ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 25 -- United States Patent no. 12,478,396, issued on Nov. 25, was assigned to Linguaflex Inc. (Pittsburgh).
"Tongue retractor" was invented by Ira Sanders (Oakland, N.J.), Jon Buzzard (Palm City, Fla.), Asif Amirali (New York) and Cliff Dwyer (Weston, Fla.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A tissue retractor including a head member, an anchor member, and a shaft extending between the head member and the anchor member. The shaft has an elastic portion and an adjustment portion. The elastic portion is made of a first material and the adjustment portion is made of a second different material. The adjustment portion has a first locking element and the anchor member has a second...