International Classification:
A61C 300
Abstract:
A custom-made resilient orthodontic appliance for positively positioning the opposing arches relative to each other and a method for making the appliance, wherein the appliance includes a body of thermoplastic material sized to have impressions of the upper and lower anterior teeth and including means for connecting the appliance to one of the arches when it is worn by a patient. The method of making the appliance is such that it can be made at chairside by taking an arcuately shaped blank of material, heating the material so that it is softened, placing it in the patient's mouth and adjusting the desired relative positions of the arches, having the patient close his jaws on the blank to form an impression of the anterior teeth in the blank, allowing the blank to remain in the mouth until it is in an initially set condition, and then removing the blank from the mouth and subjecting it to additional cooling to permanently set the impression in the blank. Thereafter, the appliance may be worn by the patient by connecting it to one of the arches such as by use of elastic ligatures hooked over the appliance and fixed appliances on adjacent teeth.