Dental implant indentification system
US20260083532A1
Abstract
A dental implant identification system is provided that aids a dental professional in identifying the type of dental implant that has been surgically placed into maxillary or mandibular bone of a patient who requires restorative dental procedures. Additionally, a dental implant identification system is provided that aids a dental professional in identifying the forensic remains of victims due to various factors and circumstances.
Description (excerpt)
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a Divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 17/872,337 filed Jul. 25, 2022, which further claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/225,784, filed on Jul. 26, 2021, which is hereby incorporated by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD The subject matter described herein relates to devices, systems, and methods for incorporating one-dimensional (1D), two-dimensional (2D), or three-dimensional (3D) codes or other similar labels or markings in conjunction with the design, manufacture, and use of dental implants. Such devices, systems and methods include codes or labels incorporated into the physical structures of implants, components, and parts, to assist dental implant manufacturers and dental care professionals to track the dental implant throughout the product's life cycle and to be used in forensic identification of a user. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This section provides background information related to the present disclosure, which is not necessarily prior art: Dental implants are screwed or otherwise inserted into a prepared site in maxillary or mandibular bone and serve as a fixture on which a prosthetic tooth or other dental appliance can be mounted. Dental implants have been widely used in clinical applications and are well known in the field. Since its inception in the 1960s, the use of dental implants has gained significant popularity and exponential growth, resulting in implants of different external and internal features. As a result, dental implants have a variety of diameters, lengths, surfaces, platforms, interfaces, and body designs. While the dental field has benefited significantly from the explosion in dental implant designs, this growth has resulted in uncontrollable variations resulting in incompatibility between different systems and designs. The lack of unified standards for the prosthetic interface poses a serious challenge for the dental professional in terms of serviceability during dental implant restorations. Out of more than 300 implant companies that the inventor personally surveyed, only three companies have tracing features on their implants. These tracing features are used in internal quality controls and are not currently used to aid dental professionals in identifying dental implants. When the need arises to re-service an existing implant restoration or dental implant, the clinician is often faced with the challenge of identifying the implant, which is a serious problem if clinicians do not have records of the patient's previous treatments. Currently, clinicians often rely on visual examination of radiographic appearance of implant body to identify the implant. Because there is no identifiable information on an existing dental implant, dental professionals are forced to distinguish failed implants through assessment of the physical features of the dental implant, such as its shape, size, thread count, thread design, etc. This process can be very confusing and requires the dentist to have in-depth knowledge of different dental implants on the market, which is an extremely difficult task in which to keep up. Dentists often must reach out to other practitioners personally, or through online blogs and websites, in their attempts to identify a dental implant via radiographs, which is both time consuming and unreliable. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a mechanism for tracking dental implants. Dental markings have been proposed for personal identification of the patients, and for documentation of features of dental implants and manufacturers. Some methods recommend creating legible markings on the outer surfaces of the dental implants containing identifiable information (FR2970169, KR101298246, US20140302458, US20110076647, and US20190298483). Others suggest affixing an identifiable carrier on the outside of the restoration or near outer surface of the dental implants (U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,805), which can be readily discernable using one of several noninvasive techniques. In some applications, the carrier is marked or labeled with radiopaque coding (U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,955, USRE30594, U.S. Pat. No. 7,357,887) while in other designs the dental carrier is simply a radio frequency identification device (US20090155744). The dental carrier is often inserted into either a naturally occurring or manufactured cavity, which can then be sealed with dental filling to protectively seal the information carrier within the cavity, thus visibly hidden from the external environment. When information carrying markings or identification carriers that are attached to or inlaid into the surface of the dental implant crown, the information can be easily read using a noninvasive imaging or radio device without the need to first excavate the carrier or the dental implant. Disadvantageously, carriers and marking of this kind are more susceptible to independent or inadvertent removal or destruction. Information carrying markings or carrier on the outside surface of the dental implant crown may be damaged due to normal wear and tear and may be lost du
Filing details
- Inventors
- Evan Black
- Assignee
- The United States Of America, As Represented By The Secretary Of The Navy
- Filed
- Dec 1, 2025
- Granted
- Application pending
Bibliographic data and excerpted text sourced from Google Patents (public record) as part of IP TechMatch's current-filings monitor. This filing is not part of the 2019 historical archive. For the authoritative full text, drawings, and legal status, see the source links above or consult USPTO records directly.