Transparent Add-on for Dental Curing Rod
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing dental restoration production methods face challenges with light-curable materials, as the light-guide rod tip can become contaminated, leading to incomplete curing and deformation of the dental restoration due to accidental contact, and flexible protective covers often fail to prevent deformation and material loss.
Innovation Solution
A transparent add-on or attachment made of silicone or similar material is used to form a negative mold for the dental restoration material, allowing direct contact with the light-guide rod and reducing radiation loss, ensuring complete curing and maintaining the desired shape without deformation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a disposable protective cover is used to protect the light-guide rod tip against contamination, then the light output is protected, but the cover is reused contrary to instructions leading to contamination risk
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the disposable principle by making the protective cover a single-use component that is discarded after one application. This eliminates the compliance issue entirely by design - the cover is intentionally made non-reusable through its disposable nature, ensuring contamination prevention while accepting the economic cost of replacement.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If a flexible protective cover made of silicone or polyurethane is used to prevent deformation of dental restoration material, then contact deformation is avoided, but the soft material may still be deformed or get caught on the cover
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies inversion by making the protective cover harder than the dental restoration material, reversing the conventional approach of using softer protective materials. This硬度反转 ensures the cover maintains its shape and does not deform the restoration material, while the hard cover surface prevents material adhesion and entrapment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies parameter changes by specifically controlling the hardness parameter of the protective cover material to be greater than that of the dental restoration material. This parameter adjustment fundamentally changes the interaction behavior between cover and material, preventing deformation and adhesion issues.
3Strength
If the light-guide rod tip is made of hard glass to maintain structural integrity, then the rod is strong, but it deforms the soft dental restoration material upon accidental contact
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the intermediary principle by introducing a protective cover as a mediator between the hard glass light-guide rod and the soft dental restoration material. This intermediate layer absorbs the mechanical interaction, preventing direct contact between the hard rod and soft material, thus eliminating deformation while maintaining the rod's structural integrity.
4Object-affected harmful factors
If a flexible cover is used to protect against deformation, then contact safety is improved, but radiation loss increases and curing efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by selecting protective cover materials with specific optical properties - particularly high transparency and appropriate refractive index matching. This parameter optimization allows the cover to maintain its protective mechanical function while minimizing radiation loss, resolving the contradiction between protection and curing efficiency.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution enables efficient and complete curing of dental restoration materials with reduced curing times and prevents deformation, ensuring accurate shape retention and minimizing material loss, while the add-on is designed to be disposable and patient-specific.
Implementation Method 1
When light-curable dental restoration materials are cured by light, it is important that, if possible, the entire radiation produced by the light-curing device and exiting from the light-guide rod is supplied to the dental restoration material.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a dental restoration production device, comprising a curable dental restoration material (20) and a radiation-curing device by means of which the curable dental restoration material (20) can be cured using light radiation, UV radiation and/or heat radiation in order to produce a dental restoration part (22), and comprising an add-on (24) or attachment to the radiation-curing device, which faces said dental restoration material (20) or can be directed thereto, wherein said attachment or add-on (24) has a molding surface that corresponds to the target shape of the surface (52) of the dental restoration material (20) and forms a negative mold (54) therefor on the region facing the radiation-curing device.