US3925892A

US3925892A - Artificial tooth implant device

Info

Publication number: US3925892A
Application number: US323239A
Authority: US
Inventors: Jean-Marc G Juillet
Original assignee: JUILLET JEAN MARC G
Current assignee: JUILLET JEAN MARC G
Priority date: 1972-06-12
Filing date: 1973-01-12
Publication date: 1975-12-16
Anticipated expiration: 1992-12-16
Also published as: CA992774A; JPS4950791A; GB1423198A; IT987980B; DE2323210A1; BE798964A; FR2188445A5; ES414976A1; JPS5346040B2; SE391872B

Abstract

An artificial tooth implant device in which there is provided an anchoring part and a post structure adapted to have an artificial tooth or tooth structure secured thereto, with the device being intended for permanent retention in an artificial recess to be formed in the front face or in the rear face of a patient''s jawbone, and the device being engageable in said recess in a generally transverse direction of said jawbone with said post structure extending beyond the crest of the jawbone.

Description

United States Patent 1191 Jutllet Dec. 16, 1975 54 ARTIFICIAL TOOTH IMPLANT DEVICE FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATONS [76] Inventor: Jean-Marc Jlmet, 102 we de 191,081 9/1956 Austria 128/92 c Courcelles, 75017 Paris, France [22] Filed: Jan. 12, 1973 Primary Examiner-Louis G. Mancene Assistant Examiner-J. Q. Lever [21] App! 323239 Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Holman & Stern [30] Foreign Application Priority Data [57] ABSTRACT June 12, France An tooth device in there is 1 133 131; 013 ggggf fg tfgfi gzf iii; [58] Field of Search 32/10 A; 128/92 c, 92 1); Secured f mended 3/] permanent retention in an art1fic1al recess to be formed in the front face or in the rear face of a pa- [561 References Cited 223378213532 53113;? ifliielfe' irifiii li i3 UNITED STATES PATENTS jawbone with said post st iucture extending beyond the 3,474.537 10/1969 Christensen 32/10 A crest of the jawbone. 3.715.763 2/1973 Link I28/92 C 3.765.091 10/1973 Northcutt 32 14 A 12 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures U.S. Patent Dec. 16,1975 3,925,892

ARTIFICIAL TOOTH IMPLANT DEVICE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to an artificial tooth implant device comprising an implanting portion engageable into a jawbone for permanent retention therein.

In implanting an artificial tooth or tooth structure into the mouth of a patient, it is essential that said tooth or tooth structure is permanently maintained in proper position in the patients mouth without lateral and longitudinal looseness.

PRIOR ART It has already been proposed to implant an artificial tooth or tooth structure in the jawbone of the patient by means of a device such as shown in US, Pat. No. 3,465,441 to Leonard I. Linkow, said device comprising a thin, razorsharp implanting blade portion having an opening provided therein, and a relatively massive support portion which extends up from the blade beyond the patients gum. For securing the artificial tooth or tooth structure in place, the blade portion is embedded into the jawbone by applying onto the support portion a force sufficient to drive the blade portion into the jawbone in an accurately defined direction, with the sharp edge of the blade portion being able to cut into the jawbone structure and spread it apart until the support portion comes to rest on the gum, whereafter the artificial tooth can be secured onto the support portion of the device. Initially, the implant device will be held in place by the pressure of the bone tissue on the side surfaces of the implant blade portion the surface area of which is sufficiently large to produce effective retention when it is first driven into the bone by force applying means such as a mallet. After a time, the bone structure grows through the opening provided in the blade portion to thereby retain the same within the jawbone. This known implanting arrangement is objectionable in that the resistance of the gum and the slight pressure fit of the blade portion are insufficient for retaining the initially embedded blade portion in place against the effect of the mastication pressure tending to force the blade portion somewhat deeper into the bone structure so that the known arrangement cannot be relied upon for retaining an artificial tooth or tooth structure in the initially implanted position thereof.

OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore a general object of the invention to provide an artificial tooth implanting arrangement which will avoid the above described disadvantage of the prior art arrangement.

It is also a general object of the invention to provide an artificial tooth implant device having an anchoring plate portion adapted to distribute the pressure in use over a wall portion of a complemental artificial cavity or recess formed in the jawbone and into which the implant device is slidingly engageable in a generally transverse direction of said jawbone for permanent retention therein.

It is another object of the invention to provide an artificial tooth implant device of the type described for frictional engagement into a complemental artificial recess formed in a patients jawbone and designed so that the fully inserted device will be accurately positioned in the jawbone without lateral and longitudinal play.

Another ojbect of the invention is to provide an extremely dependable artificial tooth implant device which is simple in design and econimical to manufacture.

Other and further features and objects of the invention will be more apparent to those skilled in the art upon a consideration of the accompanying drawings and following specification, wherein are disclosed four examplary embodiments of the invention, with the understanding, however, that such changes may be made therein as fall within the scope of the appended claims, without departing from the spirit of the invention.

In said drawing:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an enlarged view in perpsective of an artificial tooth implant device constructed according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a jawbone portion provided with an artificial recess, and illustrating the manner in which the device shown in FIG. 1 is to be inserted in the recess.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are transverse and longitudinal sectional elevations respectively of the implant device after its insertion in the artificial recess shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged view in perpective of an artificial tooth implant device constructed according to another embodiment of the invention; and

FIGS. 6 and 7 are enlarged perspective views respectively of two further different embodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS Similar characters of reference refer to similar parts and portions throughout the several views of the draw- Referring now to the drawing and more particularly to FIGS. 1 to 4, the artificial tooth implant device I here shown is more particularly adapted for implantation within the molar and premolar region of a patients jawbone. The implant device 1 is preferably in the form of a unitary metallic structure and comprises a thin flat anchoring plate 2 of square or rectangular shape having a smaller width than that of the jawbone portion into which plate 2 is to be introduced, and a post structure 3 projecting from a central portion of one face of the plate 2 in a direction substantially perpendicular thereto. The plate 2 is provided with a plurality of openings 2a, and post 3 is adapted to support an artificial tooth such as shown at 9 in FIG. 3 and which may be secured onto the post 3 in any suitable manner such as by an application of cement. However, in order to positively prevent any rotation of the artificial tooth 9 relative to the device 1, the post 3 is preferably angular in cross section to snugly fit a corresponding cavity formed in the gingival end of tooth 9, with the longitudinal edges of such post being preferably smoothed off or rounded. The post 3 may be hollow and be provided with an internal screwthread adaped to cooperate with an external screw-thread 5a formed on the shank of a screw member 5 which may be used as a means for fastening the artificial tooth to post 3. In order to solve certain problems of parallelism which may be encountered in mounting artificial teeth on one or several individual implant devices, a shank length portion 5b of screw member 5 extending above the threaded length 3 portion thereof may be bent so as to form a suitable angle with the threaded length portion 5a of the shank.

From the standpoint of manufacture, the anchoring plate 2 may have a length ranging between 18 and 28 mm, a width of 7.5 mm, and a thickness of 0.5 mm; the post 3 may have a length ranging between 12 and mm, and may be of square transverse section so as to present four side faces having each a width of about 2 As previously indicated, the implant device 1 is intended for transverse insertion into an artificial recess formed in a jawbone. To this end, an incision is made in the mucous tissue on the crest of a jawbone portion 6 into which the device is to be inserted, which tissue is then scraped by means of a suitable tool so as to leave the underlying front or rear face portion of the bone uncovered, whereafter the artificial recess is formed in the bare rear face or front face portion of the bone. This artificial recess consists of a substantially horizontal groove 7 and a vertical groove 8 extending from the groove 7 at substantially the midleng'th thereof to the crest of bone 6. As will be readily apparent from FIG. 2, the groove 7 is intended for the reception of anchoring plate 2, and groove 8 for the reception of the post 3 of the implant device 1 shown in FIG. 1, with the groove 7 being located at such a distance from the bone crest that the length portion of the post 3 which will extend beyond said crest after insertion of the device is adequate for securing and adjusting an artificial tooth 9 onto said length portion of the post 3.

For securing the implant device 1 in place, it suffices to give the

grooves

7 and 8 such dimensions that the plate 2 and post structure 3 are frictionally engageable into their respective grooves whereby the device, upon complete insertion into the grooves, will be securely anchored in the bone structure without vertical, longi tudinal and transverse looseness relative to the bone structure, and this not only by virtue of its positive retention against displacements in two opposite vertical directions as well as in three horizontal directions, but also by virtue of its frictional retention against a displacement in the fourth horizontal direction, namely in a direction opposite to that of its frictional engagement into the grooves.

As clearly apparent from FIG. 3, the groove 7 should have a depth such that the plate 2, when moved to its operative position in the groove 7, will lie entirely within the bone structure 6, whereas the depth of groove 8 should be such that its vertical bottom wall is spaced from the horizontal bottom wall of groove 7 by a distance equal to the distance existing between the edge of anchoring plate 2 intended to contact said bottom wall of groove 7 and the face of the post structure 3 intended to contact said bottom wall of groove 8.

When the implant device is positioned in the complemental recess so as to serve in its intended manner, it is only necessary to cover the bared portion of the jawbone with the previously detached mucous tissue portion and, as will be readily understood by those skilled in the art, to suture this mucous tissue portion to the gum line from which it has been separated. An artificial tooth such as shown at 9 in FIGS. 3 and 4 may now be secured onto the length portion of post structure 3 extending beyond the crest of home structure 6.

After a time, the bone structure 6 grows through the openings 2a formed in the plate 2 to additionally lock the device in the anchored position thereof.

The embodiment of FIG. 5 is more particularly adapted for implantation within the incisor, canine, or posterior region of a jawbone. This device differs from the device of FIGS. 1 to 4 only in that the anchoring plate 2 is of a substantially V-shaped form, the apex of which constitutes a transverse median portion of plate 2, and in that post structure 3 is positioned on the outer flattened face of such median portion substantially at the center thereof.

The construction of the anchoring plate 2 shown in FIG. 6 is the same as in FIG. 1, but the anchoring plate has on one of its flat faces two longitudinally spaced

posts

3 and 3a extending from said face in substantially parallel relation. The two

posts

3 and 3a may be of same structure and may be of same or different length, with each post being adapted to have an artificial tooth or an artificial tooth structure such as a bridge or the like secured thereto.

While the anchoring plate 2 has been described as being of generally square or rectangular form, it should be understood that it may be otherwise designed without departing from the principles of the invention. Thus, in cases where the anchoring plate is contemplated for insertion into an appreciably curved horizontal length portion of a jawbone, there may be used a flat anchoring plate of corresponding arcuate configuration such as shown at 10 in FIG. 7. One of the two curved longitudinal edges of the plate 10 may be provided with a tapered cutout 11 permitting, is that is desired, to vary the radius of curvature of plate 10 by deforming the plate manually in such a manner as to approach the edges of cutout 11 towards each other.

It is to be noted that in the forms of the invention shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the anchoring plate may be divided into two half portions having each a post structure normal thereto so that each half portion of the plate and its corresponding post structure may be used as an individual implant device such as shown in FIG. 2.

Furthermore, it is to be understood that the use of an anchoring plate having two or more longitudinally spaced post structues such as 3 and 3a thereon requires the formation of a corresponding number of longitudinally spaced post receiving grooves 8 in the rear or in the front face of the jawbone.

It will be appreciated that a secure anchorage of the implant device according to the present invention is assured in that the device finds the

grooves

7, 8, into which it is to be pushed, of a width so commensurate with the thickness of the anchoring plate and of the post structure, respectively, that it makes for ease of initial frictional inter-relation of the device with the grooves. It will be further appreciated that in the event that the width of the grooves should be found somewhat too large to assure the desired frictional interrelation, it is possible to compensate for this inconvenience by any suitable accurate expedient such as, for example, by deforming some edge length portions of the anchoring plate so that they protrude slightly from the plane of the plate.

Thus, it will be seen that there has been provided in this invention a construction with which the various objects hereinbefore noted are successfully achieved, to gether with many thoroughly practical advantages. It will also be seen that the construction is well adapted to meet the requirements of inexpensiveness of manufacture, and of long and hard practical use. Furthermore, the entire implanting operation is relatively simple and readily within the skill of a dentist or a surgeon.

What is claimed is:

1. An artificial tooth implant device engageable into a complemental artificial recess formed in the front or rear face of a jawbone for permanent retention of said device in said jawbone, said device comprising an implanting portion defined by a flat anchoring plate structure having at least one opening therein, and a mounting portion defined by an elongated post structure extending from a substantially central surface area of one face of said plate structure in a direction substantially perpendicular to said one face, and said post structure including means for mounting an artificial tooth or tooth structure on a free end length portion of said post structure.

2. The device according to claim 1 in which said mounting means consists of a thread provided on said post structure along said free end length portion thereof, said thread being cooperable with a complemental thread of a fastening means for an artificial tooth or tooth structure to be secured onto said free end length portion of said post structure.

3. An artificial tooth implant device intended for. insertion into and permanent retention within a recess of corresponding configuration formed in a front face portion or in a rear face portion of a jawbone structure, said device comprising a flat anchoring plate having two opposite transverse edges and two opposite substantially parallel longitudinal edges, at least one opening formed in said plate, said opening having a dimension sufficient to permit the jawbone structure provided with said device to grow through said opening, a post structure extending from a central portion of said plate in a direction substantially perpendicular thereto, and means for securing an artificial tooth or tooth structure on said post structure.

4. The device according to claim 3, wherein said post structure is of angular cross-section to fit a hole of corresponding shape formed in an artificial tooth to be secured onto said post structure.

5. The device according to claim 3, wherein said post structure is hollow.

6. An artificial tooth implant device intended for insertion into and permanent retention within a recess of corresponding configuration formed in a front face portion or in a rear face portion of a jawbone structure, said device comprising a flat anchoring plate having two opposite transverse edges and two opposite substantially parallel longitudinal edges, at least on opening formed in said plate, said opening having a dimension sufficient to permit the jawbone structure provided with said device to grow through said opening, a hollow post structure extending from a central portion of said plate in a direction substantially perpendicular thereto, said hollow post structure being provided with an internal thread adapted to cooperate with an external thread formed on a fastening means for an artificial tooth or tooth structure to be secured onto said post structure.

7. The device according to claim 6, wherein said fastening means consists of arod member having a length portion provided with said external thread and a length portion bent relative to said threaded length portion so as to form a predetermined .angle therewith.

8. The device according to claim 3, wherein said anchoring plate is bent longitudinally so as to present two plate portions diverging from a transverse median portion, said post structure projecting from the middle of the outer face of said median portion in a direction substantially perpendicular thereto.

9. The device according to claim 3, wherein said parallel longitudinal edges of the anchoring plate are arcuate. 1

10. The device according to claim 9, wherein one of said arcuate longitudinal edges of the anchoring plate is provided with a cut-out permitting to effect a longitudinal deformation of the plate in such direction as to move the mutually facing edges of the cut-out towards each other to thereby vary the radius of curvature of the arcuate anchoring plate.

11. The device according to claim 3, wherein the diameter of each opening formed in said anchoring plate is not less than 2.5 mm.

12. An artificial tooth implant device engageable into a complemental artifical recess formed in the front or rear face of a jawbone for permanent retention of said device in said jawbone, said device comprising an implanting portion defined by a flat anchoring plate structure having at least one opening therein, and a mounting portion defined by at least two elongated substantially parallel post structures extending from one face of the plate structure in a, dir'ection substantially perpendicular to said one face, and.each of said post structures including means for mounting an artificial tooth or tooth structure on a free e'nd length portion of said post structures.

Claims

3. An artificial tooth implant device intended for insertion into and permanent retention within a recess of corresponding configuration formed in a front face portion or in a rear face portion of a jawbone structure, said device comprising a flat anchoring plate having two opposite transverse edgEs and two opposite substantially parallel longitudinal edges, at least one opening formed in said plate, said opening having a dimension sufficient to permit the jawbone structure provided with said device to grow through said opening, a post structure extending from a central portion of said plate in a direction substantially perpendicular thereto, and means for securing an artificial tooth or tooth structure on said post structure.

5. The device according to claim 3, wherein said post structure is hollow.

7. The device according to claim 6, wherein said fastening means consists of a rod member having a length portion provided with said external thread and a length portion bent relative to said threaded length portion so as to form a predetermined angle therewith.

9. The device according to claim 3, wherein said parallel longitudinal edges of the anchoring plate are arcuate.

12. An artificial tooth implant device engageable into a complemental artifical recess formed in the front or rear face of a jawbone for permanent retention of said device in said jawbone, said device comprising an implanting portion defined by a flat anchoring plate structure having at least one opening therein, and a mounting portion defined by at least two elongated substantially parallel post structures extending from one face of the plate structure in a direction substantially perpendicular to said one face, and each of said post structures including means for mounting an artificial tooth or tooth structure on a free end length portion of said post structures.