Nonsurgical Split Orthodontic Airway Plates (S-OAP) for infants

This invention is an intraoral palate expanding plate with an expansion screw for both cleft palate and restricted airways that can be produced by 3-D printing and CT scans.

Worldwide, about 1 in 700 babies is born with a cleft palate and about 1 in 8000 babies is born with restricted airway such that they are not able to breath or take milk. These issues are typically treated surgically, but the issues have a higher incidence rate in developing nations where the patients can't afford surgery and there are few doctors with the requisite experience. Palate plates can also be used for treatment (like a more robust retainer) to help guide the growth of the developing palate, lower jaw, and tongue, which minimizes the need for surgery. However, such a treatment requires significant effort and skill from the orthodontist to develop these plates repeatedly to accommodate the facial growth of infants since the plate needs to be worn for several months to complete the treatment. This procedure requires obtaining new oral imprints and adjusting the plates under wake nasopharyngoscopy periodically.

The invention addresses these needs with the split palatal plate system using simple expansion screw design that can enlarge the plate precisely and quickly without repeating intraoral imprints and plate adjustments. The invention further enables fabrication of a serious of custom palatal plates to accomodate the baby's facial growth via pre-treatment intraoral scan, face CT scans, and/or face MRI scans, utilizing 3D printing technology. 3D printing technology with automatic detection of size and dimensions of the pharyngeal component will be able to eliminate the need of the expansion screw because a series of plates can be printed in gradually larger sizes. This way, this treatment can reach infants in remote locations with no easy access to the treatment.

Figure description - example of how a Split Orthodontic Airway Plate (S-OAP) can be enlarged when the plate needs to get bigger to accommodate the baby's facial growth. the OAP is split in half, the expansion screw is turned a few times to enlarge the palatal plate, then the gap is filled up using splint acrylic. The plate is thoroughly polished to prevent any oral irritation prior to inserting inside the baby's mouth and throat. When another enlargement is needed in a few weeks, this split and seal process is repeated. A profile view of baby patient wearing the device is shown.

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