Harry Kelsie Sharp

US Patent:

49920464, Feb 12, 1991

Filed:

Feb 3, 1989

Appl. No.:

7/305809

Inventors:

Harry K. Sharp - Memphis TN

Assignee:

The University of Tennessee Research Corporation - Knoxville TN

International Classification:

A61C 1706

US Classification:

433 93

Abstract:

A dental mouth prop for maintaining the jaws of a dental patient in an opened condition includes a body for isolating a posterior tooth to be worked upon and for facilitating the evacuation of saliva and other fluids from the region of the mouth around the isolated tooth. The body includes a sidewalls positionable on opposite sides of the tooth to be worked upon and which are joined together so as to form a workspace-defining cavity between the sidewalls. The body also includes hollow portions positionable adjacent the gum tissue of the mandibular arch for collecting and extracting fluids which migrate to the region adjacent the isolated tooth. The prop also includes a bite flap member engageable by the teeth of the mandibular or maxillary arch opposite the tooth to be worked upon and which is pivotally attached to the prop body to accommodate pivotal movement of the flap member to a position corresponding to the occlusal bite plane of the engaging teeth.