Illumination assembly for dental and medical applications

a technology for illumination assemblies and dental and medical applications, applied in the direction of lighting support devices, spectales/goggles, optical radiation measurement, etc., can solve the problems of increasing the difficulty of viewing the patient or workpiece, the interior of such holes generally cannot be viewed without direct illumination, and the prior art devices fail to fully or partially include, etc., to achieve automatic illumination of the area the user is viewing, and the effect of reducing the weight of the illumination assembly

a technology for illumination assemblies and dental and medical applications, applied in the direction of lighting support devices, spectales/goggles, optical radiation measurement, etc., can solve the problems of increasing the difficulty of viewing the patient or workpiece, the interior of such holes generally cannot be viewed without direct illumination, and the prior art devices fail to fully or partially include, etc., to achieve automatic illumination of the area the user is viewing, and the effect of reducing the weight of the illumination assembly

USRE39162E1Inactive Publication Date: 2006-07-11THE KERR
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  • Illumination assembly for dental and medical applications
  • Illumination assembly for dental and medical applications
  • Illumination assembly for dental and medical applications

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Embodiment Construction

[0042]In the drawings, wherein the same or similar features are designated throughout with the same reference numeral, the illumination assembly of the present invention is shown at 20 in FIGS. 1-3. The illumination assembly 20 has five main components: a housing 22 which contains an optical element 24, a housing base 26 engaged to the housing 22 and wherein a light guide 28 enters, and a clip 30 which provides attachment means for removably attaching the housing base 26 to the user's head or headgear. Throughout this specification, when reference is made to attachment of the illumination assembly 20 to the user's head to headgear, this is understood to include attachment to implements mounted on the user's head such as eyeglasses and goggles, face shields and masks, and headbands and helmets, as well as similar implements. It is further understood to include attachment to accessory implements such as lenses, loupes, and binoculars mounted on the aforementioned implements. Each of t...

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Abstract

A small, lightweight, high intensity illumination assembly for use in dental and medical applications. The illumination assembly includes attachment means for removable attachment to headgear such as eyeglasses, face shields, or headbands, and lenses, loupes, and binoculars associated with such headgear. The illumination assembly is able to achieve extremely light weight by using only a single optical element therein, e.g., an aspheric condensing lens, binary optical element, or holographic optical means, and by piping illumination to the optical element from a remote light source by use of a flexible light guide, e.g., a fiberoptic bundle.

Description

[0001]The present application is a reissue application of U.S. Pat. No. 5,667,291.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The invention relates generally to the field of head-mounted illumination devices for medical and dental use, and specifically to the field of small, lightweight, high-intensity illumination assemblies for medical and dental use which are mounted on the user's head to provide coaxial illumination.DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART[0003]Personnel who work in medical and dental fields frequently have a need to illuminate a portion of a patient or workpiece as they operate on the patient or workpiece. At the same time, they require the free use of their hands. Both of these needs are met by illumination assemblies known to the art which are mounted on the user's head or headgear and which illuminate the patient or workpiece. An example of such an apparatus can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,341,513 to Klein et al., which describes a headband whereupon a lamp is mounted.[0004]However, th...

Claims

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Application Information

Patent Timeline
11 Jul 2006
Publication
USRE39162E1
IPC
F21V21/084; A61B17/00; F21V8/00; F21V21/088; G02B25/02; G02C7/08; G02C11/04
CPC
F21V21/084; F21V21/145; G02B6/0008; G02B7/002; G02B25/004; G02C7/088; G02C11/04; G02C2200/02
Inventors
CAPLAN, CHARLES H.; BUSHROE, FREDERICK N.