CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATION  
       [0001]    This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 09/859,249, hereby abandoned, which is a continuation-in-part application of application Ser. No. 08/784,284 (abandoned), which is a continuation-in-part application of application Ser. No. 08/501,977 (abandoned), which is a continuation-in-part application of application Ser. No. 08/214,634 (abandoned), which is a continuation-in-part application of application Ser. No. 07/902,358 (abandoned), which is a continuation-in-part application of application Ser. No. 07/716,662 (abandoned), which is a continuation-in-part application of application Ser. No. 07/435,515 (abandoned).  
     
    
     
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0003]    This invention relates to dispensers for liquid medicines, and more specifically to medicine droppers.  
           [0004]    2. Background—General Prior Art  
           [0005]    Until about 100 years ago, doses of most medications were not very exact because the crude drugs were mostly plant extracts of uncertain strength. Doctors gave more to adults and less to children. In about 1870 the science of dosimetry emerged, using the active ingredients of the plant extracts, in exact doses. For the last century medicines have been prescribed in an exact form, in an exact dose, and usually based on the body weight of the patient.  
           [0006]    Medicine droppers are commonly used to measure and give liquid drugs to children. The dropper usually has a scale calibrated in units of volume, usually millimeters (ml), or some fraction of a teaspoon (tsp). Other familiar devices for dispensing liquid medicines are oral syringes, cups, measuring cylinders with or without a spoon attached, and measuring spoons.  
           [0007]    3. Background—Fluoride Doses for Infants  
           [0008]    The current invention came about in the study of one of the most commonly administered liquid medicines for children, fluoride in multivitamins. These products were invented independently by at least 3 pediatricians—Peebles, Margolis, and Hamberg. Brands such as Poly-Vi-Flor® became exceedingly popular starting in about 1962, and probably about a fourth of children born since then have had them. (About the only kids who did not were those who lived with fluoridated water, which is about half the country, and those who did not go to a pediatrician for some reason.)  
           [0009]    Fluoride prevents dental caries, which is also called tooth decay or cavities. The published clinical trials of the fluoride-vitamin products showed excellent results. Cavities were reduced by at least half, and in some trials up to 80%. Many kids reached adulthood completely cavity-free.  
           [0010]    However, there was a slight problem that came along with the marvelous cavity prevention: white spots on teeth. Most trace nutrients are at least fairly dose sensitive (iron and copper are well known examples). Fluoride is very dose sensitive.  
           [0011]    Too little fluoride causes tooth enamel to be poorly formed. This can be seen at most levels of magnification, and many people can recognize the difference with the naked eye. The biggest and most easily seen effect of fluoride deficiency is pits and fissures in the enamel of the molar teeth. The most well known effect of fluoride deficiency is tooth decay, which is predisposed by the poor enamel.  
           [0012]    Just right fluoride causes gorgeous enamel that has a fine white color and a luster that looks like the inside of a sea shell. If a set of teeth has the right amount of fluoride for the entire time it is forming (from early pregnancy until the teen years), every part of every tooth will look good and never have tooth decay.  
           [0013]    Too much fluoride causes visible changes in the enamel. Large overdoses (about 8 to 16 times the ideal amount) cause very serious brown staining and pitting of the enamel. Smaller overdoses (about 2 to 4 times the ideal amount) cause teeth to have a chalky white appearance. At still smaller overdoses, teeth are a little whiter than normal, or lose a little of their translucency, but only a professional would recognize the condition as very mild fluorosis.  
           [0014]    There are two factors that complicate fluoride dosing of infants. The first is the teeth that are growing at that time. Some are particularly sensitive to too little fluoride, and others are particularly sensitive to too much fluoride. The two areas where we would like to prevent cavities are the first permanent molars (very important teeth that help keep the rest of the teeth straight, and very cavity-prone without fluoride) and the front baby teeth. The front baby teeth, up near the gum line, are sometimes attacked by “bottle rot” (which requires an expensive and risky repair). The growing teeth that we would like to protect from too much fluoride are the permanent front teeth. The part of these teeth that is forming is the leading edge, and this is the part of a smile that shows the most. It is the last place you would want to have a cosmetic defect like a white spot.  
           [0015]    The second complicating dosage factor is the rapid growth of a newborn. At birth most infants weigh between 6 and 9 pounds. This weight is usually doubled by age 6 months, and by age 2 years most weigh between 20 and 35 pounds. So we have a body weight that is changing about 6 fold, and a dosage sensitivity of about two fold.  
           [0016]    (We could add a third complication, the time it takes to see the results. When a doctor prescribes fluoride at birth, the teeth that are affected will not be fully visible until about age 10 years. This makes is very difficult to develop a “feel” for these doses.)  
           [0017]    Fluoride is usually prescribed for a long period of time, since the child will need it every day during childhood. Historically fluoride has been prescribed by age even though it is well known that the optimum would be to prescribe it by weight. For example, children born during the 1960&#39;s and 70&#39;s were prescribed 0.5 mg/day from birth to age 3 years, then 1 mg/day. This dosage schedule caused a very common and very recognizable pattern of cavities and white spotting:  
           [0018]    1. Cavities: almost none. Half the kids have only 4 cavities (fillings now) in a very specific place. The 6th tooth back from the front, one in each corner of the mouth. And only on the chewing surface of those teeth. (These are the first permanent molars. The chewing surfaces form in pregnancy just before the fluoride started, so got cavities. The rest of these molars, and the rest of the permanent teeth, formed after birth, so got fluoride and no decay.)  
           [0019]    2. White spots: lots. More than half the kids had white spots on the leading edge of their front teeth, the precise part of the tooth that formed at birth when the doses were the highest relative to the small body size. By the time the rest of the tooth formed, the children had grown into their doses and the enamel looks great just above the white spots.  
           [0020]    (Further reading: Aasenden R, Peebles T C. Effects of fluoride supplementation from birth on human deciduous and permanent teeth.  Arch Oral Biol  1974; 19:321 and 1978; 23:111.)  
           [0021]    So far the general response to the challenge of how to get the right dose of fluoride has been to revise the dosage table. It has been considered impractical to give each child a dose exactly by body weight, every day of childhood.  
           [0022]    Children born today (2003, and since May 1995) in the USA are generally not given any fluoride for the first 6 months of infancy. Then they start on a slightly lower schedule than in the recent past. If clinical trials and common sense are any indication, by the time these kids are about 5 years old it will be obvious that these kids will see an increase in tooth decay over the course of their childhood. They should have more cavities than their parents who were born in the 60&#39;s, 70&#39;s, and 80&#39;s with relatively high fluoride. However, the new kids will still have far less cavities than their grandparents born in the days before fluoride became popular. By the time the new kids are about 10 years old we will probably see that the fluorosis is just as prevalent as before. However, it should be a little different. It should be milder (doses being lower). And it should have shifted up on their front teeth about an ⅛ th  of inch since the sudden increase in fluoride will have happened at age 6 months rather than at birth like before.  
           [0023]    I will try to keep a web site that will give you the latest opinions on the best way to have your kids&#39; teeth look great and have no cavities. The title is “Infant fluoride and the OptiDose® dropper—by Ray Grogan”. Lately search engines like Google make it the number one site if you just search for “infant fluoride”. I would now like to give you a few methods that work fine without getting involved with my own invention. (There are even more methods on the web site.)  
           [0024]    A method that could do the same thing without our dropper is to just eyeball the doses on a regular dropper. If you look at our dropper, you&#39;ll see a full dropper (1 ml) is 16 pounds, and a half full dropper is 8 pounds. From that you can construct fairly simple directions to go with a plain 1 ml dropper. The simplest would be to start at birth with a half full dropper and by age 6 months be up to a full dropper.  
           [0025]    One team has devised another way that has worked very, very well. The Drs. Glenn of Miami have experimented with providing fluoride in pregnancy, which is when tooth development begins (most of the baby teeth are formed in pregnancy). Their several thousand patients have had excellent dental health (about 95% completely cavity-free, beautiful teeth) regardless of what followed pregnancy. While most have had some combination of fluoridated water, plain fluoride, and/or fluoride in vitamins, the fluoride in pregnancy seems to be a very important beginning. (In Dec 2000 the Glenns published a useful and amusing book,  How to have children with perfect teeth .)  
           [0026]    Having a relatively high amount of fluoride in pregnancy, followed by a relatively low amount during infancy, is probably fairly close to the “natural” model. (Primitive diets for adults and older children were relatively high in fluoride from lots of rough plant materials, animal foods such as bone marrow, and seafoods. During infancy breast milk was the sole food, and that is relatively low in fluoride. Primitive people had almost perfect teeth. There was enough dietary fluoride to cause fluorosis occasionally.)  
           [0027]    Another method just for infancy involves a special water and powdered formula. This one would work especially well following prenatal fluoride, as the fluoride from pregnancy seems to extend well into infancy via fluoride reserves stored in the teeth, bones, and other infant tissues (similar to iron reserves). This should suffice during the period of breast feeding (usually less than 6 months nowdays). Once a child is switched to formula the new method can begin. To get the fluoride intake perfect when using powdered formula, use a commercial baby water. (Examples: Beech-Nut® Spring Water with Fluoride, Hinckley Springs Nursery® Water. Dependable sources are big stores like K-Mart (with other baby stuff) and Wal-Mart (with other waters). All of these have about 0.5 mg F, which is about half the strength of fluoridated water. Overall this is one of the easiest and best methods of getting perfect fluoride. Since feeding automatically parallels growth, the dosage will take care of itself. By starting in pregnancy, and by getting through infancy with a very gentle dosing, the remainder of childhood can be dosed according to the regular pediatric dosage schedule.  
           [0028]    4. Background—Specific Prior Art (Dispensing Devices)  
           [0029]    Before we get to the closest prior art, let&#39;s briefly look at the most well-known prior art, ordinary medicine droppers. Existing medicine droppers have volume scales, which are usually labeled with ml, cc, tsp, oz, and the like. These can be used to dose by body weight, IF you have a dosage table, or have the dosage (usually in mg/kg) and concentration (usually mg/ml) necessary to do your own calculations. However, mistakes are made. For example, in the Dec. 4, 2002  Wall Street Journal,  the page D3 headline is “Drug dosing is major cause of hospital errors”. Here is a quote: “For children, the problem often stems from a miscalculation when converting weight from pounds to kilograms, leading to improper dosing.” (Patent citations: Munch, U.S. Pat. No. 1,533,753 shows a metal casing that slips over a medicine dropper to add a volume scale, “whereby the plain glass element may be used to measure various quantities of liquid”. George U.S. Pat. No. 4,693,709 for syringes and Swartwout U.S. Pat. No. 4,416,381 for cups.)  
           [0030]    There are two candidates for the closest prior art. Physically it is probably the dispenser introduced with Zimecterin in 1984. This dispenser uses an oral syringe with a body weight scale on it, with the scale going from full to empty as the syringe is filled. In other words, when the syringe holds the least the scale reads at its maximum. This is because this dispenser comes fully loaded, and the scale is used as the medicine is used up. It could not be used to be filled to the body weight of a patient on the scale. For example, if one of these prior art scales went from zero to 100 pounds, and it were filled to the 10-pound mark, it would actually be filled to 90% of its volume, or to a 90-pound dose. However, it works absolutely fine as designed. If it were completely filled (which is how it comes), and the plunger is pushed down to the 10-pound mark, the syringe would dispense 10% of its volume, the correct 10-pound dose. (Sold by Farnam Companies, Inc/301 West Osborn/POB 34820/Phoenix, Ariz. 85067-4820. Advertised in  Tack &#39;n Togs,  November 1984.)  
           [0031]    Functionally the closest prior art is a medicine cup with child and adult doses. This cup is shown (incidentally) in U.S. Pat. No. 364,528 (Wadsworth, 1931, FIG. 9), or it can be seen in a commercial product, COMTREX® from Bristol-Myers. This child-adult cup is filled with a dose that is roughly the size of the patient. It is easy to use and only requires one piece. It does not use a numerical scale, and it is not accurate. It does not, for example, distinguish between a 25-pound child and a 100-pound child.  
           [0032]    There is prior art that is purely about using well-placed indicia to save a calculating step. Miller invented a measuring cup for bakers who want to make some fractional part of a full recipe (for example, making one loaf of bread from a recipe that normally makes three loaves). His cup looks just like a regular measuring cup, only it is shrunk to one-third the size, and has a label saying “⅓ recipe”. (The Court of Customs and Patent Appeals threw out a “printed matter” objection and said that it was new and unobvious.) (217 USPQ 401 and 164 USPQ 46.)  
           [0033]    In Europe Janssen has pioneered a new type of dosing device that has the potential to solve many dosing problems. (First commercial use in Prepulsid® (cisapride) in Switzerland, 1989; later used with Hismanal® (astemizole) in Panama, 1990, now used in about 20 products around the world.) These elegant devices, which use a body weight scale, allow precise dosing of each child. This is exactly what I will later describe as “my” invention. The only reason I am able to claim it patent-wise is that it was not published or sold before my date of invention. However, we now know that Janssen had working models well before my invention. Therefore the true inventor was clearly someone else, probably at Janssen in Belgium or Switzerland.  
           [0034]    There have been other attempts to dose according to body size. These are not as relevant as the previous works, but are noteworthy. Both Dr. Darbon (French patent # 70.09318, 1971) and Dr. Broselow (U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,656, 1991) have each proposed devices that calculate an accurate dose of medicine, based on body size, as some other task is being performed (mixing the drug in Darbon&#39;s case and measuring the patient in Broselow&#39;s). These devices are very accurate, but both require two pieces and two steps to use. Dr. Broselow&#39;s system is based on a length measuring tape with coded zones and dispensers coded to the tape. It is inexpensive, easy to use, and would work better than the status quo for fluoride and many other pediatric medicines. Another way to express body size is body surface area, which is calculated from height and weight (for example: http://www.medcalc.com/body.html).  
           [0035]    The final citation shows that a volume scale on a container can be used to calculate some other related number (a bucket to calculate amount of cattle feed based on amount of milk given). (Naatz, U.S. Pat. No. 1,865,034, 1932.)  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0036]    My dose by weight medicine dropper is made by marking a simple body weight scale directly on a medicine dropper. To get an exact dose, all a parent has to do is fill the dropper up to the body weight of his or her child. The scale works by converting volume into a more usable measurement of dose per body weight. The dropper becomes, in essence, a combined medicine dropper and dosage calculator.  
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0037]    [0037]FIG. 1 is a side perspective view of a medicine dropper graduated with a body weight scale, in accordance with this invention.  
         [0038]    [0038]FIG. 2 is a side perspective view of a medicine dropper graduated with a body length scale, in accordance with this invention.  
         [0039]    [0039]FIG. 3 is a side perspective view of a cup graduated with a body weight scale and an age scale, in accordance with this invention.  
         [0040]    [0040]FIG. 4 is a side perspective view of an oral syringe with a body weight scale on it, in accordance with this invention.  
         [0041]    [0041]FIG. 5 is a front view of a prescription label with a patient&#39;s current body weight and age.  
         [0042]    [0042]FIG. 6 is a side perspective view of a medicine dropper graduated with a body surface area scale, in accordance with this invention.  
     
    
     REFERENCE NUMERALS USED ON DRAWINGS  
       [0043]    [0043]                                                 REFERENCE NUMERALS USED ON DRAWINGS                Reference numeral   Figure   What is shown                        8   1   identifying label           10   1, 2, 6   medicine dropper           11   1   flexible bulb           12   1   tube           13   1, 3, 4   body weight scale           14   1, 4   opening           15   2   body length scale           16   3   medicine cup           17   1   bottle cap           18   3   age scale           20   4   oral syringe           22   5   prescription label           24   5   patient&#39;s current age           26   5   patient&#39;s current weight           28   4   tube-like reservoir           30   4   plunger           32   3   cylinder-like reservoir           34   6   body surface area scale                        
       DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0044]    [0044]FIG. 1 shows my dose by weight medicine dropper. A conventional medicine dropper  10  is made from a tube  12  with an opening  14 , flexible bulb  11 , and usually a bottle cap  17 . The unique feature of my invention is marking tube  12  with a body weight scale  13 . An identifying label  8  may be added for extra clarity.  
         [0045]    Other than having body weight scale  13  and identifying label  8  marked on it, my dose by weight medicine dropper is not different from familiar medicine droppers. Body weight scale  13  has the function of converting a volume of medicine into a useful dosage in pounds body weight.  
         [0046]    Medicine dropper  10  is graduated with body weight scale  13  such that body weight indicators on the scale indicate doses that are desired for those body weights. For example, if 0.7 ml is the dose desired for an 11 pound infant, an 11 pound mark is placed where the dropper holds 0.7 ml.  
         [0047]    Body weight scale  13  contains at least two discrete numerical points in a series, such that a change in volume corresponds to a change in pounds body weight. Body weight scale  13  is self-contained in the sense that in it is all the dosage information needed, presuming the user already knows the weight of the patient. The user does not require dosage tables or other information sources. Body weight scale  13  is on medicine dropper  10  so that the scale  13  is used to calculate a dose when the tube  12  is filled to the body weight of the patient, in one easy step and with one simple tool.  
         [0048]    Body weight scale  13  may be labeled with identifying label  8  “pounds body weight” to prevent confusion with ordinary volume scales which are usually labeled with ml, cc, tsp, oz, and the like. Body weight scale  13  uses only conventional measuring units that are already used to measure body weight, such as pounds or kilograms.  
         [0049]    Additional embodiments are shown in FIGS. 2, 3,  4 , and  6 . Scales may be made for children and adults of various sizes. FIG. 2 shows an embodiment similar to FIG. 1, except based on a body length scale  15  on medicine dropper  10 . FIG. 3 shows a medicine cup  16  with a body weight scale  13  and an age scale  18  marked on the cylinder-like reservoir  32  with a closed bottom and an open top. FIG. 4 shows an oral syringe  20  with body weight scale  13  marked on the tube-like reservoir  28 . A plunger  30  slides within the tube-like reservoir  28  at the top end. There is an opening  14  at the bottom end of the tube-like reservoir  28 . As the plunger  30  is pulled up, away from the opening  14 , the volume in the reservoir increases and the value indicated on body weight scale  13  increases. The body weight scale  13  is directionally proportional to the volume in the reservoir  28 . FIG. 5 shows a prescription label  22  with a patient&#39;s age  24  and weight  26 , which may be used for extra clarity. FIG. 6 shows an embodiment similar to FIG. 1, except based on a body surface area scale  34  on medicine dropper  10 .  
         [0050]    Another phrase that describes my invention is an apparatus for selection of drug dosages for therapeutic treatment of a patient comprising a directionally proportional body weight scale marked on a dispensing means.  
         [0051]    Another phrase that describes my invention is “a weight of patient indicator for a medicine dropper”. (This is paraphrasing a contemporary invention by Chanoch, 1997, U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,534. He put a time scale on an insulin injector so that the patient could set it as a reminder of the time of the last injection.) The medicine dropper would comprise: a tube, a flexible bulb attached to one end of the tube, an opening at the other end of the tube, and a plurality of indicia on the tube representing a range body weights for a targeted group of patients (such as infants), said indicia including and displaying a weight mark to be chosen for a specific weight of a patient (such as 7 pounds, 8 pounds, 9 pounds, etc.), that weight mark corresponding to a volume of a desired dose to be dispensed when the medicine dropper is filled to that weight mark.  
         [0052]    In operation my dose by weight medicine dropper is filled with medicine up to the weight of a patient on body weight scale  13 , and then the medicine is given in the usual fashion.  
       A WORKING EXAMPLE  
       [0053]    Before I give you the example that I am sure will work, I will give you an easier method I have not tested yet. There are now companies with very sophisticated imaging and printing capabilities, such as Creative Imprints (info@creativeimprints.com). To work with them, all you need is a few “blanks” (your droppers with no markings) and a good quality image of what you want printed. They tell me they can shrink the image to fit so that the proper volume is dispensed, and print with pharmaceutical grade ink in sterile conditions on your blanks.  
         [0054]    Now I will give you the details of how I made my first pharmaceutical product. I started with the dropper that had the clearest printing of any I had seen. This one was on the Mead Johnson Canada acetaminophen, Tempra®. Luckily, a family friend lived near their office, and his brother happened to play hockey with some of the Mead guys. Mead connected me to their dropper manufacturer, TwinPak, and they were able to make an acceptable quality dropper on the second round.  
         [0055]    The existing dropper that comes with a package of Tempra® has two gradations, one at full, 1.0 ml, and one at half-full, 0.5 ml. I wanted to adapt this to Mead Johnson&#39;s Tri-Vi-Flor® (their vitamin-fluoride product for newborns). The dosage I wanted to use was 0.033 mg F/kg, which in pounds is 0.015 mg F/lb. (A design tip is to use values that convert easily between kg and pounds. For example, if the kg steps are some multiple of 2.2 then the pounds will come out in multiples of 1. In this case I&#39;m using 0.011, which is half of 0.022, so my pound steps come out in multiples of 0.005. So when I was choosing the dosage, I looked at 0.011, 0.022, 0.033, 0.044, etc. mg/kg doses.) The final given is that the existing Tri-Vi-Flor® comes in a liquid solution of 0.25 mg F per 1.0 ml.  
         [0056]    The logical maximum for this dropper is 16 pounds. This is because a full dropper (1 ml, or 0.25 mg F) divided by the desired dosage (0.015 mg F/lb), is 16.67 pounds. For the minimum I arbitrarily chose 5 pounds. There seemed to be enough room to go up in 1-pound increments.  
         [0057]    Next I made a table, converting all the pound marks into a dose in ml. I calculated a conversion factor by dividing the dosage (0.015 mg F/lb) by the solution strength (0.25 mg F/ml), which in this case is 0.06 ml/lb. The first few lines of the table look like this:  
                                                                 Body weight scale (pounds)   Dose (ml)                                        16   .96               (16 lb X .06 ml/lb)           15   .90           14   .84                      
 
         [0058]    When I took my order to the manufacturer, and all I had were volume measurements, I got the impression that I was making an unusual order. The first stamping die did not work out. On round 2 I switched to length measurements, which worked fine. To get the length measurements I shrunk a paper scale with a copier to with the existing volume marks, and measured the various lengths. In this case it was easy because I could line up the 16 pound mark with the full 1.0 ml mark, and half of that, the 8-pound mark, with the half-full 0.5 ml mark.
A dose dispensing device such as a medicine dropper is improved by putting a dosing scale such as a body weight scale directly on the dose dispensing device. This improved device is used to simultaneously calculate and measure an exact dose of liquid medicine, based on the body weight of the patient.