DENTAL WIRE ATTACHMENT
Granted: September 23, 2010
Application Number:
20100239992
Methods and devices utilizing a dental appliance for dental retainer wire attachment are disclosed. One such wire attachment appliance includes a shell having one or more cavities formed therein and shaped to receive one or more teeth, at least two wire attachment members provided on the shell, and at least one attachment material reservoir provided on the shell, wherein the attachment material is provided to attach a wire to a tooth adjacent to a particular reservoir of the at least one…
METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DENTAL VISUALIZATION
Granted: July 1, 2010
Application Number:
20100167225
In particular embodiments, method, apparatus and system for receiving digital representations of the initial parameters of a dentition; simulating a first orthodontic treatment process on the digital representations of the initial parameters, displaying a set of output results from the simulation of the first orthodontic treatment process, simulating a second orthodontic treatment process on the output results from the simulation of the first orthodontic treatment process, and displaying…
REDUCED REGISTRATION BONDING TEMPLATE
Granted: June 24, 2010
Application Number:
20100159412
A dental template for positioning an object on teeth of a patient and method for fabricating the same. The method includes creating a digital model of the patient's teeth, creating a simplified template model based on the digital model, and fabricating the dental template based on the simplified template model. The template model is simplified by removing certain features of the patient's tooth anatomy. The dental template can be located on a patient's teeth using four or fewer…
UV AND CHEMICAL CURE BLOCKING DENTAL TEMPLATE
Granted: June 24, 2010
Application Number:
20100159413
A dental template formed of an ultraviolet light-blocking or chemical cure inhibition material configured to restrict the curing of excess adhesive flash during the bonding of orthodontic devices to teeth. The dental template is configured to be positioned over a patient's teeth to guide placement of brackets on the teeth. The brackets are secured to the teeth using adhesive, which is cured by exposure to ultraviolet light or chemically cured. The dental template at least partially…
TOOTH MOVEMENT MEASUREMENT BY AUTOMATIC IMPRESSION MATCHING
Granted: June 17, 2010
Application Number:
20100151404
The present invention relates to systems and methods for detecting deviations from an orthodontic treatment plan. One method includes receiving a tracking model, performing a matching step between individual teeth in a plan model and the tracking model, comparing the tracking model with the plan model, and detecting one or more positional differences.
ORTHODONTIC SYSTEMS AND METHODS INCLUDING PARAMETRIC ATTACHMENTS
Granted: June 3, 2010
Application Number:
20100138025
Orthodontic systems and related methods are disclosed for designing and providing improved or more effective tooth moving systems for eliciting a desired tooth movement and/or repositioning teeth into a desired arrangement. Methods and orthodontic systems of the invention include tooth attachments having improved or optimized parameters selected or modified for more optimal and/or effective application of forces for a desired/selected orthodontic movement. Attachments of the present…
DENTAL APPLIANCE WITH SIMULATED TEETH AND METHOD FOR MAKING
Granted: May 27, 2010
Application Number:
20100129762
The present invention relates to orthodontic positioning appliances that represent teeth in desired positions and related systems and methods. An appliance can include teeth receiving cavities shaped to receive and apply a resilient positioning force to a patient's teeth. An appliance can include an outer component having a surface representing teeth in desired positions. An outer component can be integral with an appliance. An outer component can be separate and configured to couple…
SEQUENTIAL SPORTS GUARD
Granted: May 27, 2010
Application Number:
20100129763
The present invention provides protective repositioning appliances, accommodating mouth guards, and covering guards that protect an orthodontic patient against impact-induced injuries, as well as related systems and methods. A protective appliance can include teeth receiving cavities shaped to receive and reposition a patient's teeth and can include an occlusal portion having an impact-absorbing compliance. An accommodating mouth guard can include teeth receiving cavities shaped to…
System And Method For Providing Optimized Patient Referrals
Granted: April 29, 2010
Application Number:
20100106518
In particular embodiments, method, apparatus and system for generating a doctor profile based on one or more parameters associated with the doctor treatment information, generating a patient dental profile based at least in part on a weighting of a plurality of orthodontic-related treatment parameters, and providing one or more doctor referrals based on the generated doctor profile and the generated orthodontic patient profile are provided.
Method And System For Deriving A Common Coordinate System For Virtual Orthodontic Brackets
Granted: April 15, 2010
Application Number:
20100092907
Method and apparatus including obtaining digital representations of two or more dental appliances, determining a common base coordinate parameter for the two or more dental appliances, orientating the respective digital representations of the two or more dental appliances in accordance with the common base coordinate parameter, aligning the digital representations of the two or more dental appliances based on one or more characteristics associated with each of the two or more dental…
DENTAL POSITIONING APPLIANCE HAVING METALLIC PORTION
Granted: April 8, 2010
Application Number:
20100086890
Embodiments are provided for utilizing metallic portions in dental positioning appliances. One embodiment includes a removable dental positioning appliance having a shell having one or more cavities shaped to receive and reposition one or more teeth from a first orientation to a successive orientation and where at least a portion of the shell is formed from a metallic mesh material.
SHAPE ENGINEERED ALIGNER - AUTO SHAPING
Granted: March 4, 2010
Application Number:
20100055635
The present invention relates to orthodontic positioning appliances and related methods. An appliance in accordance with the present invention has teeth receiving cavities shaped to receive and apply a resilient positioning force to the patient's teeth. At least one of the cavities of the appliance includes a portion shaped to compensate for non-elastic deformation due to use of the appliance.
TREATMENT ANALYSIS SYSTEMS AND METHODS
Granted: February 11, 2010
Application Number:
20100036682
A dental treatment planning system includes an input form to receive one or more dental patient inputs; and an engine adapted to receive the dental patient data from the input form and validating the dental patient data in a predetermined sequence.
Visualizing and Manipulating Digital Models for Dental Treatment
Granted: January 14, 2010
Application Number:
20100009308
Methods and apparatus for visualizing and manipulating three-dimensional digital dental models and related methods and apparatus for dental treatments are disclosed. In one aspect, a method for visualizing and manipulating a three-dimensional digital dental model may comprise viewing the three-dimensional digital dental model and using hand gestures to instruct a computer to manipulate one or more teeth in the digital dental model. In other aspects, a dental treatment method may comprise…
METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DISTRIBUTING PATIENT REFERRALS
Granted: November 26, 2009
Application Number:
20090292556
Practitioners are certified to perform a medical procedure, such as an orthodontic procedure. Certified practitioners are maintained in a referral directory and classified within tiers based on criteria such as the number of procedures that they have performed. Inquiries are solicited from prospective patients, and referral lists are provided to those patients who request them. The referral lists are obtained from the referral directory with doctors from higher tiers who have performed…
RECONSTRUCTION OF NON-VISIBLE PART OF TOOTH
Granted: October 1, 2009
Application Number:
20090246726
A computer-implemented method for modeling a complete tooth of a patient to facilitate dental and/or orthodontic treatment. The method includes generating a first set of digital data representing a clinical crown; generating a second set of digital data representing a plurality of digital tooth models of a particular tooth type each having a first parameterization; processing the second set of digital data to obtain a third set of digital data representing an average tooth model of the…
METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR OPTIMIZING DENTAL ALIGNER GEOMETRY
Granted: July 30, 2009
Application Number:
20090191503
Method and system for establishing an initial position of a tooth, determining a target position of the tooth in a treatment plan, calculating a movement vector associated with the tooth movement from the initial position to the target position, determining a plurality of components corresponding to the movement vector, and determining a corresponding one or more positions of a respective one or more attachment devices relative to a surface plane of the tooth such that the one or more…
ORTHODONTIC REPOSITIONING APPLIANCES HAVING IMPROVED GEOMETRY, METHODS AND SYSTEMS
Granted: July 30, 2009
Application Number:
20090191502
The present invention provides methods and systems including orthodontic tooth positioning appliances. An exemplary appliance can include teeth receiving cavities shaped such that, when worn by a patient, repositioning the patient's teeth from a first arrangement toward a subsequent or target arrangement. Appliances can include a cavity having one or more shaped features or protrusions shaped and/or positioned so as to apply a desired force to a patient's tooth received in the cavity and…
SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMPROVED DENTAL GEOMETRY REPRESENTATION
Granted: June 11, 2009
Application Number:
20090148809
A digital data set representing a pre-scanned tooth geometry, including generic crown data, is merged with data representing a scanned patient tooth crown image, which lacks sufficient data to completely represent a complete tooth crown.
AUTOMATED METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CASE MATCHING ASSESSMENT BASED ON GEOMETRICAL EVALUATION OF STAGES IN TREATMENT PLAN
Granted: May 21, 2009
Application Number:
20090132455
Methods and systems for characterizing a dentition of a patient including receiving an initial dentition of a patient, generating an initial profile representing the initial dentition of the patient, identifying an initial malocclusion from the initial profile, comparing at least a portion of the initial profile with one or more reference profiles of reference dentitions, wherein said one or more reference profiles includes a reference malocclusion substantially similar to the initial…
