The present invention relates to a mandible adjustment device, particularly a device capable of positioning a human being’s mandible forward to keep a smooth breathing passage for neither respiratory arrest nor snore in sleep and relying on a mucosa protection device for no oral mucosal trauma.
The phenomena such as snore and respiratory arrest blamed to muscular relaxation mostly are bothering many people in sleep. For that matter, muscles of the supporting soft palate 102 and the tongue base 7 inside the oral cavity 101 of the mouth 10, as shown in
For relieves of above symptoms, there have been so-called anti-snoring devices or snore stoppers commercially available. Most existing anti-snoring devices rely on upper and lower braces to combine a connecting mechanism with which a mandible is shifted forward to prevent the jaw from drooping and blocking the breathing passage 8.
However, each existing product mentioned hereinbefore is characteristic of a fixing mechanism with which upper and lower braces are immobilized and the mandible is forced to move forward and be fixed but fails to move back. A user who has installed an anti-snoring device for a long time might suffer from muscular soreness at the condyle of mandible and be intolerant to an anti-snoring device that bothers a user coming down with respiratory arrest.
In addition, most existing anti-snoring devices are off-the-shelf products with given specifications not exactly fitting with the shape of a user’s dentition. As such, there will be any gap between a brace and teeth and even a position offset that leads to separation of a brace from teeth and makes no contribution to the effect of avoiding snore or respiratory arrest.
Furthermore, an existing anti-snoring device, which is manufactured as braces, is installed around two rows of dentitions of upper and lower jaws. However, a user who is moving the mandible forward and occluding teeth feels exists of foreign objects at the front teeth area significantly due to specific thicknesses of upper and lower braces and has a sleepless night during which an anti-snoring device has been installed inside a user’s mouth.
Currently, there is another type of anti-snoring device featuring a connecting mechanism installed at the front teeth area and used in forcing the mandible to move forward with upper and lower front teeth pulled toward each other. However, a user who installs this anti-snoring device for a long time will suffer more pains because the front teeth area sustaining excessive strength is pulled intensively. Accordingly, this type of anti-snoring device is not categorized as a device for continuous service.
To solve the above problem, the patent applicant installed a mucosa protection device at an upper teeth brace and a positioning part at a lower teeth brace wherein each of the upper positioning part and the lower positioning part extends a hook part and a prop. When the hook parts of the upper and lower positioning parts are engaged with each other, the mandible stays at a forward position to keep a smooth breathing passage 8 for neither respiratory arrest nor snore. Moreover, the upper and lower positioning parts, both of which do not closely fit but are moveably engaged with each other, form a flexible space for unlimited movement without a user’s discomfort at a joint (condyle) of the mandible due to components fastened closely. In summary, a mandible adjustment device in the present disclosure should be considered as a preferred solution.
The present disclosure relates to a mandible adjustment device comprising: an upper teeth brace, which has an upper teeth accommodation space developed according to a dental pattern and matching a human being’s maxillary dental arch and extends a mucosa protection device located at a side wall, being opposite to an upper molar area and having an arc-shaped outer wall surface as well as a through hole thereon; a lower teeth brace, which has a lower teeth accommodation space developed according to a dental pattern and matching a human being’s mandible dental arch on a mandible and extends a positioning part located at a side wall, being opposite to a lower molar area and having a prop that stretches toward the mucosa protection device and extends a folding section from a front end to a human being’s condyle for development of an angle of bending between the prop and the folding section; wherein: the through hole on the mucosa protection device is greater than the positioning part in diameter and penetrated by the folding section and the prop with the upper teeth brace and the lower teeth brace installed on a user such that (a) the prop stopped by a wall surface of the through hole cannot move backward,(b) the lower teeth brace cannot move downward and a human being’s mandible is fixed at a default position correspondingly because the folding section is stopped by a top surface of the mucosa protection device, and (c) the prop which is less than the through hole in size is shifted within the through hole such that the mandible moves unlimitedly for no discomfort at the condyle of a user wearing a mandible adjustment device for a long time.
In a preferred embodiment, each of the upper molar area and the lower molar area comprises a first premolar, a second premolar, a first molar and a second molar and each of the mucosa protection device and the positioning part is opposite to each of the first molar and the second molar or one side between the two molars.
In a preferred embodiment, the mucosa protection device and the positioning part is opposite to a peripheral side of the first molar preferably.
In a preferred embodiment, the upper teeth brace (the lower teeth brace) has an opening, which is drilled on the anterior teeth area of the maxillary dental arch (the anterior teeth area of the mandible dental arch), to expose a teeth surface of the anterior teeth area.
In a preferred embodiment, the upper teeth brace (the lower teeth brace) has an occlusion surface that is opposite to the anterior teeth area of the maxillary dental arch (the anterior teeth area of the mandible dental arch) and characteristic of a thickness of less than 1 mm.
In a preferred embodiment, the prop and the folding section on the positioning part form an angle ranging from 30 to 110 degrees or about 90 degrees preferably.
In a preferred embodiment, the prop on the positioning part is characteristic of an adjuster mounted thereon and featuring a thickness with which a position of the mandible during forward positioning is fine-tuned.
In a preferred embodiment, the mucosa protection device comprises a positioning slot, which is opened on a top wall surface near the condyle and characteristic of one end linking the inner wall surface of the through hole as well as the other end with a fastening slot thereon, and the positioning part is equipped with a fastening block at one end of the folding section wherein the positioning slot is combined with the folding section for positioning and the fastening block is fastened inside the fastening slot for stability of the upper teeth brace and lower teeth brace, both of which are engaged with each other.
In a preferred embodiment, the mucosa protection device is characteristic of a top wall surface near the condyle is greater than the folding section in size and the folding section is not exposed to the arc-shaped outer wall surface of the mucosa protection device for no contact between one end of the folding section and oral mucosa.
1: brace
11: upper teeth accommodation space
12: mucosa protection device
121: arc-shaped outer wall surface
122: through hole
123: top wall surface
124: positioning slot
125: fastening slot
13: opening
2: lower teeth brace
21: lower teeth accommodation space
22: positioning part
221: prop
222: folding section
223: fastening block
23: opening
31: anterior teeth area
311: upper front tooth
312: upper side front tooth
313: upper canine tooth
32: upper molar area
321: first premolar
322: second premolar
323: first molar
324: second molar
41: anterior teeth area
411: lower front tooth
412: lower side front tooth
413: lower canine tooth
42: lower molar area
421: first premolar
422: second premolar
423: first molar
424: second molar
5: mandible
51: condyle
6, 6′, 6″: adjuster
61, 61′, 61″: hole
7: tongue base
8: breathing passage
10: mouth
101: oral cavity
1011: oral mucosa
102: supporting soft palate
The technical contents, features and effects of a mandible adjustment device are clearly explained in preferred embodiments and accompanying drawings as follows.
As shown in
As shown in
The upper teeth brace 1 is provided with a mucosa protection device 12 located at a side wall and opposite to the upper molar area 32; the mucosa protection device 12 which is characteristic of an arc-shaped outer wall surface 121 comprises a through hole 122 opened inside.
The lower teeth brace 2 is provided with a positioning part 22 located at a side wall and opposite to the lower molar area 32; the positioning part 22 forms a prop 221 extending toward the upper molar area 32 and forward extruding a folding section 222 toward a condyle 51 of the mandible 5 crookedly. The prop 221 and the folding section 222 form an angle ranging from 30 to 110 degrees, for example, 30 degrees, 40 degrees, 50 degrees, 60 degrees, 70 degrees, 80 degrees, 90 degrees, 100 degrees and 110 degrees or about 90 degrees preferably; moreover, the positioning part 22 is less than the through hole 122 in diameter such that the through hole 122 is penetrated by each of the prop 221 and the folding section 222 on the positioning part 22.
As shown in
As shown in
Furthermore, the folding section 222 is stopped by the top wall surface 123 of the mucosa protection device 12 such that the mandible 5 cannot move down and a user’s mouth is closed in sleep. Accordingly, the tongue base 7 and the supporting soft palate 102, both of which are shifted upward, keeps the breathing passage 8 unblocked in sleep for neither respiratory arrest nor snore when a sleeper’s mouth is not opened by the mandible 5 that is forward positioned and not shifted downward.
Additionally, as shown in
As shown in
Furthermore, for no discomfort of a user occluding teeth due to thicknesses of the upper teeth brace 1 and/or the lower teeth brace 2, the thickness in each of occlusion surfaces of the upper teeth brace 1 and the lower teeth brace 2, which are opposite to the anterior teeth areas of the maxillary dental arch and the mandible dental arch, respectively, is designed as less than 1 mm. Accordingly, teeth occlusion of the anterior teeth areas is analogous to the past occlusion habit of a user on whom no mandible adjustment device was installed for a user’s minimum discomfort.
Referring to
As shown in
Furthermore, referring to
The advantages of a mandible adjustment device in the present disclosure in contrast to the prior art are shown as follows:
In the present disclosure, a user feels no discomfort at the oral mucosa 1011 when pressure applied on the oral mucosa 1011 by the mucosa protection device 12 with an arc-shaped outer wall surface 121 thereon is dispersed evenly rather than at a single point.
A mandible adjustment device has been disclosed in preferred embodiments which are not taken as examples to restrict the scope of the present application. Any change and/or modification made by the skilled persons who have general knowledge in the art and familiarize themselves with the above technical features and embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure should be covered in claims of the patent specification.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/CN2020/107797 | 8/7/2020 | WO |