Dental Cutting Guide with Remote Pins
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing dental cutting systems face issues with inadvertent cutting of guides or templates, inaccurate cuts, and restricted access for the dentist, leading to potential injury and inefficiency in preparing teeth for prostheses or restorations.
Innovation Solution
A dental cutting system featuring a cutting guide with slots of varying cross-sectional shapes and guide pins with enlarged heads, allowing the cutting burr to be guided remotely and preventing contact between the burr and guide, while maintaining visibility and stability during tooth cutting.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If a cutting guide or template is used to guide the cutting tool, then cutting precision is improved, but the cutting tool may inadvertently cut the guide or template, resulting in inaccurate guides and potential injury
Solution Approach 1:
The system separates the guiding function from the cutting function by using distinct guide pins and guide slots independent of the cutting burr. The guide pins slide within guide slots to define the cutting path, while the cutting burr performs the actual cutting, eliminating the risk of the cutting tool damaging the guide structure.
Solution Approach 2:
Guide pins act as intermediaries between the cutting guide and the cutting burr. These guide pins transmit the guiding constraints through the guide slots to control the cutting burr's path without being subjected to the cutting forces, thereby protecting the guide structure from inadvertent cutting.
2Manufacturing precision
If a cutting guide is used to restrict the cutting tool, then cutting accuracy is improved, but the dentist's ability to view and access the tooth being cut is restricted
Solution Approach 1:
The guide pins are positioned in three-dimensional space within guide slots that extend through the cutting guide, allowing the cutting burr to be precisely guided while maintaining the dentist's line of sight and physical access to the tooth from multiple angles.
3Manufacturing precision
If guide pins are positioned close to the cutting burr, then guiding control is improved, but contact between the cutting burr and guide pins increases, leading to potential injury
Solution Approach 1:
The system spatially segments the guiding components (guide pins) from the cutting component (cutting burr), positioning them at different locations where the guide pins are laterally and/or longitudinally remote from the cutting burr, thereby eliminating direct contact while preserving guiding control through the guide slots.
4Manufacturing precision
If custom cutting tools with non-standard sizes and shapes are used, then cutting precision is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The guide slots are designed with cross-sectional shapes that can accommodate multiple different guide pin configurations, allowing a single cutting guide to work with various standard cutting burrs and handpieces, thereby reducing the need for custom cutting tools while maintaining cutting precision.
Data Source
AI summary
A dental cutting system and method for cutting a patient's tooth includes a hand piece to be held and carrying a cutting burr to cut the patient's tooth. A plurality of guide pins is attached to and extends from the hand piece of the cutting tool remote from the cutting bur. One or more cutting guides each have a cavity coinciding with at least a portion of teeth inside a patient's mouth that are adjacent to or remote from the patient's tooth to be cut. The guide pins of the handpiece slide in slots in the cutting guide to guide the cutting burr to cut the patient's tooth.