Nova Patents
US3731384A

Medical instrument

Abstract

A medical device is disclosed, which employs a form of electric desensitization in connection with the use of pain-producing medical tools. The device is particularly useful in connection with dental drilling operations and includes, in the preferred embodiment, a coil mounted within a dental handpiece and a rotating permanent magnet mounted so that its magnetic flux overlaps the coil windings. Rotation of the magnet induces an electric current in the coil which flows through the drill and into the tooth to desensitize the nervous system of the tooth upon contact.

US3731384A, drawing sheet 1
Sheet 1 of 12

Term

Term ended

Expired 8 May 1990, 36.4 years ago.

  1. Priority and filed
  2. Granted
  3. Expired
  4. Today

7 claims: 1 independent, 6 dependent

  1. 1
    What is claimed is:1. Dental drilling apparatus, comprising: a handpiece including a high-speed fluid turbine assembly and a source of alternating electrical potential mounted within said handpiece and adapted to be actuated by energization of said fluid turbine, said fluid turbine having an elongated rotary hub with inner and outer ends, said , inner end protruding axially inwardly of said turbine assembly, said outer end forming part of a rotary chuck assembly adapted for securing to said turbine an electrically conductive dental drilling bur, said source including a stator element mounted inwardly of said fluid turbine and a rotor element secured to said hub for rotation therewith adjacent said inner end and substantially in alignment with said stator element;and means substantially concentric with said rotary hub for electrically connecting said source to said bur, whereby upon actuation of said turbine, the electrical potential generated by said source passes to said bur to effect the flow of an electric current upon contact between the bur and a patient’s tooth.