NOZZLE FOR A DENTAL POWDER BLASTING DEVICE

Description

[0001] The invention relates to a nozzle piece for a dental powder jet device, which is provided for an interchangeable arrangement on a handpiece and has an outlet nozzle for air in a mixture with a dental powder suitable for tooth cleaning, according to the class specified by the preamble of claim 1.

[0002] In a nozzle of this type known from US Patent 5,765,759, the outlet cross-section of the nozzle is formed with an open end of a relatively short tube, which is secured to the nozzle by a screw. An open inlet end of the tube is connected to a mixing chamber formed within the nozzle. Two connecting bores formed within the nozzle are attached to the mixing chamber: one for supplying air and the other for a separate supply of an air-powder mixture. The nozzle has a rotatable arrangement at the head end of a handpiece, which forms an integrated handle. This allows the tube, which is oriented at an obtuse angle to the axis of rotation of the nozzle, to be adjusted to different angular orientations of its outlet cross-section relative to the handpiece.The well-known nozzle piece thus enables supragingival powder jet cleaning of tooth surfaces, taking into account individual patient requirements.

[0003] From DE 101 14 324 A1, a nozzle assembly is known in which an outlet nozzle for an air-powder mixture is surrounded by a concentrically arranged outer outlet nozzle for the discharge of a fluid. The two outlet nozzles are connected via connecting bores to two separate connecting lines of a handle assembly, which is designed separately and fixed to the head end of a handpiece. With a nozzle assembly of this design, any supragingival powder jet cleaning can be supported by simultaneous fluid irradiation of the treated tooth surfaces in order to vary their gentle treatment during a dental cleaning.

[0004] From JP 2002 165 806, a nozzle element is known that is interchangeably mounted on a handheld device. The nozzle element comprises a double tube for guiding powder and water.

[0005] For tooth cleaning performed using a powder jet device with such nozzles, conventional methods employ sodium bicarbonate powders of varying grain sizes or powder mixtures consisting primarily of sodium bicarbonate. These powders have an abrasive effect, thus roughening the treated supragingival tooth surfaces. There is also a risk of damaging the subgingival tooth surfaces, particularly in the cervical region. Therefore, recent efforts have focused on using very fine-grained dental powders with lower densities than the abrasive powders previously used for powder jet cleaning of supragingival surfaces.

[0006] Such finer-grained powders and / or powder mixtures are described for use in supragingival tooth cleaning, for example, in DE 100 14 416 A1.

[0007] This publication specifies a powder density of no more than 2.0 g / cm³, adding that this should result in a tooth surface abrasion of no more than 0.10 mm³ caused by powder irradiation with conventional nozzles, based on a tooth surface area of ​​9.6 mm², an irradiation duration of 2 minutes at a jet pressure of 4 bar, and a distance of no more than 2.5 mm between the tooth surface and the outlet of the air-powder mixture nozzle. These powders are intended to prevent significant loss of non-regenerable tooth structure during supragingival powder jet cleaning, even with repeated irradiation.It is also intended to remove not only common impurities and discolorations of the visible tooth structure, but also plaque residues that are not visible or only poorly visible, especially deposits originating from microorganisms. The use of the same powder has also been proposed for subgingival powder jet cleaning according to DE 199 10 559 A1, although no significant differentiation has been made between this and supragingival powder jet cleaning.

[0008] However, testing of these rather fine-grained dental powders using the nozzles conventionally used in powder jet cleaning revealed that largely atraumatic dental treatments were hardly possible. A key criterion that emerged during this testing was the lack of accessibility to the root surfaces for the necessary work within the periodontal pockets. The nozzles designed to date have proven unsuitable or only marginally suitable for this purpose.

[0009] The invention is based on the objective of providing a new nozzle piece of the type mentioned above, which is suitable for the use of particularly fine-grained dental powders or powder mixtures with lower densities than the previously used abrasive powders and should allow subgingival, largely atraumatic powder jet cleaning of the tooth root surfaces.

[0010] This problem is solved in a nozzle piece with the features of claim 1.

[0011] In the nozzle according to the invention, the tubular shape of the section of the nozzle extending towards the outlet cross-section primarily ensures a largely atraumatic insertion of the outlet nozzle into the periodontal pockets. The length of the tube can be approximately 15 mm to allow for easy insertion of the front end of the tube to a depth of approximately 5 mm, even in the posterior periodontal pockets. The nozzle openings formed in the outer surface of this front end of the tube then produce a multi-segmented powder jet upon insertion, which easily reaches the surface of the tooth roots, even when the finer-grained powders and / or powder mixtures of relatively low density, as mentioned above, are used for cleaning them.The nozzle piece according to the invention therefore allows for a correspondingly optimal subgingival powder jet cleaning with such finer-grained dental powders.

[0012] For this subgingival powder jet cleaning, various geometries of the exit nozzle, as well as designs and arrangements of the nozzle openings in the outer surface of the front end of the tubular section of the nozzle piece, can be considered in order to optimize the subgingival powder jet cleaning according to individual circumstances within the framework of experimental testing. For this desired optimization, the front axial end of the tube can be closed, whereby this closed end can alternatively also be provided with an additional axial nozzle opening in accordance with a further design feature of the nozzle piece according to the invention. It can also be advantageous to provide a second exit nozzle for the supply of a fluid in order to use finer-grained dental powders or similar materials during subgingival dental treatment.To create a spray mist from powder mixtures with relatively low densities, which reduces potential dust exposure during treatment.

[0013] Several exemplary embodiments of nozzle components, which can prove to be particularly advantageous and which are also specified in the individual patent claims, are schematically depicted in the drawing and are explained in more detail below. It shows: Fig. 1 is a highly schematic representation of the head end of a known handpiece intended for a powder jet device, for which the nozzle piece indicated by detail X can be designed according to the invention; Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of the Fig. 1 with detail X of the nozzle piece shown, Fig. 3 an enlarged sectional view of detail X according to an alternative embodiment, Fig. 4 a collective view of various alternative designs of the outlet nozzle of the nozzle piece, partly with a further enlarged longitudinal section and an associated cross-section and partly with corresponding views, Fig. 5 a further collective view of various alternative designs of an axial nozzle opening of the outlet nozzle of the nozzle piece, Fig. 6 enlarged sectional views of detail X according to further alternative embodiments in which an additional fluid outlet nozzle is provided, Fig. 7 a schematic representation of a scale provided as a position marker for the nozzle openings of the outlet nozzle in a side view and in section along line CC, and Fig.8an enlarged sectional view of detail X according to a further alternative embodiment .

[0014] The in Fig. 1 The highly schematic representation of the head end of a handpiece is intended to illustrate a design according to DE 101 14 324 A1. For this purpose, a connection between a nozzle piece 2, which is interchangeably connected to a handle sleeve 1, is assumed to be known. The nozzle piece 2 carries an outlet nozzle, designated by detail X, for air mixed with a dental powder suitable for tooth cleaning. The outlet nozzle is connected via a connecting bore 3 formed in the nozzle piece 2 to a connecting line 4 passing through the handle sleeve. The air-powder mixture is supplied from a connected supply source to the outlet of the nozzle via this line to provide a working jet.In the known handpiece, a second connecting line 5 is also provided, which is connected via a second connecting bore 6 of the nozzle piece 2 to a fluid outlet nozzle, which is the outlet nozzle for the.

[0015] The air-powder mixture is arranged concentrically and results in a fluid jet common to its working jet, which is thus also aligned against the relevant preparation field of a tooth when the handpiece is guided accordingly.

[0016] For the presentation of the Fig. 1 It is taken into account that the connecting line 5 ends blindly in the associated connecting bore 6 of the nozzle piece 2, and therefore only the connecting line 4 has a connection to the associated outlet nozzle via its associated connecting bore 3 of the nozzle piece 2. Fig. 2 An enlarged cross-sectional view shows these connection relationships in a nozzle section. The outlet nozzle according to detail X in Fig. 1 The handpiece is formed with a relatively thin-walled tube 7, which has a smaller diameter than the connecting bore 3. This tube 7 is oriented at an obtuse angle to the axial main axis of the handpiece and is fixed to the nozzle piece 2 for a protruding length of, for example, 15 mm, in order to provide a working length for the outlet nozzle over a partial length of approximately 5 mm at the front end of the tube. In the subgingival powder jet cleaning primarily intended by the invention, this allows for a largely atraumatic insertion of this tube into the periodontal pockets.

[0017] In Fig. 3 is for a comparison with the Fig. 2 An alternative embodiment of the outlet nozzle is shown in the nozzle piece according to detail X. Here, too, the outlet nozzle is formed with a comparably thin-walled tube 8, which is fixed to the nozzle piece 2 by a connection to the connecting bore 3 and thus forms a corresponding tubular section at the front end of the outlet cross-section of the outlet nozzle. In this alternative embodiment, the tube 8 has an arc-shaped profile, designed primarily to provide a closer contact surface between the tube and the teeth during subgingival dental treatment. This arc-shaped profile can, for example, also have a roughly paddle-shaped form, as is known from some dental devices used for cleaning interdental spaces. It should therefore be noted here that while the straight profile of the tube according to the illustration in Fig. 2 A generally preferred embodiment for the nozzle element according to the invention shows that this straight design can also be implemented in numerous variations. The tubes 7 and 8, preferably arranged as disposable items and replaceable on the nozzle element 2, can have either a circular or an oval to elliptical cross-section. An oval to elliptical cross-section of the tubes is expected to result in a narrower opening of the periodontal pockets. These tubes 7 and 8 form the main outlet nozzle of the nozzle element for an air-powder mixture, their front end being either closed or having an axial nozzle opening, as shown below for various alternatives in the collected illustrations. Figuren 4 and 5 will be explained in more detail.

[0018] The collected representation of Fig. 4 The figure shows, on a further enlarged scale and in order from top to bottom, various configurations of the outlet cross-section of the outlet nozzle formed by tubes 7 and 8. All these configurations share the characteristic that this outlet cross-section is formed with a few nozzle openings in the outer surface of the tube's front end, which is either axially closed or has an axial nozzle opening.

[0019] According to a first embodiment of the outlet nozzle in the form of a tube 7 with a closed end, the outlet cross-section of this outlet nozzle is formed with three radial bores 9 arranged in a common radial plane of the tube, which are equidistant from one another along the associated circumferential line of the tube. The outlet cross-section of the outlet nozzle defined by these radial bores can alternatively be extended by a further nozzle opening formed in the closed end of the tube. The next illustration in Fig. 4 Therefore, an axial nozzle opening 10 is shown for a tube 7', which, together with the radial bores 9, is connected via the axial cavity of the tube to the connecting bore 3 of the nozzle piece 2 and further to the connecting line 4. Instead of arranging the radial bores 9 in only one common radial plane, a multiple arrangement of the radial bores in several radial planes can also be provided. The radial bores in the mutually adjacent radial planes should be offset from each other in the axial direction of the tube, as shown here for the tube 7" which again has a closed end. In this embodiment, the outlet cross-section of the discharge nozzle has a kind of sieve-like shape, in which the division of the individual nozzle openings in the different radial planes of the tube can also be different.

[0020] The nozzle openings forming the outlet cross-section of the discharge nozzle can alternatively also be designed as angled bores 11, as is shown for the tube 7 in the next illustration. Fig. 4 As shown. These inclined bores 11 form an acute angle with the axis of the tube 7‴, the orientation of which is such that the relevant outlet cross-section of each inclined bore is formed downstream of the respective associated inlet cross-section. While the outlet cross-sections lie in the outer surface of the tube 7‴, their inlet cross-sections are located in the wall surrounding the cavity of the tube, so that, as with the radial bores 9, there is an open connection with the connecting bore 3 of the nozzle piece 2 and further with the connecting line 4, through which the air-powder mixture is supplied to the tube.

[0021] In a further alternative embodiment, the nozzle openings forming the outlet cross-section of the discharge nozzle can also be designed as tangentially or obliquely oriented bores 12, the axes of which either run in a common radial plane of the tube or, as shown for the similarly tangentially or obliquely oriented bores 12', are oriented at an acute angle to the axial plane of the tube. The reference to a tangential or oblique orientation of the bores 12 and 12', which is intended to promote the generation of vortices within the periodontal pockets, is to be understood as meaning that the axes of the bores are conceived as forming a virtual inner circle of the tube, with respect to which the axes of these bores are tangential.

[0022] For the collective presentation of Fig. 5 Various alternative configurations for the axial nozzle opening 10 are shown, which can be combined not only with the radial bores 9, but also with the inclined bores 11 and / or with the tangential or skew bores 12, 12'. In the order from top to bottom, the Fig. 5 An axial nozzle opening 10' is shown, which is provided with an outlet cross-section that narrows in the axial direction. The outlet cross-section can also widen in a diffuser shape, as shown for the axial nozzle opening 10". The axial nozzle opening can also be designed in the manner of a Venturi nozzle 13, and in addition to an outlet surface extending perpendicular to the axis of the tube, it can also be provided with an inclined surface 14 at the outlet end of this axial outlet nozzle. In order to achieve a targeted deflection of the air-powder working jet towards the treated surface of a tooth root, a deflecting element 16 is also provided at the axial nozzle opening according to the invention. This deflecting element has an interchangeable arrangement using a sleeve, which, according to the invention, is pushed onto the end of the tube.The functional significance of such a deflecting body can also be maintained with at least one asymmetrically designed nozzle opening 17 such that the air-powder mixture directed towards this nozzle opening is deflected away from the axis.

[0023] With the Fig. 6 Various possibilities are shown for integrating a fluid outlet nozzle in addition to the outlet nozzle for the air-powder mixture in further alternative embodiments of the nozzle piece according to the invention. These further embodiments are to be understood as follows: the connecting bore 6 of the nozzle piece 2 no longer ends blindly, but rather, as in the known nozzle piece, is connected to such an additionally provided fluid outlet nozzle. The upper illustration in Fig. 6 This essentially results in a conformity with the known nozzle piece according to DE 101 14 324 A1 and, with its connecting bore 3, provides a connection to the outlet nozzle for the air-powder mixture, which, however, is provided here by a tube 7 of the aforementioned inventive design. The connecting bore 6 of the nozzle piece 2 is, on the other hand, connected to a fluid outlet nozzle 18, which is arranged concentrically to the tube 7. The opening of this fluid outlet nozzle 18 is axially offset from the nozzle openings of the outlet nozzle for the air-powder mixture. According to the middle illustration in Fig. 6 The fluid outlet nozzle 18' can also be provided with a diffuser-shaped opening. As shown below, it is also possible to design this additional fluid outlet nozzle with a tube 19, which is arranged on the outside of the tube 7 and inserted into the connecting bore 6 of the nozzle piece 2.

[0024] With the Fig. 7 Finally, it is also illustrated that a scale 20 and / or a color marking can be applied to the generally tubular section of the nozzle piece to mark a specific position of the nozzle openings that form the outlet cross-section of the discharge nozzle for the air-powder mixture. The sectional view, in conjunction with the representation in Fig. 8It was also shown that a retaining piece 21 can be provided for an interchangeable holder of the tube 7, which provides a rotatable arrangement for the tube in relation to the nozzle piece 2 and thus the possibility of changing the positioning of the individual nozzle openings.

[0025] The nozzle element according to the invention is primarily designed for subgingival powder jet cleaning using a relatively fine-grained dental powder. However, it can also be used for supragingival powder jet cleaning with a similarly fine-grained powder. In this case, however, nozzle elements with a slightly different orientation of the nozzle openings should be used, with which the outlet cross-section of the exit nozzle is formed in the sleeve of the tube. The therefore preferred design of the tubes as replaceable, single-use products simplifies the switch between these two treatment methods of powder jet cleaning.

Claims

1. A nozzle piece for a dental powder jet device used for teeth cleaning in periodontal pockets, which is designed for an interchangeable arrangement at a handpiece and comprises an outlet nozzle for insertion into the periodontal pocket for air mixed with a dental powder suitable for a tooth cleaning, and which comprises a second outlet nozzle (18, 18') for the supplying of a fluid, wherein a front partial length at the outlet cross-section of the outlet nozzle protrudes outward via a grip portion (1) of the nozzle piece fixed to the handpiece and is designed to be tubular, and wherein the outlet cross-section of the outlet nozzle is designed with a few nozzle openings (9, 11, 12', 17) in the lateral surface of the front end of the as tube (7, 8) designed, tubular partial length of the nozzle piece, characterized in that an axial nozzle opening of the first outlet nozzle is designed to comprise a deflector (16) that is slid onto the end of the tube (7, 8) using a sleeve.

2. The nozzle piece according to one of claims 1, characterized in that the nozzle openings (9) are designed as radial bores.

3. The nozzle piece according to one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that the nozzle openings (11) are designed as angled bores that form an acute angle with the axis of the tube (7‴).

4. The nozzle piece according to one of claims 1 through 3, characterized in that the nozzle openings (12, 12') are designed as tangential or skew oriented bores.

5. The nozzle piece according to claim 4, characterized in that the axes of the tangential or skew bores (12') are oriented at an acute angle to the axial plane of the tube (7).

6. The nozzle piece according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the outlet cross-sections of the oblique bores (11) and / or the tangential or skew bores (12, 12') are designed downstream of the respective associated inlet cross-section of the bores.

7. The nozzle piece according to claim 6, characterized in that the axes of the tangential or skew bores (12, 12') lie in a common radial plane of the tube (7).

8. The nozzle piece according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the nozzle openings (17) are designed to be slotted.

9. The nozzle piece according to claim 8, characterized in that a defined longitudinal axis of the slotted nozzle openings (17) is aligned either parallel to the axis or at an angle to an axis-parallel lateral surface of the tube.

10. The nozzle piece according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that in the or each radial plane of the tube (7, 7', 7", 7"') at least three nozzle openings (9, 11, 12, 12') are designed along the associated circumferential line of the tube.

11. The nozzle piece, according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the mouth of the fluid outlet nozzle (18) is axially set back relative to the nozzle openings (9, 11, 12, 12') of the outlet nozzle and / or is arranged concentrically with respect to said outlet nozzle for the air-powder mixture.

12. The nozzle piece according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the fluid outlet nozzle (18') is provided with a diffuser-shaped outlet cross-section.

13. The nozzle piece according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the tubular partial length (8) of the nozzle piece (2) has an arcuate contour that ends at the nozzle openings (9, 11, 12, 12') of the outlet nozzle.

14. The nozzle piece according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the tubes (7, 7", 7"', 8) of the nozzle piece (2) are made of a plastic that is atrau-matic in terms of its hardness and surface texture.

15. The nozzle piece according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the tube (7, 7", 7"', 8) of the nozzle piece (2) comprises a scale (20) and / or color coding for marking the position of the nozzle openings relative to the main axis of the handpiece.

16. The nozzle piece according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the tube (7) is designed as a disposable product that is interchangeably mounted at the grip portion (1).