Patent Application
20190308067
This invention relates generally to an apparatus and method effective to strengthen the pharyngeal wall and material in a patient's mouth, throat, and facial areas.
Muscles that go unused may decline into an atrophied condition. This is true from any muscles in the body (e.g., arm and leg muscles), including muscles in the pharyngeal wall and back-of-throat muscles. As used herein, the term “pharyngeal” may refer to any portion of a patient's pharynx (including the part of the throat behind the mouth and nasal cavity and above the esophagus and the larynx). When these areas are not exercised, the muscles may become flaccid, limp, and/or obstructive. This may create an impediment to eating, swallowing, and/or breathing properly.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a system and method which can effectively strengthen the pharyngeal wall and material in a patient's mouth, throat, and facial areas.
According to some embodiments, apparatus, methods, and means may be provided to strengthen the pharyngeal wall and material in a patient's mouth, throat, and facial areas. According to some embodiments, an apparatus for oral-motor and oral pharyngeal exercise may include an at least partially flexible, collapsible chamber formed to fit within a patient's mouth. An aperture may be formed in a flexible surface of the collapsible chamber to allow gas to flow into and out of an interior of the collapsible chamber. Moreover, a substantially inflexible wall of the collapsible chamber may be located opposite the aperture. According to some embodiments, the substantially inflexible wall incudes a coupling portion affixed to the flexible surface of the collapsible chamber and having a cleaning opening (e.g., an opening for optional cleaning). A cap portion may be adapted to be removably attached to the coupling portion to seal the interior of the collapsible chamber when attached.
Some embodiments comprise: inserting the oral-motor pharyngeal exerciser into a patient's mouth, wherein the exerciser includes: (i) an at least partially flexible, collapsible chamber formed to fit within a patient's mouth, (ii) an aperture formed in a flexible surface of the collapsible chamber, wherein the aperture allows gas to flow into and out of an interior of the collapsible chamber, and (iii) a substantially inflexible wall of the collapsible chamber located opposite the aperture; means for providing an independent source of negative pressure that draws gases out of the exerciser thereby creating an increase in resistive force; and means for maintaining the negative pressure for up to 10 minutes per session.
A technical effect of some embodiments of the invention is a greatly improved way to strengthen and tone the muscles (the superior constrictor muscle, middle constrictor muscle, and the inferior constrictor muscle) and organic material directly related to the oral cavity (soft palate, tongue, oropharynx, laryngopharynx, and epiglottis) thereby significantly improving the function of all forms of breathing, mouth articulation, tongue, throat and facial areas. With these and other advantages and features that will become hereinafter apparent, a more complete understanding of the nature of the invention can be obtained by referring to the following detailed description and to the drawings appended hereto.
Some embodiments described herein may provide an “oral gym” such that a patient may directly target and engage the oral pharyngeal muscles in an exercise regimen designed to strengthen and maintain the musculature over extended periods of time.
The exerciser 100 may be placed into a patient's mouth, and he or she may use pharyngeal muscles to withdraw air from the interior 130 via the aperture 120 and thereby collapse the chamber 110. For example,
Referring again to
According to some embodiments, the coupling portion 350 may include a “cleaning” opening. For example,
Thus, embodiments may comprise a closed-end medical quality silicone tube with a small aperture at its tip. Moreover, the exerciser may be capped by a hard-plastic cap that twists onto and off of a coupling portion to seal the tube. The tube mouthpiece may create a resistive force as air is drawn out of the interior of the tube. Note that the resistive force may be increased or decreased based on the force of the pull of the patient's throat muscles. Moreover, the tube may automatically resume a non-collapsed configuration when the patient stops withdrawing air (that is, air re-enters the tube via the aperture).
Thus, embodiments described herein may exercise oral-pharyngeal muscles. Moreover, the exerciser may ameliorate muscle imbalance in the oral-pharyngeal area.
The following illustrates various additional embodiments of the invention. These do not constitute a definition of all possible embodiments, and those skilled in the art will understand that the present invention is applicable to many other embodiments. Further, although the following embodiments are briefly described for clarity, those skilled in the art will understand how to make any changes, if necessary, to the above-described apparatus and methods to accommodate these and other embodiments and applications.
Although specific configurations have been described herein, note that any number of other configurations may be provided in accordance with embodiments of the present invention (e.g., shapes other than those illustrated might be used for the exerciser). For example,
The present invention has been described in terms of several embodiments solely for the purpose of illustration. Persons skilled in the art will recognize from this description that the invention is not limited to the embodiments described, but may be practiced with modifications and alterations limited only by the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
