Patient comfort is important to both the individual patient being treated and the dental professional performing the treatment. More particularly, when the patient is a child, a patient that is comfortable and relaxed is much less likely to move in a manner so as to make the treatment more difficult for the dental professional to perform. Additionally, a comfortable patient is more likely to take the direction of the dental professional during the treatment, and further, to adhere to any prescribed regimens post-treatment. However, although many new materials and/or procedures have been provided, or existing materials and procedures improved, that enhance patient comfort, i.e., such as improvements in anesthetic materials and the development of more comfortable tooth preparation procedures, there still exist areas within the field of dentistry in which patient comfort could be further enhanced or optimized.
Many of the materials used by the dental professional are not pleasing to the sensory palate. The materials are bitter tasting and smelling and leave an unpleasant aftertaste in the patient's mouth, which may be particularly problematic when the patient being treated is a child. Many children are treated with pit and fissure sealants having an offensive odor and flavor, creating discomfort to the child during the application of the sealant.
In order to enhance the patient's experience, and in keeping with the general trend of making dentistry more acceptable for patients, it would be desirable to at least reduce or eliminate the unpleasant flavor associated with sealant materials, and would be even more desirable to provide such materials with a pleasant flavor while also beneficially imparting such materials with a pleasing aroma. It would be beneficial to provide a one-component sealant for ease and simplicity of application.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds