Methods of making an oral appliance

Abstract

An oral appliance and a method of making the oral appliance for delivering a medicament to an oral cavity are provided. The method comprises forming a non-porous material into a portion of the oral appliance; and applying a porous material to one or more discrete regions of the portion of the oral appliance to make the one or more discrete regions of the oral appliance porous thereby forming the oral appliance.

1 . A method of making an oral appliance for delivering a medicament to an oral cavity, the method comprising forming a non-porous material into a portion of the oral appliance; and applying a porous material to one or more discrete regions of the portion of the oral appliance to make the one or more discrete regions of the oral appliance porous thereby forming the oral appliance. 
     
     
         2 . The method of making the oral appliance of  claim 1 , wherein (i) the non-porous material has a higher density than the porous material; or (ii) the non-porous material reduces medicament release from the oral appliance. 
     
     
         3 . The method of making the oral appliance of  claim 1 , wherein (i) the porous material comprises a polymer; (ii) the oral appliance is formed by additive manufacturing or 3D printing; or (iii) the oral appliance is custom formed for a specific patient. 
     
     
         4 . The method of making the oral appliance of  claim 3 , wherein the non-porous material and the porous material are the same material but applied at different densities to the oral appliance by additive manufacturing or 3D printing. 
     
     
         5 . The method of making the oral appliance of  claim 1 , wherein (i) the porous material comprises the medicament; (ii) the porous and the non-porous material comprise the medicament; (iii) the non-porous material provides form, shape and structural integrity to the oral appliance; or (iv) the non-porous material does not contain the medicament. 
     
     
         6 . The method of making the oral appliance of  claim 1 , further comprising (i) contacting the porous material with the medicament to load the oral appliance; or (ii) contacting the porous material and the non-porous material with the medicament to load the oral appliance with medicament. 
     
     
         7 . The method of making the oral appliance of  claim 1 , wherein the medicament comprises at least one analgesic, whitening agent, breath freshener, anti-inflammatory, anticalculus agent, antimicrobial, anesthetic, muscle relaxant, selective H-2 antagonists, anticaries agent, nutrient, vitamin, mineral, herbal product, or mixtures thereof. 
     
     
         8 . A method of making an oral appliance for delivering a medicament to an oral cavity, the method comprising forming a non-porous material into a portion of the oral appliance; and applying a porous material to one or more discrete regions of the portion of the oral appliance to make the one or more discrete regions of the oral appliance porous thereby forming the oral appliance. 
     
     
         9 . The method of making the oral appliance of  claim 8 , wherein (i) the non-porous material has a higher density than the porous material; or (ii) the non-porous material reduces medicament release from the oral appliance. 
     
     
         10 . The method of making the oral appliance of  claim 1 , wherein (i) the porous material comprises a polymer; or (ii) the oral appliance is formed by additive manufacturing or 3D printing. 
     
     
         11 . The method of making the oral appliance of  claim 10 , wherein the non-porous material and the porous material are the same material but the porous material is applied to the oral appliance at a lower density or is configured as a sponge like lattice than the non-porous material which is applied at a higher density to the oral appliance by additive manufacturing or 3D printing. 
     
     
         12 . The method of making the oral appliance of  claim 8 , further comprising (i) contacting the porous material with the medicament to load the oral appliance with medicament; or (ii) contacting the porous material and the non-porous material with the medicament to load the oral appliance with medicament. 
     
     
         13 . The method of making the oral appliance of  claim 8 , wherein the medicament comprises at least one analgesic, whitening agent, breath freshener, anti-inflammatory, anticalculus agent, antimicrobial, anesthetic, muscle relaxant, selective H-2 antagonists, anticaries agent, nutrient, vitamin, mineral, herbal product, or mixtures thereof. 
     
     
         14 . A method of making an oral appliance for delivering a medicament to an oral cavity, the method comprising forming a porous material containing a medicament into the oral appliance; and applying a non-porous material to one or more discrete regions of the porous material to make the one or more discrete regions of the oral appliance non-porous. 
     
     
         15 . The method of making the oral appliance of  claim 14 , wherein the non-porous material reduces medicament release from the oral appliance. 
     
     
         16 . The method of making the oral appliance of  claim 14 , wherein (i) the porous material comprises a polymer; or (ii) the oral appliance is formed by additive manufacturing or 3D printing. 
     
     
         17 - 36 . (canceled) 
     
     
         37 . A method of making an oral appliance, the method comprising: providing a carrier and an optically transparent member having a build surface, the carrier and the build surface defining a build region therebetween; filling the build region with a polymerizable liquid; irradiating the build region through the optically transparent member to form a solid polymer from the polymerizable liquid while concurrently advancing the carrier away from the build surface to form the oral appliance from the solid polymer, wherein the oral appliance has discrete regions of porous material. 
     
     
         38 . The method of  claim 37 , wherein the optically transparent member comprises a semipermeable fluoropolymer, a rigid gas-permeable polymer, porous glass, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         39 . The method of  claim 37 , wherein (i) the polymerizable liquid comprises a medicament disposed homogenously throughout the polymerizable liquid; (ii) the polymerizable liquid is reactive to light the polymerizable liquid is irradiated at discrete regions to form the porous material; or (iii) the polymerizable liquid is irradiated at discrete regions to form the porous material. 
     
     
         40 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein a plurality of oral appliances is produced, each oral appliance comprising a same or different medicament from the other oral appliance and each oral appliance being prescribed for an identified patient so as to inhibit the transfer of the oral appliance to a different patient and control use of that oral appliance to the identified patient it was prescribed to.