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  Mandibular advancement splintUSPTO Application #: 20070074729Title: Mandibular advancement splint Abstract: Mandibular advancement splint against snoring and sleep apnea. The splint is made of two thermoformable trays (1, 2) designed to envelop the upper and lower arch. In order to be able to adapt to individual variations in conformation, the advancement splint includes an articulated frame having rigid and flexible elements, immersed in the thermoformable flexible material or molded around it. The frame's articulations (12, 13, 23) allow the splint to fit the curve of the dental arch and to adapt to irregularities in the teeth's position. The inventive splint is equivalent in terms of comfort and efficiency to a personalized splint made by an orthodontist or dental technician, but its cost is 6 to 10 times lower. (end of abstract) Agent: Blank Rome LLP - Washington, DC, US Inventor: Georges Magnin USPTO Applicaton #: 20070074729 - Class: 128859000 (USPTO) Related Patent Categories: Surgery, Body Protecting Or Restraining Devices For Patients Or Infants (e.g., Shields, Immobilizers), Head Or Face Protector (e.g., Lips, Ears, Etc.), Oral Cavity Protectors The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070074729. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
REFERENCE DATA [0001] This application is a continuation of international patent application PCT/EP2005/052431, filed on May 27, 2005, claiming priority form European patent application EP04102543, filed on Jun. 4, 2004, both incorporated herewith by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD [0002] The present invention relates to the field of mouth corrective appliances and notably to a mandibular advancement splint for treating snoring and night apnea. RELATED ART [0003] Snoring is a well-known acoustic expression whose anatomic and physiological causes are connected to a muscular hypotonia that appears during sleep. The mandible, normally held by the action of the muscles, in fact tends to move backwards during sleep, its movement causing the tongue to move towards the back of the mouth and thus the size of the upper air tract to diminish. The resulting turbulences of the respiratory flow, amplified by vibration and resonance phenomena of the soft palate (velum palatinum) and of the adjacent soft parts, are the origin of the snoring sound that can, in certain cases, reach an extremely high intensity. [0004] Snoring is not limited to disturbing, even severely, the quality of sleep of the household and relatives of the afflicted person. Sometimes, especially with individuals suffering from macroglossia or from a small-size mouth cavity, or if the laxity of the tissues is high, the obstruction of the breathing canal can be serious or even complete, causing in fact the breathing to be interrupted or obstructive sleep apnea. [0005] In this case, snoring is one aspect of a true pathology that also shows through the fragmentation of sleep provoking drowsiness during the day and lessened concentration abilities. Apnea causes hypoxia, bradycardia followed by tachycardia with risks of hypertension. This apnea is likely to trigger a nocturnal cardio-respiratory arrest. [0006] It is known how to treat efficiently snoring and night apnea by wearing during the night a nasal mask blowing air under pressure into the pharynx. This solution however places an excessive constraint upon the wearer and requires individual calibrations for each patient, as well as polysomnographic efficiency controls. For these reasons, the application of this type of treatment is restricted to obstructive syndromes and is not justified for treating simple snoring. Prolonged use is likely for the treatment to cause nasal symptoms of the rhinitis type or skin sores that make it impossible to wear the mask. [0007] It is also known how to treat snoring and sleep apnea by surgical resection of the soft palate, possibly completed with surgical maxillary advancement. This solution is however invasive and painful, and the resulting improvement is only transitory. Furthermore, it can involve changes of the mouth morphology that can disturb deglutition. This highly invasive operation is nowadays practically abandoned. [0008] To fight snoring, mouth appliances that hook onto the upper and lower dental arches have been proposed, allowing the mandible to be advanced forward even in the absence of sufficient muscular tension. Patent application DE198628 describes an example of such a mono-bloc device of the type immobilizing completely the mandible in advanced position. Having the mandible immobilized can prove discomforting for the wearer, notably in that it interferes with deglutition and can cause an algo-dysfunctional syndrome (ADS) of the temporo-mandibular joint (TMJ). [0009] Patent EP0845962B describes a thermoformable articulated device combining supple and semi-rigid elements and allowing a certain freedom of movement of the mandible whilst advancing it forward. This device consists of two trays made of thermoformable material. In this manner, each patient can adapt the trays to his own conformation by heating in a water bath at a temperature sufficient for softening the thermoformable layer and then by molding them on the corresponding arch. [0010] The conformation of the teeth and of the dental arches varies however considerably from one individual to another, either because the arches can be more or less wide for each individual, or because the teeth are not regularly positioned along each arch. The adaptability of known thermoformable devices is very limited and they cannot adapt to the full range of possible conformations. [0011] When the mouth appliance cannot adapt perfectly to the individual dental conformation, the efficiency is reduced, the device is instable, there are excessive tensions on the dentition and the adaptation of the system is very uncomfortable. Furthermore, following the involuntary movements of clamping the mandible, high and concentrated mechanical efforts can occur on the trays' semi-rigid elements that can cause the device to rupture. [0012] Another limitation of this type of appliances is that if it does not adapt perfectly to the dental conformation, it can, during use, exert lateral forces on the teeth that can be of high intensity. These lateral forces can, in time, lead to a displacement and destabilization of the teeth and to their definitive loss. [0013] It is also known to make mandibular advancement splints specially manufactured to adapt to the wearer's dental conformation. In this case, each splint is made as a unique part according to the impression of the wearer's jaw bone and mandible, by conventional methods in the field of orthodontics. It will be easily conceived that the manufacturing cost of this kind of personalized apparatus is considerably higher than that of an adaptable splint manufactured in series. [0014] Another limitation of the known mandibular devices, such as for example the devices described by EP0845962B, that allow a certain freedom of movement of the mandible, is that the latter can, following involuntary movements during sleep, abandon the forward advanced position. The device then completely loses its efficiency. In these cases, the freedom of movement in the backward direction paradoxically goes against the sought aim of mandibular advancement. [0015] U.S. Pat. No. 5,829,441 describes a mandibular advancement splint having two flexible frames, allowing a deformation and an adaptation of the splint to different dental conformations, during a molding phase. [0016] The wearer's position during sleep can also influence negatively the good functioning of the known mandibular devices. It is for example frequent for the mandible to abandon the forward advanced position when the head is positioned on the side. [0017] It is also known that certain phases of sleep are characterized by a very high activity and muscular tonicity. Once these phases of agitated sleep over, the prior art devices are not always capable of automatically bringing the mandible in the advanced therapeutic position. [0018] Another limitation of the known devices capable of being personalized is that they are based on a conventional mouth geometry where the teeth are parallel and arranged on two plane arches. These splints are not capable of adapting to most real dental conformations. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0019] One aim of the present invention is to propose a mandibular advancement splint that is without the disadvantages of the prior art. [0020] Another aim of the present invention is to propose a mouth device against snoring that can adapt to a very large number of individual conformations without irreversible risks for the user's dentition. Continue reading... Full patent description for Mandibular advancement splint Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Mandibular advancement splint patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. 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