Dental appliance

Claim 1

A collector member having a semi-rigid bite block portion adapted to be deformed upon the initial bite of the patient so as to form a mold thereof for secure placement within a patient's mouth and which bite block portion resists further deformation permitting a patient to exert substantial pressure on said bite block portion: a combination tongue guard and collector membrane holder connected to said bite block portion which is adapted to be captured within a patients mouth, said combination tongue guard and collector membrane holder having means on its sides for detachably securing predetermined lateral edge surfaces of a collector membrane thereto: a flexible collector membrane that is substantially planar in its unassembled state having lateral edge surfaces, said collector membrane having laterally spaced first and second means for detachably securing said collector membrane to said bite block portion in order to pull said membrane into a preformed cup-shape configuration and to hold said membrane in such a configuration, said collector membrane having a cutout portion along its lateral edge between said first and second means for detachably securing said collector membrane to said bite block portion, said collector membrane in its assembled state having a preformed cup configuration produced by the lateral edges of said cut-out portion conforming to said means on the sides of said combination tongue guard and collector membrane holder, said membrane when in its assembled preformed cup configuration is adapted to be placed into its functional position within a patient's mouth to form a top of the mouth portion and a bottom of the mouth portion, the peripheral contour of the bottom of the mouth portion forms a sealing contact with the soft tissues overlying the mylohoid line of the mandible, and the lateral edges of the collector membrane where it is folded upwardly lies in sealing contact with tissue covering the internal walls of the ascending ramus of the mandible forming a reservoir for the collection of fluids and saliva generated, the top of the mouth portion of the collector membrane extends forwardly from the folded area over the palate where it conforms to and lies on the maxillary and palatal tissue thereby functioning to separate the mouth into a forward compartment that is being worked on and a rear compartment.