Patent Application
20190117334
The embodiments relate to a dental instrument, and in particular to a root canal filling instrument.
A root canal of a tooth often includes a number of lateral canals that are connected to a primary canal. When a dentist performs a root canal procedure, it is desirable to seal the lateral canals with a sealer material to prevent bacterial growth, and for other reasons.
Conventional devices used to urge the sealer material into the lateral canals include paper points and master cones. The use of such devices, however, increases the chance of root fracture, and thus must be manipulated very carefully and slowly, increasing the length of the procedure.
The embodiments relate to a root canal filling instrument that facilitates the spreading of material, such as sealer, into lateral canals of a root canal of a tooth.
In one embodiment, a root canal filling instrument is provided. The root canal filling instrument includes a shaft, which is configured to be coupled to a dental hand piece, and a material spreader. The material spreader includes a spindle, which is coupled to and extends from the shaft, and a spiral wire, which is coupled to the shaft or the spindle and which defines a columnar void, wherein the spindle extends into the columnar void.
In another embodiment, a method for filling a root canal of a tooth with a material is provided. The method includes inserting a root canal filling instrument into a root canal of a tooth. The root canal filling instrument includes a shaft, which is configured to be coupled to a dental hand piece, and a material spreader. The material spreader includes a spindle, which is coupled to and extends from the shaft, and a spiral wire, which is coupled to the shaft or the spindle and which forms a columnar void, wherein the spindle extends into the columnar void. The root canal filling instrument is caused to rotate to urge the material laterally into lateral canals of the root canal.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate the scope of the disclosure and realize additional aspects thereof after reading the following detailed description of the embodiments in association with the accompanying drawing figures.
The accompanying drawing figures incorporated in and forming a part of this specification illustrate several aspects of the disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.
The embodiments set forth below represent the information to enable those skilled in the art to practice the embodiments and illustrate the best mode of practicing the embodiments. Upon reading the following description in light of the accompanying drawing figures, those skilled in the art will understand the concepts of the disclosure and will recognize applications of these concepts not particularly addressed herein. It should be understood that these concepts and applications fall within the scope of the disclosure and the accompanying claims.
Any flowcharts discussed herein are necessarily discussed in some sequence for purposes of illustration, but unless otherwise explicitly indicated, the embodiments are not limited to any particular sequence of steps. The term “about” used herein in conjunction with a numeric value means any value that is within a range of ten percent greater than or ten percent less than the numeric value.
As used herein and in the claims, the articles “a” and “an” in reference to an element refers to “one or more” of the element unless otherwise explicitly specified.
In some embodiments, a distance 22 in a range between about 0.0 mm to about 5 mm may separate an exterior surface of the spindle 16 from an interior surface of the spiral wire 18 in a direction perpendicular to the length of the spindle 16. The spindle 16 may have a diameter in a range between about 0.01 mm to about 5 mm. The spiral wire 18 may have a diameter in a range between about 0.1 mm to about 5 mm. The spiral wire 18 comprises a plurality of loops 24, and a distance 26 between the loops 24 may be in a range between about 0.0 mm to about 25 mm.
In some embodiments, the material spreader 14 may comprise stainless steel, nickel titanium, titanium, carbon steel, plastics, carbon fiber, or composites. The material spreader 14 may have a length 28 in a range between about 1 mm to about 50 mm.
Those skilled in the art will recognize improvements and modifications to the preferred embodiments of the disclosure. All such improvements and modifications are considered within the scope of the concepts disclosed herein and the claims that follow.
