Personalized Oral Irrigation Insert Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current oral care devices for preventing periodontal disease and gum disease are often cumbersome and time-consuming to design and validate, leading to increased costs and barriers for consumers, and existing methods for manufacturing these devices are inefficient, making them less accessible for consistent use.
Innovation Solution
The development of a method to generate a personalized oral insert model with a fluid inlet port, manifolds, and a tray configured to retain teeth, optimized using oral scan data to provide personalized oral irrigation, which includes generating geometries for fluid nozzles and manifolds to ensure efficient cleaning and user comfort, and optimizing the design to avoid geometric conflicts and improve manufacturing efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional methods are used to design and validate oral care devices, then the devices can be manufactured, but the process is cumbersome and time-consuming, increasing cost and barrier to entry
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by generating a digital 3D model of the oral insert before physical manufacturing. The system creates a virtual prototype with fluid nozzles, manifolds, and tray structures that can be validated through simulation, allowing design iterations to be performed digitally rather than requiring repeated physical prototyping and validation cycles.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses a digital copy of the oral insert design stored in memory to represent the physical device. This digital twin allows for virtual validation, testing, and optimization without the need to manufacture and physically test multiple versions, significantly reducing the time and cost associated with traditional design validation processes.
2Ease of operation
If personalized oral inserts are customized to individual oral anatomy, then cleaning efficiency and user comfort improve, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by adjusting the geometric parameters of the oral insert (such as nozzle positions, manifold dimensions, and tray contours) based on specific oral anatomy measurements. The system modifies these parameters to match individual patient characteristics while using a standardized base design that can be manufactured through consistent processes, thereby personalizing the device without proportionally increasing manufacturing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the oral insert into distinct functional components (fluid nozzles, manifolds, tray) that can be independently designed and optimized for each patient's anatomy. This modular approach allows personalized customization of each component while maintaining overall manufacturing efficiency through standardized assembly procedures.
3Ease of manufacture
If geometric conflicts are present in the oral insert design, then manufacturing may be simplified, but the device cannot be properly manufactured
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback by including validation steps that check the generated 3D model for geometric conflicts and manufacturing feasibility. The system provides feedback on potential issues such as overlapping structures, improper nozzle orientations, or manufacturing constraints, allowing the design to be iterated and refined before final manufacturing, ensuring both manufacturability and design validity.
Data Source
Figure 1A~1C
Figure 2A
Figure 2B
AI summary
Disclosed herein are systems and methods for providing personalized oral irrigation. One variation of a method of generating a model of an oral insert including a fluid inlet port, fluid nozzles, manifolds, and a tray configured to retain teeth may comprise the steps of displaying a graphical representation of the oral insert model, generating a geometry of the fluid nozzles based on oral scan data of a jaw, defining a tray surface that encloses the fluid nozzles based on the oral scan data, generating a geometry of the manifolds that connect the fluid inlet port to the fluid nozzles on the graphical representation of the oral insert model. The manifolds are configured to provide a predetermined range of hydraulic pressures to each of the fluid nozzles.