NL2029162B1 - An intelligent functional orthodontic appliance - Google Patents

Abstract

An intelligent functional orthodontic appliance is provided. It includes an orthodontic body which has an orthodontic part (l) located on the dentition. A monitoring component (2) is located on the orthodontic body. The monitoring component includes a detection unit for detecting the information of the oral environment, a microprocessor, a clock chip, and a memory. The microprocessor is connected to the detection unit, the clock chip, and the memory, respectively, and the monitoring component is powered by a power module. The monitoring component can detect the patient’s intraoral appliance wearing time, patients wear it effectively, thereby improving the orthodontic efficiency.

Description

An intelligent functional orthodontic appliance Field of the invention This invention 1s an intelligent functional orthodontic appliance. Background of the invention Abnormalities of the maxillofacial muscles during the period of primary dentition, mixed dentition, and early permanent dentition could cause many very harmful malocclusions, such as functional mandibular recession and functional mandibular protrusion. The etiology of functional malocclusion of adolescents is dominated by functional factors, especially prior to late permanent dentition. . For example, poor oral habits, abnormal muscle morphology, and improper muscle positioning always causes a functional positional shift of the mandible without changing the absolute length. For functional malocclusion, a preformed silicone muscle functional appliance, named MRC functional appliance, has been used in recent years.

Existing functional appliance includes the following problems: First of all, MRC functional appliance requires patients to strictly adhere to the wearing time requirement from the doctor, so it needs high cooperation for patients. However, patients in the period of primary dentition, mixed dentition and early permanent dentition, generally have a poor self-discipline. They often fail to wear the appliance on schedule and the wearing time is seriously inadequate. Moreover, there is no effective method for parents of these young patients to record and monitor the wearing conditions, thus seriously affecting orthodontic effect and increasing treatment time.

Secondly, MRC functional appliance is preformed, the length is unmalleable. . However, the dental arch length of adolescent patients increases with their growth and development, this causes a mismatch between the appliance and the dental arches, resulting in patient discomfort s, patients’ reluctance to wear the appliance, and ultimately poor treatment results.

No viable solution is currently present for the first problem. Although prior patents have studied 1 the second problem, some shortcomings still need to be overcome. For example, Chinese patent application CN201710278908.2 shows a medical multifunctional appliance which could extend or shorten the appliance length within a range through the interaction of detachable blocks and rubber adjustment bolts to meet the purpose of personalized and precise treatment. However, the clinical operation process is relatively complex, and there is a risk that the rubber adjustment screw will become loose, fall out, and be accidentally swallowed. The above-mentioned problems should be considered and solved in the design and production process of this intelligent functional orthodontic appliance.

Summary of the invention The purpose of the present invention is to provide an intelligent functional orthodontic appliance which is able to monitor whether the patient wears this intraoral appliance and the wearing time, thus improving the treatment efficiency.

The technical solution of the present invention is: This intelligent functional orthodontic appliance includes an orthodontic body which has an orthodontic part located on the dentition. It also has a monitoring component located on the orthodontic body. The monitoring component, powered by a power module, includes a detection unit for detecting the information of the oral environment, a microprocessor, a clock chip, and a memory. The microprocessor is connected to the detection unit, the clock chip, and the memory respectively.

Further, the detection unit uses a sensor set. The sensor set includes an oral light intensity physical sensor and a temperature sensor which are all connected to the microprocessor. Further, each side of the orthodontic body was designed with a monitoring component.

Further, the orthodontic part is U-shaped, and the upper and lower regions of the orthodontic part were designed with an upper groove for accommodating the maxillary dentition and a lower groove for accommodating the mandibular dentition, respectively.

Further, the orthodontic body also includes an extension component which is detachable. Further, the extension component includes an extension body, an upper capacity slot, a lower 2 capacity slot, and a clamping tenon. The upper and lower of the extension body are designed with an upper and a lower slot respectively. The end of the orthodontic part has a clamping tenon slot, and the extension body has a clamping tenon to connect with the clamping tenon slot. Further, the extension body is also equipped with a continued tenon slot. The continued tenon slot and the clamping tenon are set on each side of the extension body, and the continued tenon slot matches with the clamping tenon which is adjacent to the extension body. Further, the lingual side of the orthodontic part is equipped with a lingual block which has a lingual marker. Further, the labial side of the orthodontic part is equipped with a labial block which has a breathing hole. The upper and lower of the labial block have an upper labial frenulum groove and a lower labial frenulum groove, respectively, and the labial side of the labial block is designed with a number of punctate protrusions. Further, the monitoring component also includes a transparent protective housing which has an inner chamber. An oral light intensity physical sensor, a microprocessor, a clock chip, and a memory are set in the inner chamber, and the temperature sensor is set outside of the transparent protective housing. The beneficial effect of the present invention is that this intelligent functional orthodontic appliance improves the treatment efficiency by including a monitoring component to monitor the wearing time of the intraoral appliance by patients , thus ensuring that the patient wears it effectively and improving the treatment efficiency. Furthermore, by designing a detachable extension component, the doctors could easily and safely adjust the appliance length to match the patient's arch length, thus achieving personalized and precise orthodontics. Brief description of the drawings FIG. 1 is the structure schematic of the intelligent functional orthodontic appliance according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG.2 is the block diagram of the monitoring component according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3

FIG 3 is the structure schematic of the orthodontic part and the extension component according to an embodiment of the present invention.

F1G.4 is the illustration schematic of the workflow of the monitoring component according to an embodiment of the present invention.

where: 1 - orthodontic part, 2 - monitoring component, 3 - extension component, 4 - upper groove, 5 - labial block, 6 - lingual block, 7 - lingual marker, 8 - breathing hole, 9 - upper labial frenulum groove, 10 - lower labial frenulum groove, 11 - punctate protrusion.

21 - oral light intensity physical sensor, 22 - temperature sensor, 23 - microprocessor, 24 - clock chip, 25 — memory, 3l-extension body, 32-upper capacity slot, 33-lower capacity slot, 34-clamping tenon, 35-clamping tenon slot, 36-continued tenon slot.

Specific implementation Preferred embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The embodiments An intelligent functional orthodontic appliance, as shown in Figures 1 and 2, includes an orthodontic body which has an orthodontic part 1 located on the dentition. It also includes a monitoring component 2 located on the orthodontic body. The monitoring component 2, powered by a power module, includes a detection unit for detecting the information of the oral environment, a microprocessor 23, a clock chip 24 and a memory 25. The microprocessor 23 is connected to the detection unit, the clock chip 24, and the memory 25, respectively.

This intelligent functional orthodontic appliance improves the treatment efficiency by setting up a monitoring component 2 to monitor whether the patient wears the intraoral appliance and the wearing time, thus ensuring that the patient wears it effectively and improving the treatment efficiency.

The detection unit of this intelligent functional orthodontic appliance collects information of 4 the oral environment surrounding the orthodontic body through a to confirm whether the appliance is being worn by the patient as well as the length of wearing. The detection unit uses a sensor set which includes the oral light intensity physical sensor 21 and the temperature sensor

22. The oral light intensity physical sensor 21 chip is used to collect the oral light intensity information and the temperature sensor 22 chip is used to collect the oral temperature information. The microprocessor 23 receives the collected information from the sensor sett and sends it to the memory 25 for storage. The memory 25 preferably uses a memory card which can be freely removed or reinstalled. After removing the appliance, the doctor reads the stored information in memory 25 by the computer. Preferably, a monitoring component 2 should be included at both sides of the orthodontic body. When the patients wear this intelligent functional orthodontic appliance, the sensor set collects the light intensity and temperature information in the patient's mouth and sends them to the microprocessor 23, which sends the collected information to the memory 25. When the patient comes to the hospital for subsequent visits, the doctor could import the data in the memory 25 into the computer, and then confirm the patient's wearing time by a computer software. Based on this specific information, doctors could develop personalized plans to achieve intelligent and precise medical treatment, and improve orthodontic results as well effectively shorten orthodontic time. An embodiment of the invention shown in FIG.1 and FIG.3displays that the intelligent functional orthodontic appliance has a U-shaped orthodontic part 1. Upper and lower orthodontic part 1 is designed with an upper groove 4 for accommodating the maxillary dentition and a lower groove for accommodating the mandibular dentition respectively. The ends of the orthodontic body are equipped with an extension component 3 which is detachable. By using the detachable extension component 3, the orthodontic appliance length and the dental arch length of the patients could be fully matched, which facilitates the treatment. The extension component 3, further explained by Fig 3, depicts that it includes an extension body 31, an upper capacity slot 32, a lower capacity slot 33 and a clamping tenon 34. The upper and lower regions of the extension body 31 are designed with the upper capacity slot 32 and lower capacity slot 33, respectively. The end of the orthodontic part 1 is designed with a 5 clamping tenon slot 35, and the extension body 31 has a clamping tenon 34 for matching the clamping tenon slot 35. By designing detachable extensions component 3, the doctors could easily and safely adjust the appliance length to match the patient's arch length, thus achieving personalized and precise orthodontics. The extension component 3 is used as follows: when the length of the orthodontic body needs to be extended, the upper capacity slot 32 of the extension body 31 matches with the upper groove 4 and its lower capacity slot 33 matches with the lower groove. And then the clamping tenon 34 of the extension body 31 1s stuck in the clamping tenon slot 35 to achieve a detachable connection. This extension component is easy to operate, has a stable structure, and enables the extension of the orthodontic body length, thus enabling a perfect fit between the appliance length and the dentition arch length and achieving more effective treatment. In the above embodiment, the extension body 31 is also designed with a continued tenon slot 36, which was set on both sides of the extension body 31 as well as clamping tenon. And the continued tenon slot 36 matches the clamping tenon 34, which is adjacent to the extension body

31. By designing the continued tenon slot 36, several extension bodies 31 could be connected to extend the orthodontic body. The extension body 31 matches with the clamping tenon 34, which is adjacent to the extension body 31 by the continued tenon slot 36, thus achieving a detachable connection to meet the requirements presented by different extension lengths. In this intelligent functional orthodontic appliance, shown by Fig 3, the extension body and the extension section 3 are preferably made of silicone rubber. The lingual side of the orthodontic part 1 is designed with a lingual block 6, which has a lingual marker 7. The labial side of the orthodontic part 1 is designed with a labial block 5,which has a breathing hole 8. The upper and lower of the labial block 5 are designed with an upper labial frenulum groove 9 and a lower labial frenulum groove 10, with the labial side of the labial block 5 having a number of punctate protrusions 11. This intelligent functional orthodontic appliance could help raise the tongue and prevent low tongue position by using the tongue block and help guide the tongue to the correct position by tongue marker. The labial block 5 could block the abnormal strength of the orbicularis oris muscle, masseter, and mentalis. Breathing holes 8 allow the breathing airflow through to prevent 6 the risk of choking while wearing the appliance at night. The upper labial frenulum groove 9 and lower labial frenulum groove 10 accommodate the upper and lower labial frenulum, respectively. And the gingival punctate protrusion 11 located in the lower anterior region, further holds up the mentalis and blocks abnormal muscle forces.

In one embodiment, the monitoring components 2 also includes a transparent protective housing with an inner chamber. An oral light intensity physical sensor 21, a microprocessor 23, a clock chip 24, and a memory 25 are set in the inner chamber, and the temperature sensor 22 is set on the outside of the transparent protective housing. The transparent protective housing is preferably bonded to the orthodontic body, and the temperature sensor 22 is preferably bonded to the transparent protective housing. By setting up the transparent protective housing, the protection and positioning of the monitoring component 2 is achieved. As shown in Figure 4, the workflow of this intelligent functional orthodontic appliance is as follows: S1. the monitoring component 2 begins to perform monitoring; S2. the detection unit routinely acquires information of the intraoral environment and sends it to the microprocessor 23; S3. returning to step S2 if the intraoral environmental information is not within the set condition; proceeding to the next step if the intraoral environmental information reaches the set condition; S4. the microprocessor 23 obtains the start time information by the clock chip 24, and the obtained start time information is stored in the memory card, subsequently proceeding s to the next step; S5. the detection unit continues to routinely obtain information of the intraoral environment and sends it to the microprocessor 23; S6, when the oral environment information exceeds the set conditions, the microprocessor 23 obtains the end time information by the clock chip 24, and stores this information in the memory card, subsequently proceeding to the next step; when the oral environment information does not exceed the set conditions, return to step SS; S7. If the monitoring component 2 finishes monitoring, the monitoring ends; if monitoring component 2 does not finish monitoring, return to step S2.

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In this intelligent functional orthodontic appliance, the monitoring component 2 records the wearing time by storing the start time information and the end time information in the memory card.

This information allows the calculation of the wearing time within this period, facilitating the monitoring of patient compliance.

In one embodiment, whether the appliance is worn is judged by the oral environmental information obtained by the detection unit, meanwhile, the light intensity information acquired by the oral light intensity physical sensor 21 is not greater than the set value and the temperature information obtained by the temperature sensor 22 is within the set range.

This intelligent functional orthodontic appliance is equipped with a monitoring component 2 on the orthodontic body to obtain information of the oral environment in which the orthodontic body is located, thus confirming whether the patient is wearing it and the wearing time.

This facilitates the doctor to monitor patient compliance and judge the orthodontic effect, as information gained only by inquiry can be misleading.

In this intelligent functional orthodontic appliance, the monitoring component 2 can be set on the orthodontic part 1 or on the extension component 3. By using the extension component 3, it is easy to adjust the orthodontic body length to match the patient's dental arch.

This could improve the treatment effect and comfort, as well as save time and facilitate to use. 8

Claims (10)

Claims L. An intelligent functional orthodontic appliance having an orthodontic body with an orthodontic part (1) on the denture, characterized in that there is a monitoring component (2) located on the orthodontic body, the monitoring component (2) being a detection unit for detecting information of the oral environment, comprising a microprocessor (23), a clock chip (24) and a memory (25), the microprocessor, driven by a power module, being connected to the detection unit, the clock chip ( 24) and the memory (25). The intelligent functional orthodontic appliance according to claim 1, comprising a detection unit comprising a sensor set, the sensor set comprising an oral light intensity physical sensor (21) and a temperature sensor (22) connected to the microprocessor (23), respectively. The intelligent functional orthodontic appliance according to claim 1, which is equipped with monitoring components (2) on both sides of the orthodontic body. An intelligent functional orthodontic appliance according to any one of claims 1 to 3, comprising a U-shaped orthodontic part (1), wherein a top and bottom of the orthodontic part are designed with an upper groove (4) for receiving the upper jaw and a lower groove for receiving the lower jaw. Intelligent functional orthodontic appliance according to claim 4, characterized in that the orthodontic body also has a detachable extension. The intelligent functional orthodontic appliance according to claim 5, characterized in that the extensions comprise an extension body (31), an upper capacity slot (32), a lower capacity slot (33) and a clamp pin (34), wherein an upper and lower portion 9 of the extension body (31) are provided with the upper and lower slots, respectively, and one end of the orthodontic part (1) has a clamp pin slot (35), and the extension body includes a clamp pin (34) corresponding to the clamp pin slot (35) . The intelligent functional orthodontic appliance according to claim 6, characterized in that the extension body (31) is provided with a through-pin slot (36), the through-pin slot (36) and the clamping pin (34) are provided on each side of the extension. (31) and match the clamp pin (34) adjacent to the extension (31)o Intelligent functional orthodontic appliance according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the orthodontic part (1) has a lingual side and the lingual side of the orthodontic part is provided with a lingual block (6) that has a has lingual marking (7). Intelligent functional orthodontic appliance according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the orthodontic part (1) has a labial side and the labial side of the orthodontic part (1) is provided with a labial block (5 ) having a breathing hole (8) and an upper and lower portion of the labial block provided with an upper labial frenulum groove (9) and a lower labial frenulum groove (11), respectively, and the labial side of the labial block (5) 1s designed with a plurality of pointed protrusions (11). An intelligent functional orthodontic appliance according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the monitoring component (2) also comprises a transparent protective housing having an inner chamber in which an oral light intensity physical sensor (21), a microprocessor (23 ), a clock chip (24) and a memory (25) are placed in the inner chamber, and a temperature sensor (22) is placed outside the transparent protective housing. 10