| 摘要 |
<p>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 °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 °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).</p> |
