Method of diagnosing optical inhomogeneity of a volume scattering object and a dental tool

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10456228-B2
Application number	US-201615352346-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 15, 2016
Priority date	Dec 31, 2013
Publication date	Oct 29, 2019
Grant date	Oct 29, 2019

Abstract

A method of diagnosing optical inhomogeneity of a volume scattering object is provided. The method includes the steps of providing a substance coated with phosphorous materials, adapting the substrate to a surface of a volume scattering object to be diagnosed, and trans-illuminating the volume scattering object with radiation. A dental tool including a substrate is also provided. The substrate includes a transparent flexible film or metallic foil with an applied coating of upconversion phosphors, afterglow particles or both.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A dental tool comprising:
a substrate comprising a transparent flexible film or metallic foil; and
a coating applied on the substrate, the coating comprising upconversion phosphors.

2. The dental tool of claim 1 , further comprising an opposing second transparent flexible film on an opposite side of the coating.

3. The dental tool of claim 1 , wherein the upconversion phosphors comprise an inorganic host lattice doped with a rare earth ion.

4. The dental tool of claim 3 , wherein the inorganic host is selected from the group consisting of lanthanide fluorides, oxysulfides, fluorides, oxide hosts, NaYF 4 , NaYbF 4 , Na 5 Y 9 F 32 , Na 5 Yb 9 F 32 , lutetium oxide, and yttrium oxide.

5. The dental tool of claim 3 , wherein the inorganic host lattice is doped or co-doped with one or more trivalent rare earth ions.

6. The dental tool of claim 5 , wherein the trivalent rare earth ions are selected from the group consisting of ytterbium (Yb 3+ ), lutetium (Lu 3+ ), thulium (Tm 3+ ), terbium (Tb 3+ ), erbium (Er 3+ ), praseodymium (Pr 3+ ), scandium (Sc 3+ ), yttrium (Y 3+ ) and combinations thereof.

7. The dental tool of claim 3 , wherein the upconversion phosphors emit radiation having a wavelength in the range of 320 nm to 495 nm.

8. The dental tool of claim 1 , wherein the coating further comprises particles of afterglow phosphor.

9. The dental tool of claim 8 , wherein the particles of afterglow phosphor are selected from the group consisting of Eu 2+ doped SrAl 2 O 4 , Eu 2+ doped Sr 4 Al 14 O 25 , Ce 3+ doped BaAl 2 O 4 , Ce 3+ doped CaAl 2 O 4 , Dy 3+ doped SrAl 2 O 4 , Dy 3+ doped SrMgSi 2 O 6 , alkali earth metal silicates, ZnS, and calcium sulfide.

Assignees

• Dentsply Sirona Inc

Inventors

• Karazivan Naim
• Lu Hui
• Ertl Thomas

Classifications

• A61K6/25

  Compositions for detecting or measuring, e.g. of irregularities on natural or artificial teeth · CPC title

• A61K6/40

  Primers (for dental adhesives A61K6/30) · CPC title

• A61K6/822

  comprising rare earth metal oxides · CPC title

• A61K6/78

  Pigments · CPC title

• A61K6/70

  comprising inorganic additives · CPC title