Dental Pin

The present invention is concerned with a dental pin of the type comprising a stem provided with a head.

The head of the pin serves for the reconstitution, in a composite material or an amalgam, of a stump intended to receive a dental crown, while the stem of the pin is intended to be inserted and sealed in a hole provided in the root of the natural tooth.

The object of the present invention is to improve the retention of the stem in the hole provided in the root.

This object is achieved in accordance with the invention due to the fact that at least the apical part of the stem is tubular, and is provided with at least one outer thread and one helical groove.

The various features of the invention will be apparent from the following description, drawings and claims the scope of the invention not being limited to the drawings themselves as the drawings are only for the purpose of illustrating ways in which the principles of the invention can be applied. Other embodiments of the invention utilising the sam or equivalent principles may be used and structural changes may be made as desired by those skilled in the art without departing from the present invention and the purview of the appended claims.

FIG. 1 is an elevational view of a dental pin in accordance with the invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view, from above, of the illustrated pin, and

FIG. 3 is a sectional view on the line III--III of FIG. 2 with the head of the pin, except its base, omitted.

The dental pin illustrated, generally designated by the reference 1, comprises a stem 1a, which is frusto-conical, which is prolongated by a head presenting two flanges 1b and 1c, separated from each other by a groove 2, and with a part of square cross-section 1d which is also provided with a groove, designated by the reference 3.

The frusto-conical stem 1a is tubular, being provided with a blind axial bore 4, as shown particularly in FIG. 3. It is provided with an outer thread 1e enabling the pin to be screwed into the root canal of the tooth to be reconstituted, after endodontic preparation of this canal, by means of a key engaged on the head 1d. The stem 1a could alternatively be provided with two threads in lieu of the single thread illustrated.

The stem 1a is provided with a helical groove 5, extending up to the level of the groove 2 of the head of the pin and the width of which is substantially constant. This width could however be variable, increasing from the end of the pin in the direction of the head thereof. As a modification, the pin could be provided with two or more helical groove which, in this case, would be narrower than the groove of the pin as described and illustrated.

It is to be noted that the sense of the helix constituted by the helical groove 5, which is in the left hand sense, is the reverse of the sense of the thread 1e, which is a righthand thread.

As a modification, the stem of the pin could be other than frusto-conical in shape, for example cylindrical, or present a cervical part, that is to say the part which is near the crown, which might be cylindrical and followed by an apical part, that is to say the part nearer the point of the root, which might be frusto-conical.

The present arrangement has the advantage that the helical groove gives to the tubular part of the stem of the pin a resiliency which allows its section to adapt itself perfectly to the section of the hole provided in the root of the tooth in which it is screwed.