Claims
- 1. An accessory for dental practitioners during dental procedures utilizing a dental instrument held in one hand comprising a shallow miniature tray-like support formed with at least one upwardly opening recess therein, said one recess containing a flexible absorbent wiping material adapted for repetitive contact during the procedure with the instrument, said recess being contoured to impart to said flexible material a lateral distortion from its undistorted configuration and thereby promote retention of said material in said recess, said tray-like support having on a side opposite said recess anchoring means adapted for anchoring said support on the back of the opposite hand of the practioner to expedite and facilitate said repetitive contact of the instrument with said medium.
- 2. The accessory of claim 1 in which said wiping medium is a body of a flexible hydrophilic polymeric foam which has a generally uniform cellular structure and is capable of absorbing oral fluids, said body being retained within said recess by lateral distortion imparted by the contour of said recess.
- 3. The accessory of claim 2 in which said polymeric foam is a hydrophilic polyurethane foam.
- 4. The accessory of claim 1 wherein said instrument has thereon a sharp edge capable of penetrating the practitioner's skin upon accidental contact therewith and said shallow recess is defined by a bottom wall and generally upstanding side walls on said support, said support being constituted of a stiffly resilient tough material adapted to resist penetration thereof by said sharp edge, whereby risk of skin penetration by said sharp instrument edge during periodic contact thereof with said flexible absorbent material is significantly reduced.
- 5. The accessory of claim 1 useful for dental prophylaxis employing a polishing medium wherein said support comprises at least one additional recess adapted to contain said polishing paste for application to the teeth during said prophylaxis.
- 6. The accessory of claim 5 in which said polishing medium is contained in a separate pre-formed circular vial and said additional recess is cylindrical to receive and retain said vial.
- 7. The accessory of claim 5 in which the first recess and said additional recess are situated in closely proximate relation to one another in said support.
- 8. The accessory of claim 1 in which said anchoring means comprises an adhesive layer carried on an undersurface of said support, said adhesive layer being adapted to adhere to a surface of a thin film glove encasing the practitioner's hand.
- 9. The accessory of claim 1 in which said anchoring means comprises a spaced apart pair of flexible wings extending from said opposite side of said support, said wings being adapted for cooperative downwardly grasping engagement with a finger of the opposite hand of said practitioner.
- 10. The accessory of claim 1 wherein said recess of said support is generally elongated in one direction and said flexible absorbent material comprises at least one elongated roll of absorbent cotton padding fitting within said elongated recess and retained therein by the contouring of said recess.
- 11. The accessory of claim 10 wherein said at least one cotton roll has a generally straight direction and said elongated recess is arcuately curved laterally of its long axis, said arcuate curvature forcing said roll therein into a curved condition serving to resist accidental removal thereof from said curved recess.
- 12. The accessory of claim 10 wherein said absorbent material comprises two elongated rolls of said absorbent material fitting in generally parallel relation within said arcuately curved recess.
- 13. The accessory of claim 1 wherein said recess of said support has a bottom wall and a plurality of side walls extending generally upwardly from said bottom wall, at least a portion of at least one of said side walls being deformed inwardly to compressively distort said flexible absorbent material against an opposite side wall portion and thereby promote retention of said material within said recess.
- 14. The accessory of claim 13 wherein at least said one side wall has along at least a portion thereof an internally protruding lip engaging a corresponding portion of said flexible material within said recess.
- 15. The accessory of claim 1 in which said flexible absorbent material comprises at least one coherent body of flexible absorbent fibrous material.
- 16. The accessory of claim 1 in which said flexible absorbent material comprises at least one elongated generally cylindrical roll of absorbent cotton padding.
- 17. The accessory of claim 16 in which each said elongated roll of padding is spirally wound externally with a filament to impart coherency thereto.
- 18. An accessory for dental practitioners during dental procedures utilizing a dental instrument in one hand, said accessory comprising a shallow miniature tray-like support formed with at least two upwardly opening recesses therein, one of said recesses containing a flexible absorbent material for wiping of said instrument and the other adapted to receive and retain a separate pre-formed vial filled with prophylactic paste for prophylactic application to the teeth, said vial having a laterally extending lip around its periphery and said two recesses being sufficiently closely proximate to one another that when said vial is present in said other recess, the lip of said vial projects over a portion of said flexible material to aid in retaining the latter in its recess, and said support has on a side opposite said recesses anchoring means adapted for anchoring said support to the back of the opposite hand of the practioner for easy access by said instrument.
- 19. The accessory of claim 18 wherein said one recess is elongated in one direction and is arcuately curved with a curvature generally parallel to an adjacent portion of the peripheral curvature of the lip of said vial, said flexible absorbent material in said one recess being generally correspondingly elongated and overlapped along an adjacent margin by the projecting lip of said vial.
Parent Case Info
This is a complete application of my PROVISIONAL application S.N. 60/123,151, filed Mar. 5, 1999, and currently pending.
US Referenced Citations (7)
Foreign Referenced Citations (1)
Number |
Date |
Country |
2595940 |
Sep 1987 |
FR |
Provisional Applications (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60/123151 |
Mar 1999 |
US |