ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,364,578, issued on July 22, was assigned to GUANGZHOU OO MEDICAL SCIENTIFIC Ltd. (Guangdong, China).
"Lockable orthodontic appliance" was invented by Qinhui Zhang (Guangdong, China), Zien Xu (Guangdong, China) and Li Ji (Guangdong, China).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A lockable orthodontic appliance, comprising a main body. An arch wire groove is formed on the main body, the main body is provided with a movable accessory, the accessory comprises a traction portion and a space occupying portion, the accessory can move between an available position and an unavailable position, and during the movement, the traction portion can drive the sp...