Dental Mold

My present invention relates to a mold for the temporary retention of two or more so-called false dental roots in a relative position determined by a patients's jaw, preparatorily to the building of a partial or total denture around these roots.

In making such multitooth dentures it is known to use a mold in which the false roots are disposed, in positions determined by an impression taken from the patient's mouth, within a hardenable cementitious mass generally consisting of plaster of paris. The mold is fastened with the aid of a similar mass to an articulator so as properly to confront a replica of the opposite jaw. After suitable alignment of the mold and the false roots, the latter are usually extracted from the mold together with the surrounding cementitious body which is thereafter cut apart between the roots to allow the fitting of a false tooth to each of them. It is then necessary to reinsert the root and its surrounding cementitious segment into the mold in exactly the position previously occupied by it. Owing to the removal of some of the cementitious material by the saw cut, however, there is now always a gap between adjoining segments so that precise repositioning is difficult.

Moreover, the mold can rarely be removed from the articulator without destroying its seat in the cementitious layer so that accurate reinsertion into that layer creates a problem.

An important object of my present invention, therefore, is to provide an improved dental mold for the purpose set forth which avoids the aforestated drawbacks and which, in particular, facilitates the accurate repositioning therein of segments cut from a body of plaster of paris or other cementitious material encasing a plurality of false roots.

Another object is to provide means on such a mold for anchoring it to a relatively fragile cementitious layer in a manner enabling its repeated removal and reinsertion in the same position.

A further object is to provide simple and reliable means for releasably retaining the cementitious body with its array of false roots in such a mold.

In accordance with my present invention, a mold of the character described comprises a shell with an upwardly open trough whose outline conforms to all or part of a human jaw and which has a generally trapezoidal, upwardly diverging cross-section whose bottom and side surfaces are provided with closely spaced transverse corrugations to facilitate the precise repositioning of a segment of a molded mass in that trough after temporary removal therefrom.

According to another feature of my invention, the mold is provided on its underside with one or more dovetail-shaped rails which are receivable in a layer or hardenable cementitious material on an articulator, these rails preferably converging toward one end thereof to insure that their withdrawal from the layer leaves the latter intact and to define exactly the relative position of the mold and the articulator.

Pursuant to a further feature of my invention, a slider removably seated in the mold shell has a shelf partly overhanging the trough for holding the cementitious mass in place while giving access to it from above, thereby enabling the introduction of the false roots into the trough and their suitable positioning within the still fluid mass in the working position of the slider.

The above and other features of my invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a top view of a mold, according to my invention, for a total denture;

FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the mold shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a top view of a slider (omitted in FIG. 1) receivable in the mold;

FIG. 4 is a bottom view of the slider shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line V -- V of FIG. 1; with the slider in place;

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line VI -- VI of FIG. 1, also with the slider in place; and

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view generally similar to FIG. 5, relating to a modified mold designed for a partial denture.

As shown in FIGS. 1 - 6, a dental mold according to my invention comprises a rigid shell 1 formed with an upwardly open, generally U-shaped trough 2 of substantially trapezoidal cross-section, with the major base of the trapezoid lying on top. The shell 1 may consist of metal or hard plastic (the letter being indicated in the drawing). Trough 2 is defined by an outer sidewall 1a, an inner sidewall 1b and a bottom 1c of shell 1.

In accordance with an important feature of my invention, the side and bottom surfaces of the trough 2 are provided with closely spaced transverse corrugations 3 which lie in vertical planes so as to facilitate the upward withdrawal of a nonillustrated molded mass from the trough. That molded mass, usually consisting of plaster of paris, has embedded therein a multiplicity of false roots at locations corresponding to the positions of the teeth of the opposite jaw of a patient as determined by an impression taken from the patient's mouth. The spacing of the corrugations 3 should be substantially smaller than that of the roots in order that a segment of the molded cementitious body, containing one such root, should have several ribs on each of three sides whereby the exact location of the segment within that trough is unequivocally established.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, a central portion of shell 1 forming the inner sidewall 1b has a dovetail-shaped groove 9 complementary to that of a key 4 forming part of a slider of generally T-shaped profile, the key constituting the web of the "T" whose bar forms a shelf 5 overhanging the trough 2 which is thereby partly obstructed from above. As best seen in FIGS. 3 and 4, the shelf 5 of the slider is generally tongue-shaped and has a contour following the outline of the trough 2, the tip of the tongue pointing toward the bight of the "U". Slider 4, 5 also has an upstanding cleat 6 enabling its manual withdrawal from the groove 9 in the direction away from that bight, i.e. downwardly as viewed in FIGS. 1 and 6. The top of shell 5 is flush with the rim of shell 1 so as not to interfere with the closure of a simulated pair of jaws (one of them represented by the mold) on a nonillustrated articulator to which the mold is fastened through the intermediary of a layer of plaster of paris or the like.

In order to anchor the mold to that layer, the underside of shell 1 is formed with a pair of parallel rails 8 of a dovetail-shaped profile converging longitudinally toward one end thereof as best seen in FIG. 2. These rails 8 permit the nondestructive removal of the mold from the relatively fragile layer, especially if they consist of or are coated with a substance which is nonadhering to the material of that layer (i.e. plaster of paris). Suitable substances of this nature includes polyethylene and polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon).

The bottom of shell 1 is advantageously perforated with small orifices 7 through which air under pressure may be introduced into the trough 2 for aiding in dislodging the molded mass with its embedded false roots after withdrawal of the slider 4, 5.

Whereas the mold shown in FIGS. 1 - 6 is designed to hold the roots of a full complement of false teeth, my invention is also applicable to smaller molds used in making partial dentures. Such a smaller mold has been illustrated in FIG. 7 where a shell 1' has a trough 2' of limited dimensions designed to receive two or more false roots, the side and bottom surfaces of this trough having transverse corrugations 3' as described above. The bottom of the mold carries a single dovetail-shaped rail 8' and one of the trough walls is formed with an external keyway 9' receiving a dovetail-shaped key 4' integral with a vertical leg of a slider of generally L-shaped profile. The slider also has a horizontal leg forming a shelf 5' which again overlies part of the trough at the level of the upper shell rim for releasably retaining a body of plaster of paris or the like molded within the trough.

It will be readily apparent that any segment of such a molded body, with vertical ribs complementary to the corrugations 3 or 3', can be positively located within the mold even if separated by small gaps from adjoining segments.

The mold shown in FIGS. 1- 6 may easily be designed in such a way that its trough accommodates the false roots of different dentures conforming to a wide variety of human jaws.