US1151252A - Dental matrix-retainer. - Google Patents

Description

C. J. EMERSON.

DENTAL MATRIX RETAINER.

APPLICATION r1110 OCT. 17. I914 Patented Aug. 24:, 1915.

CHARLES tr. nnnason, or OMAHA, NEBRASKA.

DENTAL MATRIX-RETAINER.

Application filed October 17, 1914.

To all whom it may concern: I 7

Be it known that I, CHARLES J. EMERSON,

a citizen of the United States, residing in Omaha, in the county of Douglas and State of Nebraska, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Dental Matrix-Retainers, and have described-the same in the following specification, illustrated by the accompanying drawings.

My invention relates to that class of re tainers which havejaws and are used by dentists in connection with band matrices for the purpose of holding those matrices to the teeth while the latter are being filled. Such a matrix, it will be understood, comprises a thin strip of easily flexible and practically inelastic metal, encircling or partly encircling a tooth in the human mouth It is applied with recognized advantage in case the cavity to be filled is located on the approximal surface of an upper or lower front tooth from which a portion of the lingual surface has been lost.

It is the object of the invention to adapt a retainer of the specified class to grip'by and between its jaws immediately, in each instance, a single tooth, to the exclusion of all others, and hold the matrix to that tooth; to avoid thereby the-production of stresses tending to move the teeth relatively to each other; to prevent the discomforts that commonly result from such stresses; and incidentally to simplify the construction of the retainer and render the appliance conveniently compact, and easy to be applied and adjusted. To accomplish this object I incorporate in my improved retainer, as parts thereof, a pair of coacting hinged jaws which are adapted to engage respectively the libial and the palatal or lingual surfaces of the tooth, means for adjustably closing and releasing the jaws, and a setscrew for engagement with the matrix. I

In the accompanying drawings, illustrating the best manner in which I have contem plated applying the principles of my invention, Figure 1 is aside elevation of a retainer which is constructed in accordance with these principles and operatively applied to a tooth and matrix'which are shown in section. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the same matrix and retainer, applied to a defective tooth standing between other teeth. Fig. 3 is a detail, being a plan of the flat matrix blank before bending to fit the tooth. Fig. 4: is a perspective view showing a Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Aug. 24, 1915.

Serial No. 867,111.

matrix formed against one tooth, and having its band wrapped around another tooth. Fig. 5 is a perspective View of the complete retainer alone.

In the illustrated specimen of the invention the jaws are denoted by the numerals 1 and 2 respectively. They are hinged together at one end by the pivotal pin 3, are provided with inwardly directed terminal teeth, or points, 4t and 5, respectively, and are radially of unequal length. They are connected by the transverse arm 6, which projects from the longer and bent jaw 1, spans the space between the jaws, extends freely through a slot 12 in the shorter jaw, and is terminally provided with a screw thread and with the thumb-nut 7 for drawing the jaws together. The pointed screw 8, having a knurled head,works in a screwhole through the jaw l toward and from the jaw 2. This screw and the screw arm 6, as well as both of the described jaws, are disposed with their longitudinal axes in a single plane normal to the axis of the pin 3.

The matrix-forming strip, shown fiat in Fig. 3, may advantageously be stamped from a thin sheet of German silver. Operatively the dentist bends or wraps this strip against or around an affected tooth 9 in the desired 3 form of the matrix ll, encircling the tooth more or less completely as may be required. Then he applies the jaws likecxternal calipers, with the points 4: and 5 at the margins of the gums 10, as shown in Fig. l; and clamps the j aws immovably to the tooth between them by turning the nut 7. Then by turning the screw 8, and without disturbing the grip or position of the jaws 1 and 2 upon the tooth, he advances the screw point against the side of the matrix or retracts that point, as occasion may require; by the advance he compresses a portion of the matrix between the screw and the tooth, and thereby plastically shapes the matrix to the contiguous tooth surface; by the advance he likewise secures the matrix to its seat upon the tooth with greater or less firmness of pressure at difierent times, according 'to the requirements of the work; by the retraction of the screw he relaxes the pressure of the matrix upon the tooth, for the purpose of exposing the margin of the tooth cavity,

or for other purposes, as may be desired.

In this way the above stated object of the invention is accomplished in all its branches.

I claim 1. A dental matrix retainer of the speci fied class, comprising a pair o-f tooth-hol-ding jaws hinged together at one end, a transverse arm projecting from one of the jaws--and working through a slot in the other jaw, a nut on the'outer'end of tlriegarm; and a screw. carried by one of the jaws and placed diagonally with its tip adapted to impiiige 'npon" the matrix onthe tooth.

2. A denmmmix' retainer oifthespcified' class, comprising pair ofcoactiing hinged jaws adapted to engage opposinggurin s of the tooth which is to be filled, means for operating thejaiwsto clam that "tooth be the jaws?andpositionedfsdag 5 form ,tween prolonged ofthe screw;

the longitudinal akis of the to oth 'an'acute otajiaXisofthe hinges-and adapted to 611? gage at a greater distance from that axis matrix on the tooth so'11e1d;'-

" -In testimony whereof "I' subscribe this specification in"the presence of two nes'ses.

" Witnesses: 1 H v I WmLARo-EDDY;

I. S. LEAVITT,

oH-ARLEs 11.: nMERson;

-and a screw working through I one of the jaws at a distance from the piv-

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