Elos Medtech is pleased to announce our Analog for Printed Models (PMA) — due to its unique attributes — has been granted a U.S. patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The patent is based upon the analog’s special features for improving components used in dental implant technology. The PMA provides an effective alternative to prior technology for dental implant analogs.
The PMA has solved critical issues faced by dental labs and offers valuable improvement to a clinic’s workflow.
Years of development were invested in the PMA, which can now be correctly positioned even when there may be slight flaws in the printed model of a patient’s teeth.
The U.S. patent caps an intensive five-year process resulting in a patent that is key in fair trade and international agreements.
The U.S. patent regulator USPTO sets some of the world’s most stringent criteria for patent approval. The procedure involves a methodology that thoroughly examines every detail of claims made by the applicant. Consequently, the USPTO searches all known technological knowledge (“prior art”) to ensure that an invention is new and unique. This is why the course of examination that resulted in the patent took five years to complete.
The unique features of Elos Medtech’s PMA helped expedite the approval process. Nevertheless, the process was time-consuming and expensive. But in the long run, the investment will pay off as the patent will act as a testimonial to the PMA’s unique features and as a firewall of protection against illegal copies.
Low-cost 3-D printing machinery may produce physical models having dimensions that can deviate substantially from the actual dimensions of the patient’s teeth.
Like snowflakes or fingerprints, each patient’s set of teeth is unique, but a 3-D model is generally made in a cost-efficient manner. After all, it is just an expendable model, and certain deviations can be expected.
A model of a patient’s teeth requires very low engineering tolerances. Unfortunately, compliance with said levels of tolerance cannot always be achieved when 3-D printed models are produced. Deviations often occur. When these deviations do occur, they create the potential for damaging the model, and an ultimate worst-case situation: an improper fit. For clinics, this can pose a serious disadvantage as the tight fit between an implant analog and the correspondent model of a patient’s teeth might not be achievable. What’s more, the application of high pressure that can deform the model may result in incorrect placement of the PMA and, in turn, incorrect positioning of the prosthetics. This situation can have immediate consequences on the tooth restoration process.
The development of the Analog for Printed Models by Elos Medtech provides the dental implant market with an implant analog that can be correctly positioned despite any slightly incorrect dimensions occurring in a printed model.
In short, the PMA allows for a tight fit between the implant analog and the 3-D printed model without the application of excessive pressure to the model. This feature safeguards printed models from becoming deformed in the process.
Along with the obvious value of precision, the PMA conveys an added value both in economic terms and ease of installation. The physical workload of laboratory technicians can be significantly reduced as the installation process no longer requires excessive strength, which can instigate work-related ailments as well as damage to a model.
By using the analog pliers developed by Elos Medtech, lab technicians can simply pull the analog into place instead of using a lot of muscle strength to click it into position. This handy precision tool, coupled with the features of the analog, significantly reduces the risk of ruining the model.
Specialized features of the Elos Medtech analog deliver technical advantages that dental clinics will translate into ease of workflow, improved precision, and savings.
The newly-patented PMA has been designed with three locking areas/anti-rotational means that prevent unwanted rotation of the dental implant analog. These locking areas also enable the dental technicians to torque the prosthetic tooth on the model with the same torque that will be used when tightening the prosthetic in place on the patient.
Ease and precision are also benefited from another feature of the analog: triangular wedges with inclined, wedge-like, engaging surfaces. When in use, the inclined top surface engages with the protrusion located on the through-going hole of the printed model. Any excess material found on the surface of correspondent protrusions of the model will simply be removed during insertion. This ensures both accurate centering and a tight fit within the hole.
In a nutshell, the analog kit allows dental technicians to pull the analog tightly and precisely into place, without the risk of rotation, and without the use of significant muscle pressure.
Read more about the Analog for Printed Models.
