| 摘要 |
Apparatus, kits and methods for providing accelerated treatment of a patient's teeth. The apparatus, kits and methods involve the use of a dental impression tray (10) that includes a dental impression material (16) such as an alginate. The impression tray (10) advantageously includes heating wires (34) coupled by connectors (36) to a power supply (32). The heating wires (34) are used for heating and maintaining the formed impression tray (10) at a temperature greater than about 105 DEG F. The heated dental trays may be used to accelerate the activity of dental bleaching agents (e.g., peroxides), desensitizing agents (e.g., potassium nitrate), remineralizing agents (e.g., fluoride salts), and the like. A dental office procedure for treating teeth involves the basic steps of: (1) loading a specially-prepared impression tray (10) with a dental composition such as a bleaching, desensitizing or remineralizing composition; (2) placing the impression tray (10) into the patient's mouth; (3) heating the impression tray (10) and dental composition to a temperature of at least 105 DEG F; and (4) retaining the impression tray (10) in position for a period of time in a range of about 1 minute to about 60 minutes. The procedure can be adapted to microwave heating, electrical resistance heating, or hot fluid heating of the impression tray (10).
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