Single-Visit Denture Fabrication Using Pre-Formed Templates
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional denture fabrication requires multiple visits, is costly, and inaccessible to patients with geographical or financial limitations, failing to provide a cost-effective solution for producing custom dentures in a single visit.
Innovation Solution
A method using pre-formed denture templates with attached prosthetic teeth, where a viscous material is added and molded to the patient's edentulous alveolar ridge during a single visit, allowing it to solidify and form a customized denture, comprising a base acrylic portion and a solidified molded portion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If conventional denture fabrication process is used, then dentures can be customized to fit patient's mouth, but it requires four to five visits and multiple laboratory procedures
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-assembling complete dentures in the laboratory before the patient's visit. The dentures are fabricated, adjusted, and ready for trial insertion during the first office visit, eliminating the need for multiple subsequent visits for adjustments and final fitting.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the denture fabrication process into two distinct phases: (1) laboratory phase where complete dentures are pre-assembled on artificial casts, and (2) clinical phase where the pre-assembled dentures are tried in and adjusted in the patient's mouth. This segmentation allows complex fabrication to occur offline while simplifying the clinical visit.
2Reliability
If conventional denture fabrication is used, then functional dentures can be produced, but the cost is high and not fully covered by insurance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses artificial casts as copies of the patient's actual mouth to fabricate dentures in the laboratory. These dentures are then tried in the real mouth, allowing most adjustments to be pre-made on the copy, reducing the need for expensive multiple visits and laboratory remakes.
Solution Approach 2:
By performing preliminary assembly and adjustment of dentures in the laboratory before the patient's visit, the patent eliminates the need for expensive multiple laboratory visits and remakes, significantly reducing overall treatment cost while maintaining functional quality.
3Manufacturing precision
If conventional denture process is used, then proper fit can be achieved, but patients with geographical or financial limitations cannot access dental care
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs all complex fabrication and adjustment actions in advance in the laboratory, reducing the clinical visit to a single day. This makes dental care accessible to patients who cannot travel multiple times or wait weeks between visits, including those in nursing homes or with geographical limitations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the complex fabrication process from the clinical setting and moves it to the laboratory, leaving only the essential trial insertion and minor adjustments for the single office visit. This separation makes the service accessible to patients with limited mobility or geographical constraints.
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
Enables the production of a customized denture in a single dental office visit, reducing costs and increasing accessibility for patients, while eliminating the need for multiple visits and off-site laboratory processes.
Implementation Method 1
allowing it to solidify and form a customized denture
Data Source
AI summary
A denture is manufactured in a single visit using a pre-formed dental template chosen from a plurality of different sized dental templates, based on the size of a patient's alveolar edentulous ridge. The dental template includes a base acrylic with prosthetic teeth attached thereto. A viscous material such as an acrylic is added to the selected dental template and the dental template with the added viscous material is placed on the patient's alveolar edentulous ridge. The viscous material is then allowed to solidify to form a rigid or semi-rigid material with the template in proper position in three planes and properly border molded. After solidification a denture is formed that consists of a first base acrylic portion in conterminous relation with a second portion formed of the solidified material that had been added as a viscous material, and with teeth joined to the base acrylic portion.