Integrated Endodontic Heating Tip with Thermocouple
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional endodontic instruments for root canal filling face challenges with separate control boxes and handpieces, leading to inconvenience and poor heating efficiency, particularly in ensuring complete contact and effective sealing of gutta-percha cones within the root canal.
Innovation Solution
An endodontic instrument with a heating tip featuring a first metal part as a resistant tube, a second metal part and a third metal part forming a thermocouple, and an insulator enclosing both, along with a control circuit for switching power supply, enhances heat generation and temperature detection, allowing for improved gutta-percha melting and sealing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a separate control box and handpiece configuration is used, then the device structure is simple and easy to manufacture, but the heating efficiency is poor and complete contact with the root canal wall cannot be ensured
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the control box and handpiece into an integrated endodontic instrument. The control circuit board is mounted within the handpiece body, and the heating tip is directly incorporated into the working end. This merging eliminates the separate control box and cable connections, enabling improved heating efficiency while maintaining ease of manufacture through integrated circuit board mounting and direct component assembly.
Solution Approach 2:
The handpiece is designed to perform multiple functions: heating the gutta-percha cone, detecting temperature via thermocouple, and providing mechanical manipulation. The integrated design allows a single device to fulfill both heating and control functions, improving productivity without requiring separate specialized tools.
2Device complexity
If conventional heating tip design is used, then the device structure is simple, but the temperature detection accuracy is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The thermocouple is nested within the heating tip structure. The second and third metal parts forming the thermocouple are positioned concentrically within the first metal part (heating element), with the thermocouple junction placed at the distal end where temperature measurement is most critical. This nested arrangement enables accurate temperature detection without significantly increasing external device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The thermocouple acts as an intermediary between the heating element and the control circuit. It converts temperature information into electrical signals that can be processed by the control circuit board, enabling precise temperature detection and feedback control while maintaining a relatively simple overall device structure.
3Device complexity
If the heating tip does not have integrated temperature detection, then the device is simpler, but the gutta-percha melting control is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The control circuit receives temperature signals from the thermocouple and uses this feedback to regulate the heating process. The circuit monitors the temperature at the heating tip and adjusts the power delivery to maintain optimal temperature for gutta-percha melting, ensuring reliable melting control while adding only minimal complexity through the integration of temperature sensing and control logic.
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
The solution provides improved heat generation efficiency and temperature detection, facilitating better gutta-percha melting and sealing within the root canal, enhancing the root canal filling process by ensuring effective contact and reducing the risk of further infection.
Implementation Method 1
a second metal part and a third metal part forming a thermocouple... A thermoelectric power is generated at the contact part. Accordingly, endodontic filling instrument can detect temperature using the thermoelectric power of the thermocouple
Implementation Method 2
a first metal part serving as a resistant tube... configured to supply electric power... The second metal part and the third metal part contact each other at a position spaced apart from an end of the heating tip by a predetermined distance
Data Source
AI summary
An endodontic instrument for root canal filling includes a body having DC power source and printed circuit board, a heating tip connected to the body, a switch, and a control circuit for switching on/off power supply to the heating tip. The heating tip includes a first metal part serving as a resistant tube, a second metal part disposed inside the first metal part and configured to supply power, check a thermoelectric power (+) terminal, a third metal part disposed inside the first metal part and configured to supply power, a contact part, an insulator disposed inside the first metal part and enclosing surfaces of the second and third metal parts, first conductive tube, a second conductive tube; and an insulator connected and fixed to the first and second conductive tubes, where temperature is detected using thermoelectric power of the thermocouple.