the frame on the nose of a user. The frame includes front portions which are interconnected by the bridge portion and surround and hold the two transparent lenses in place. A pair of temples are mounted by hinge sections to the front portions. A pair of dental loupes disposed in front of the two transparent lenses. A light mounted to the frame and hearing protection comprising first and second earplugs mounted to the frame.
The structure, operation, and advantages of the present invention will become further apparent upon consideration of the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying FIGURES (FIGS.). The figures are intended to be illustrative, not limiting. Certain elements in some of the FIGURES may be omitted, or illustrated not-to-scale, for illustrative clarity. The cross-sectional views may be in the form of “slices”, or “near-sighted” cross-sectional views, omitting certain background lines which would otherwise be visible in a “true” cross-sectional view, for illustrative clarity.
In the drawings accompanying the description that follows, both reference numerals and legends (labels, text descriptions) may be used to identify elements. If legends are provided, they are intended merely as an aid to the reader, and should not in any way be interpreted as limiting.
In the description that follows, numerous details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that variations of these specific details are possible while still achieving the results of the present invention. Well-known processing steps are generally not described in detail in order to avoid unnecessarily obfuscating the description of the present invention.
In the description that follows, exemplary dimensions may be presented for an illustrative embodiment of the invention. The dimensions should not be interpreted as limiting. They are included to provide a sense of proportion. Generally speaking, it is the relationship between various elements, where they are located, their contrasting compositions, and sometimes their relative sizes that is of significance.
In the drawings accompanying the description that follows, often both reference numerals and legends (labels, text descriptions) will be used to identify elements. If legends are provided, they are intended merely as an aid to the reader, and should not in any way be interpreted as limiting.
Referring to
Referring to
The frame 20 includes the front portions 26 and 28 which are interconnected by the bridge portion 24 and surround and hold the two transparent lenses 16 and 18 in place. A pair of temples 30 and 32 are mounted by hinge sections 34 and 36 to the front portions 26 and 28.
Dental loupes 34 and 36 are placed in front of the two transparent lenses 16 and 18. The dental loupes 34 and 36 can be mounted directly to the lenses 16 and 18, or secured to a frame 38 which can be mounted to the guard portion 22 of the frame so that the dental loupes 34 and 36 can flip up and down in front of the lenses. This results in the dental loupes being adjustable, flexible and adaptable.
An ultra-mini light 12 can be mounted to the frame with a mounting clamp 40 with the ability to pivot so that the light can be adjusted with respect to the loupes 34 and 36. The ultra-mini light 12 can be connected to a battery through a wire 42 or alternatively be wireless.
Referring again to
In a preferred embodiment, the earplugs 46 and 48 are provided with a replaceable soft tip, electronics with integrated multi-band automatic amplitude control, and active noise attenuation without feedback noise cancellation. Each of the earplugs 46 and 48 preferably fit at least partially in an ear canal, and do not interfere with glasses, long hair, or helmets.
Although the invention has been shown and described with respect to a certain preferred embodiment or embodiments, certain equivalent alterations and modifications will occur to others skilled in the art upon the reading and understanding of this specification and the annexed drawings. In particular regard to the various functions performed by the above described components (assemblies, devices, etc.) the terms (including a reference to a “means”) used to describe such components are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated, to any component which performs the specified function of the described component (i.e., that is functionally equivalent), even though not structurally equivalent to the disclosed structure which performs the function in the herein illustrated exemplary embodiments of the invention. In addition, while a particular feature of the invention may have been disclosed with respect to only one of several embodiments, such feature may be combined with one or more features of the other embodiments as may be desired and advantageous for any given or particular application.
