US3362072A

US3362072A - Artificial denture

Info

Publication number: US3362072A
Application number: US397328A
Authority: US
Inventors: Nowaczyk Christian
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1964-09-17
Filing date: 1964-09-17
Publication date: 1968-01-09
Anticipated expiration: 1985-01-09

Description

Jan. 9, 1968 c. NOWACZYK 3,362,072

ARTIFICIAL DENTURE Filed Sept. 17, 1964 ms. 1 v F152 IN VENTOR CHRISTIAN NOUJACZYK ATTORNEYj United States Patent Ofifice 3,362,072 Patented Jan. 9, 1968 3,362,072 ARTIFICIAL DENTURE Christian Nowaczyk, 18 Heidestr., 5103 Brand, Germany Filed Sept. 17, 1964, Ser. No. 397,328 11 Claims. (Cl. 32-4) The invention concerns an artificial denture with levers mounted rotatably on both the upper and the lower denture prothesis and with a spiral spring which has been put on said levers, and connects the levers of each side of the denture one with the other.

Artificial dentures of this general character are known. They always have a suction surface through which the protheses are held to the gums. It has been found, however, that wearers of such dentures develop certain changes of the mucous membrane, as well as adhesions or atrophies from pressure on their gums which decrease the adhesive capacity of the palate plates.

Also, it frequently happens that food particles become lodged between the gums and palate plate and form centers of decay which have a disadvantageous eifect with regard to bad breath, metabolism and condition of surfaces of the gums.

In the case of the known artificial dentures, it is true that upper and lower parts have been connected with springs. However, such known arrangements only permit to a limited extent desired movements of the jaws, since the ends of the'spring means will merely permit a rotational movement in relation to the upper or the lower part. In the case of frequent transverse movements of the jaws, not infrequently breaking of the springs will occur. Also, the fit of the parts of the dentures is impaired.

Patients who have so-called fibromatosis alviolaris, i.e., the jaw bone becomes softened and merely a soft and spongy tissue remains, can for practical purposes really not wear such known dentures since they have practically no firm hold and merely float on the soft tissue.

The present invention, therefore, has for a purpose of solving of the stated problems and to create an artificial denture that can be worn by every patient. Furthermore, the improved denture while not having a palate plate, nevertheless will provide a firm hold in any kind of jaw movement.

The invention is based on the realization that with a proper arrangement of the spiral spring means between the elements of the denture, the latter will be able to replace the adhesive force of the denture shape along the ridge and of the palate plate along the gum.

An outstanding feature of the invention resides in the fact that the levers have been mounted as driven levers of a spherical or universal joint on the denture protheses assigned to them, and that the line of connection of the bearing sites of the levers will form a gravitational line of the denture prothesis, the phase gravitational line meaning the neutral transverse axis through the denture.

Thus, the levers are in a position not only to rotate around their own axis mounted on the denture, but due to the universal mounting thereof they can also execute a swing vertically in relation to the first movement, that is, they can altogether execute a spherical movement. Since at the same time they engage in a gravitational line in each denture prothesis, a small excess pressure of the spiral spring will be sufiicient to press the denture prothesis firmly against the ridge of the jaw. As a result, the folds of the jaw and of the zygomatic arch will be greatly preserved.

According to one design of the invention, one end of each lever facing away from the spiral spring has been mounted rotatably and horizontally in one tooth of the pertinent denture prothesis and the tooth itself has been mounted in the tooth prothesis so that it is rotatable around its longitudinal axis.

Through this design, a desired spherical movement of the lever in relation to the pertinent denture prothesis has been provided for in a simple manner. Additionally, in each instance one of the teeth of the prothesis is utilized for the mounting of the lever, and this is advantageous in that the teeth of the prothesis consist of a particularly resistant, hard raw material. A further improvement for the possibility of the spherical movement of the levers will be achieved through the fact that the foot of the tooth has the shape of a calotte and is held in a ball cup by means of a ball shaped pressure button, the diameter of said cup being somewhat larger than that of the calotte.

For receiving the levers within the tooth, preferably, round or annular screw sockets have been provided. It will be advantageous if the spiral springs have a smooth coating, for example, of polyvinyl chloride, so that no food particles are likely to stick to said springs.

With the above and other objects in view that will hereinafter appear, the nature of the invention will be more clearly understood by reference to the following detailed description, the appended claims and the several views illustrated in the accompanying drawing.

In the drawing:

FIGURE 1 shows a longitudinal section through a tooth mounting, and illustrates a brass bearing for the tooth and a peg of a pressure button which can be inserted into the bearing.

FIGURE 2 shows the arrangement of the tooth in the mounting of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 3 shows a longitudinal section through the tooth of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 4 shows the arrangement of the spiral spring on the artificial denture according to the invention.

The denture, in accordance with the invention, has two essential characteristics:

(1) The connecting levers engage rotatably and swingably on the denture, especially on a tooth;

(2) The point of engagement of the levers on the prothesis, and thus the point of engagement of the force of the spiral spring, is located along the transverse neutral axis of each denture.

In order to realize the first characteristic, according to FIGURES 1-3, a tooth 1 has been mounted rotatable around its vertical axis in a ball cup 2 of the prothesis 3. In order to avoid on the one hand a dropping out of the tooth 1 from the ball cup, and on the other hand also to make possible an easy setting in of said tooth, a peg 5 has been embedded in the foot of the tooth 7 and said peg is equipped with a spherical elastic pressure button 4. The pressure button can be inserted into a spherical cavity 6 which had been made on the bottom of the ball cup 2.

As will be apparent particularly from FIGURE 2, the diameter of the ball cup is a little larger than that of the foot of the tooth 7 made in the shape of a calotte. Thus, the tooth 1 can carry out both a pendulum movement as well as a rotation around its own axis.

According to FIGURE 3 the tooth 1 which is made of relatively hard raw material, has a horizontal bore in which a threaded bushing 8 has been provided for the reception of a leg 9 of a rectangular lever 10, also equipped with a thread.

FIGURE 4 represents a part of a complete artificial denture, in accordance with the invention, that is to say, a denture consisting of an upper and a lower element. In each denture prothesis there is a tooth 1, as described above, mounted rotatably both on the left and on the right. The levers 10 are connected with spiral springs 11 which preferably are equipped with a smooth coating. A coating of polyvinyl chloride is an acceptable example.

In accordance with the invention, the threaded bushings 8 of each

prothesis

12, 13, in their state of rest are aligned one with the other, that is to say the points of application of power of the spiral springs 11 are along the neutral transverse axis of each prothesis or denture element. In order to achieve this, it will be necessary to balance out each

prothesis

12 and 13 correspondingly and, if need be, to provide it with counter balances.

The artificial denture, because of the rotatable mountingof each tooth 1, will permit any kind of movement of the jaw, without the protheses being loosened from the jaw. Because of the fact that the application of power of the spiral springs 11 lies along the neutral transverse axis, any kind of adhesive plate becomes unnecessary. Even patients with fibromatosis alviolaris as hereinabove stated, gingiva movens hyperia, or other such similar defects, may effectively wear this novel denture, since it is not necessary any longer to use the jaw bones for adsorption or suction holding of the protheses.

It should be apparent that the tooth mounting always ofiers enough space for receiving an armature without prejudice to the shape of the prothesis and the condition of the mouth.

While a preferred part arrangement has been disclosed herein it is to be understood that variations in part structures and arrangements may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. An artificial denture comprising a pair of denture elements each having a neutral transverse axis, means normally urging said denture elements away from each other whereby when positioned in the mouth of a user the denture elements are urged against and held upon the gums, means connecting said urging means to each of said denture elements, and said connecting means being each disposed along the neutral transverse axis of each denture element.

2. The artificial denture as defined in claim 1, and including universal joint means disposed between said urging means and said denture elements.

3. The artificial denture as defined in claim 1 including a plurality of artificial teeth carried by each denture element, said connecting means connecting said urging means directly to selected ones of said teeth disposed along the associated neutral axis, and means movably connecting said selected ones of the teeth to their associated denture element.

4. The artificial denture as defined in claim 1 including a plurality of artificial teeth carried by each denture element, and said connecting means connect said urging means directly to selected ones of the teeth disposed along the associated neutral transverse axis.

5. The artificial denture as defined in claim 4 wherein said connecting means include a transversely directed connecting element carried by each of said selected ones of the teeth, and said urging means are springs having ends connected to adjacent pairs of the connecting elements of each denture element.

6. The artificial denture as defined in claim 5 wherein means are provided for mounting said selected ones of the teeth for universal movement relative to the associated denture elements.

7. The artificial denture as defined in claim 4 wherein universal joint means are provided for mounting said selected ones of the teeth for universal movement relative to the associated denture elements.

8. An artificial denture comprising a pair of denture elements, a plurality of artificial teeth carried by each denture element, means for normally urging said denture elements away from each other whereby when positioned in the mouth of a user the denture elements are urged against and held upon the gums, means for directly connecting said urging means between adjacent ones of the teeth of each denture element, and means movably connecting said adjacent ones of the teeth to their associated denture element.

9. An artificial denture comprising a pair of denture elements, a plurality of artificial teeth carried by each denture element, means for normally urging said denture elements away from each other whereby when positioned in the mouth of a user the denture elements are urged against and held upon the gums, means for directly connecting said urging means between adjacent ones of the teeth of each denture element, said connecting means including a connecting element carried by each of said adjacent ones of the teeth, said urging means being springs having ends connected between adjacent ones of said connecting elements, each connecting element is mounted horizontally and rotatably in its associated tooth, and each of said adjacent ones of the teeth are movably mounted in their associated denture element.

10. The artificial denture as defined in claim 9 wherein universal joint means are provided for mounting said movable teeth for universal movement.

11. The artificial denture as defined in claim 9 wherein said connecting elements are levers and include thread means for connection to an associated tooth.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 5,181 7/1847 Stuart 32-4 1,831,591 11/1931 Foester 32-4 2,876,540 3/ 1959 Heydenreich 324 FOREIGN PATENTS 485,570 10/1917 France.

RICHARD A. GAUDET, Primary Examiner.

R. E. MORGAN, Assistant Examiner.

Claims

1. AN ARTIFICAL DENTURE COMPRISING A PAIR OF DENTURE ELEMENTS EACH HAVING A NEUTRAL TRANSVERSE AXIS, MEANS NORMALLY URGING SAID DENTURE ELEMENTS AWAY FROM EACH OTHER WHEREBY WHEN POSITIONED IN THE MOUTH OF A USER THE DENTURE ELEMENTS ARE URGED AGAINST THE HELD UPON THE GUMS, MEANS CONNECTING SAID URGING MEANS TO EACH OF SAID DENTURE ELEMENTS, AND SAID CONNECTING MEANS BEING EACH DISPOSED ALONG THE NEUTRAL TRANSVERSE AXIS OF EACH DENTURE ELEMENT.