Need help, quadriplegic mouth wand.

[Alberta Denturist]

I need help making one if these, has anyone made a wand for persons who are paralyzed? This is a clear acrylic mouth piece which has cured into it a wand about 1 1/2 to 2 feet long, and used to manipulate things such as the telephone or keyboard.
What I've done so far is to take upper and lower imps and a bite at VDO plus a few mm.
My plan from here is to mount the models on an articulator and then block out undercuts on the teeth then fabricate a device for a "try in" out of light cure tray material. I'll then try it in and then process using an altered compression flask.
Any tips would be greatly apreciateted. Thanks.

 

[AJEL]

I've done 2 of these with Astron Clearsplint, not for quad but should be similar. The front of the splint needs to have large airway holes 7-10mm and be able to be clenched on. Or split with only posterior upper & lower tooth grips up to the survey line. It does not hold in completely by itself, as if it holds to tight patient cannot remove by self, & place in wall holder. When I processed I had a bolt on front that I unthreaded after processing, it allows for replacement wands, I don't know where to get them I made one out of a fishing pole & threaded one end. It was 3 years ago & I couldn't find ,my pictures. I think a bendable tip would be helpful to improve visibility of target.

A mouthstick, with aluminium foil on the tip and copper wire wound up the shaft. There's nothing special about the wiring touching your lip - it just has to touch a piece of skin somewhere on the user for a touch screen to be able to be used.

 

[Alberta Denturist]

Thanks for the tips AJEL. We were hoping for a replaceable wand but dont know where to source something like that. We're using his existing metal wand instead. I also appreciate what you said regarding the touch screen ability, that's what I thought too but it's nice to have confermation. I've never heard of the acrylic your talking about and I'd just planed on using clear lucitone. Do you recall how much you charged for yours? I've got no clue what to charge this patient.

 

[AJEL]

Just a thought I was moving my bow and noticed the shaft has a threaded notch & threaded tip, and if aluminium it might even conduct Easton® XX75® Gamegetter® Arrows | Bass Pro Shops
The Clearsplint from Astron is ASTRON Dental Lake Zurich, IL. USA 800-323-4144
Do you have Versacryl from Fricke up there? Well Dave said the 1st 1 i tried was PMMA & hurt, so I tried the clearsplint.
1 was for a friend (motorcycle accident) no charge, He passed about a year latter from respiratory complications. the other one of his group came thru a DDS the charge to the DDS was $150. (I'm a soft touch but the DDS I don't know).
As I have thought on it I would today use TCS nylon & include 1 or 2 puffer/suction connections
http://orthobionics.net/detail.php/219
Look at what patterson has:
http://www.pattersonmedical.com/app.aspx?cmd=get_subsections&id=100858




Looks like a great place to get parts for a super custom assistance aid.