1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an artificial teeth packaging container used for the purpose of conveying and storing the artificial teeth when manufacturing a denture in dental treatment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Existing artificial teeth are disposed on a protuberance formed on a wax rim when manufacturing a denture by using an articulator, and the arrangement is adjusted by matching with a state of occlusion of individual patients. The artificial teeth usually include twelve artificial teeth for the upper jaw and the lower jaw corresponding to right and left central incisors, lateral incisors, and canine teeth, and sixteen artificial teeth for the upper jaw and the lower jaw corresponding to first premolars, second premolars, first molars, and second molars for right and left. Usually when selling the artificial teeth, six anterior teeth for the upper jaw and the lower jaw, or eight artificial molar teeth for the upper jaw and the lower jaw are arranged in a row, and fixed on a resin-made seat plate by adhesive wax or the like (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-237213 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-315764). In order to inform a dentist or a dental technician of necessary information such as a color and a shape of the artificial teeth and manufacturer's name, the seat plate has a display space positioned above or beneath an accommodating portion of the artificial teeth.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-310645 discloses a seat plate attached to artificial teeth so that the shape and color may be selected easily. However, in the configuration shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-237213, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-315764 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-310645, since an upper, lower, right and left positional relation of the artificial teeth is not clear, when arranging the artificial teeth, occlusion adjustment work is difficult depending on the artificial teeth to be arranged, and a denture not suited sufficiently to an occlusal state of a patient may be manufactured. Besides, in such seat plate, in the manufacturing process, the artificial teeth may be adhered by mistake to a different position than a position specified on the seat plate. Further, when the artificial teeth are used, the sorting and discarding of the seat plate may be complicated.
Different from the seat plate in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-237213, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-315764 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-310645, in order to arrange easily in a prosthetic positional relation, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-137262 discloses upper and lower connected artificial teeth of artificial teeth coupled to a maintenance holder with upper and lower artificial teeth connected detachably. However, in this configuration, separation work of the artificial teeth and the maintenance holder is needed after arrangement, or when cutting off the connected portion, nippers or similar tools may be needed, and the operation in the arrangement process may be more complicated.
It is hence an object of the invention to enhance an working efficiency in arrangement process, curtail a use of materials, stabilize an efficiency in the manufacturing process, and suppress the environmental load by discarding, by adding an arrangement assisting function to a packaging material mainly used for the purpose of storing and conveying the artificial teeth.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides an artificial teeth packaging container including: an artificial teeth accommodating portion for fixing a plurality of continuously arranged artificial teeth detachably, and holding an arrangement position relation with the adjacent artificial teeth and an arrangement position relation with an upper or lower artificial molar teeth, wherein the artificial teeth accommodating portion covers the plurality of artificial teeth from an occlusal plane in a state exposed around a cervical portion.
Preferably, an artificial teeth accommodating portion includes an artificial first premolar tooth accommodating portion, an artificial second premolar tooth accommodating portion, an artificial first molar tooth accommodating portion, and an artificial second molar tooth accommodating portion, and wherein a peripheral wall at the artificial first premolar tooth accommodating portion of the artificial accommodating portion is provided with a positioning slit for adjusting an arrangement position relation between artificial first premolar tooth and artificial canine tooth.
Preferably, a plane plate portion disposed in parallel to a virtual occlusal plane is provided in a peripheral wall of a lingual side surface contact side of the artificial teeth accommodating portion.
Preferably, the artificial teeth packaging container is made of a resin material of about 0.2 mm to 2 mm in thickness, and is selected from polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene, polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, or amorphous polyethylene terephthalate.
Preferably, the peripheral wall of the artificial teeth accommodating portion is extended from a maximum prominent portion of the plurality of artificial teeth toward a cervical portion side, and contacts along the plurality of artificial teeth.
Preferably, a through-hole for injection of adhesive agent is provided in an occlusal plane contact side wall portion of the artificial teeth accommodating portion, in the vicinity of a center of each occlusal plane with the plurality of artificial teeth.
Preferably, the plurality of artificial teeth are pressed and fixed in the peripheral wall of the artificial teeth accommodating portion.
An accommodating state of artificial teeth in an artificial teeth packaging container of the invention is preferably a state where the artificial teeth is accommodate in an arrangement state, and more preferably, upon manufacturing the denture, when the artificial teeth contained in the artificial teeth packaging container are waxed, an artificial arrangement should be formed on the denture, so that a plurality of artificial teeth may be arranged in batch while maintaining an arrangement position relation with the adjacent artificial teeth and an arrangement position with upper or lower artificial teeth, and therefore the arrangement work of the artificial teeth maybe easier and more efficient. As compared with the conventional seat plate, since a package structure is simple, and manufacturing materials may be saved, and the efficiency in manufacturing process may be stabilized. Moreover, since fixing of the artificial teeth is free from effects of temperature changes during conveying or storing process, and separation or loss of the artificial teeth may be prevented.
The invention is described below while referring to the accompanying drawings.
The artificial teeth packaging container 1 includes an elastic resin material, and is designed to package a plurality of artificial teeth arranged sequentially in an arbitrary combination as shown in
The artificial teeth packaging container 1 includes, as shown in
The artificial teeth packaging container 1 includes a plane plate portion 16 disposed in parallel to a virtual occlusal plan. The plane plate portion 16 is coupled to an outer wall surface of a lingual surface contact side of the peripheral wall 13 by way of a connector 17, and is extended substantially perpendicularly to the outer wall surface of the lingual surface contact side of the peripheral wall 13 as shown in
The artificial teeth packaging container 1 is preferably made of a thermo-curable material, being configured as a transparent container, and is manufactured by using a re-usable and elastic resin material of about 0.2 mm to 2.0 mm in thickness, such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polystyrene (PS), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene (PP), or amorphous polyethylene terephthalate (A-PET). The artificial teeth packaging container 1 is formed by using a known method such as pressure air forming method of pressing a heated material film to a die.
The action of the embodiment is explained by referring to a case of packaging the lower-jaw left artificial molar teeth 2 by the artificial teeth packaging container 1.
When packaging the lower-jaw left artificial molar teeth 2 by using the artificial teeth packaging container 1 of the embodiment, as shown in
In this manner, inner surfaces of the artificial molar teeth accommodating portions 8 to 11 are formed in a shape corresponding to the four lower-jaw left artificial molar teeth 2, and are also formed in a shape corresponding to an arrangement position relation with the adjacent artificial teeth and an arrangement position relation with the upper artificial molar teeth above the corresponding to lower-jaw left artificial molar teeth 2, and therefore when the lower-jaw left artificial molar teeth 3 to 6 are fixed in the corresponding artificial molar teeth accommodating portions 8 to 11, the artificial teeth packaging container 1 maintains the arrangement position relation with the adjacent artificial teeth and the arrangement position relation with the upper artificial molar teeth above. The lower-jaw left artificial molar teeth 3 to 6 are fixed in the corresponding artificial molar teeth accommodating portions 8 to 11 by using a maximum prominent portion, and are free from effects of temperature changes in the conveying and storing process, and any one of the lower-jaw left artificial molar teeth 3 to 6 will not be dropped or lost from the artificial teeth packaging container 1.
If the maximum prominent portion is lost by cutting adjustment of artificial teeth, wax or other adhesive agent is injected from the through-hole 15 for injection of adhesive agent, and the lower-jaw left artificial molar teeth 3 to 6 are fixed in the artificial teeth accommodating portion 7.
A following explanation is about manufacturing work of a denture by using the lower-jaw left artificial molar teeth packaged by the artificial teeth packaging container 1 of the embodiment.
First, as shown in
In this way, after completing adjustment of arrangement and occlusion of the lower artificial anterior teeth 23, the bulge portion of the lower jaw wax rim 21 of a buried portion of the lower left molar teeth 2 is softened by the electric iron or the like. In the softened bulge portion of the lower jaw wax rim 21, the four lower-jaw left artificial molar teeth 2 packaged in the artificial teeth packaging container 1 of the embodiment are buried. At this time, by reference to the slit 14 of the artificial teeth packaging container 1, a positional relation is adjusted between the lower-jaw left artificial first premolar tooth 3 and the adjacent lower-jaw left artificial canine tooth 24, and as shown in
According to the artificial teeth packaging container 1 of the embodiment, since the four lower-jaw left artificial molar teeth 2 are fixed by the artificial teeth accommodating portion 7 so as to maintain the arrangement position relation with the adjacent artificial teeth and the arrangement position relation with the upper left artificial molar teeth above, the artificial molar teeth 3 to 6 contained in the artificial teeth packaging container 1 of the embodiment are determined in the positional relation capable of exhibiting the characteristics to the maximum, and the four lower-jaw left artificial molar teeth 2 can be arranged in batch, without the trouble of arranging the artificial molar teeth individually.
When the four lower-jaw left artificial molar teeth 2 are arranged in the bulge portion of the lower jaw wax rim 21, the slit 14 is the reference for positioning between the lower-jaw left artificial first premolar tooth 3 and the lower-jaw left artificial canine tooth 24, and the plane plate portion 16 becomes the reference for arrangement of the four lower-jaw left artificial molar teeth 2. By using the slit 14 and plane plate portion 16, when the four lower-jaw left artificial molar teeth 2 are buried in the bulge portion of the lower jaw wax rim 21, it is easy to adjust the arrangement position relation with the adjacent artificial teeth and the arrangement position relation with the upper left artificial molar teeth above.
The artificial teeth packaging container 1 of the embodiment is a mere example for explaining the invention as mentioned above, and the configuration of the artificial teeth accommodating portion 7 is not limited to the explained example, but the artificial teeth accommodating portion 7 may be modified as follows.
The configuration of the artificial teeth accommodating portion 7 is not particularly specified as far as the plurality of artificial teeth arranged consecutively can be fixed detachably, while keeping the arrangement position relation with the adjacent artificial teeth and the arrangement position relation with the upper or lower artificial molar teeth, and the artificial teeth accommodating portion 7 may be designed so as to store and fix a plurality of artificial teeth in a desired combination. For example, four upper artificial molar teeth of either right or left side, a total of fourteen lower and upper artificial teeth, or two, four or six of mutually adjacent upper or lower artificial anterior teeth may be combined as artificial teeth to be accommodated in the artificial teeth accommodating portion 7, and the artificial teeth accommodating portion 7 may be formed so as to fix such combination of artificial teeth detachably.
When the artificial teeth packaging container 1 is designed to package artificial teeth, the through-hole 15 for injection of adhesive agent is formed individually in the wall portion of a cutting edge portion contact surface side.
The artificial teeth packaging container 1 of the embodiment is not limited to a configuration of packaging the mutually separated artificial teeth, but may be designed to package two or four continuously arranged teeth, as mutually connected anterior teeth or connected molar teeth.
Further, in the artificial teeth packaging container 1, the artificial teeth accommodating portion 7 may be formed smaller than artificial teeth so that the artificial teeth may be pressed and fixed into the artificial teeth accommodating portion 7 by musing the elastic force of the artificial teeth packaging container 1.
As shown in
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 12733046 | Feb 2010 | US |
Child | 14272768 | US |