Treatment of temperomandibular joint dysfunction with aligner therapy
Granted: October 10, 2023
Patent Number:
11779437
Methods and systems are provided for diagnosing and generating a treatment plan for temporomandibular joint dysfunction where a polymeric shell appliance is utilized to generate one or more activation forces that facilitate tooth movement. The polymeric shell appliances may comprise one or more tooth receiving cavities, in which each of the plurality of tooth receiving cavities is shaped and arranged to provide a counter moment of each of the plurality of teeth.
Customized aligner change indicator
Granted: October 10, 2023
Patent Number:
11779243
According to the techniques herein, one or more sensors coupled to an aligner are used to sense one or more physical qualities of the aligner to determine whether the physical qualities indicate that the aligner material has relaxed and has, e.g., reduced the force systems applied to teeth and/or that the teeth movement for the stage has slowed down. The sensors may provide a signal that represents whether or not the physical qualities fall below a threshold value. A treatment plan may…
Mandibular advancement and retraction via bone anchoring devices
Granted: October 3, 2023
Patent Number:
11771531
Systems, methods, devices and apparatus for mandibular advancement or retraction via bone anchoring devices are described herein. In various aspects, an apparatus for treating a patient via mandibular advancement or retraction comprises a plurality of anchoring devices positioned in the patient's intraoral cavity. Each of the plurality of anchoring devices can be positioned in bone of the patient's upper jaw or bone of the patient's lower jaw. One or more connecting structures can be…
Systems and methods for nonlinear tooth modeling
Granted: October 3, 2023
Patent Number:
11771526
Systems and methods of generating an orthodontic model are disclosed. The method may include: generating an initial model of a patient dentition; generating a target model of the patient dentition; defining a plurality of caps and a plurality of links, wherein each link connects two of the plurality of caps; generating a relaxed model of a dental appliance from the plurality of caps and the plurality of links; generating a deformed model of a dental appliance from the plurality of caps…
Methods for making multilayer dental aligners
Granted: September 26, 2023
Patent Number:
11766314
A multilayer sheet comprising first and second layers is provided. The first layer consists of a co-polyester. The second layer consists of a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer having an elongation at break of greater than 200%, a hardness of 60A to 85D, an ultimate tensile strength of greater than about 5000 psi, and a light transmission between 400 nm and 800 nm of greater than about 75%. A mold is provided and the multilayer sheet is thermoformed over the mold to form a plurality of…
Methods for making dental aligners from multilayer sheets
Granted: September 26, 2023
Patent Number:
11766313
A multilayer sheet comprising first, second, and third layers is provided. The first layer consists of a co-polyester having an elongation at break of greater than 70%. The second layer consists of a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer having an elongation at break of greater than 200% and a hardness of about 60 A to about 85 D. The first layer has a hardness greater than the hardness of the second layer. A mold is provided and the multilayer sheet is thermoformed over the mold to form…
Treatment progress tracking and recalibration
Granted: September 26, 2023
Patent Number:
11766311
The present invention relates to systems and methods of developing and tracking delivery and patient progression through an orthodontic treatment plan. One method includes identifying deviations from an orthodontic treatment plan, including receiving a digital representation of an actual arrangement of a patient's teeth after an orthodontic treatment plan has begun for the patient and prior to completion of the orthodontic treatment plan. The method further includes comparing the actual…
Diagnostic intraoral methods and apparatuses
Granted: September 19, 2023
Patent Number:
11759295
Methods and apparatuses for taking, using and displaying three-dimensional (3D) volumetric models of a patient's dental arch. A 3D volumetric model may include surface (e.g., color) information as well as information on internal structure, such as near-infrared (near-IR) transparency values for internal structures including enamel and dentin.
Tooth segmentation based on anatomical edge information
Granted: September 19, 2023
Patent Number:
11759291
Provided herein are orthodontic systems and methods for automatically segmenting a person's teeth. Systems, methods and processes are provided to properly segment the teeth of a person's teeth from an image of the person's face showing at least some of the person's teeth (e.g., dental arch). Methods and systems are provided to automatically detect dental edges after a dental scan. Also described herein are methods and systems for generating a simulated image of the person's face from the…
Full-scanner barrier for an intra-oral device
Granted: September 19, 2023
Patent Number:
11759277
Removable barrier devices (e.g., sleeves) for covering medical scanning devices to reduce the chance of cross-contamination between patients and/or to protect the scanning devices from physical damage. The barrier device can include a cover that has an integrated window for passing optical signals between the scanning device and an external environment. The cover can include a sleeve that covers a handle portion of the scanning device to prevent contamination of the handle from a user's…
Methods for direct fabrication of attachment placement appliances
Granted: June 27, 2023
Patent Number:
11684453
Methods for fabricating attachment placement appliances are provided. In some embodiments, a method includes directly fabricating an attachment placement appliance body including a support formed in a tooth-receiving cavity configured to receive a tooth. The method can include directly fabricating one or more coupling structures connected to the support, and directly fabricating an aligner attachment connected to the one or more coupling structures. The attachment placement appliance…
Filling undercut areas of teeth relative to axes of appliance placement
Granted: June 20, 2023
Patent Number:
11678956
The present disclosure provides computing device implemented methods, computing device readable medium, and molds for filling undercut areas of teeth relative to an axis of placement. Filling undercut areas of teeth relative to an axis of placement can include calculating an undercut area of a tooth relative to an axis of placement of part of a dental appliance over a number of teeth and a height of contour that is defined based on the axis of placement. Filling undercut areas of teeth…
Adjustment of tooth position in a virtual dental model
Granted: June 20, 2023
Patent Number:
11678954
The present disclosure provides computing device implemented methods, computing device readable media, and systems for adjustment of tooth position in a virtual dental model. Virtual dental modeling can include detecting space and/or collision between posterior teeth of an upper jaw and posterior teeth of a lower jaw in a virtual dental model that has been set in a preliminary target position. An energy function can be defined including the space and/or collision, tooth root movement,…
Correction of margin lines in three-dimensional models of dental sites
Granted: June 20, 2023
Patent Number:
11678953
A method includes receiving first intraoral scan data comprising a first depiction of a dental site comprising a preparation tooth; generating a virtual three-dimensional (3D) model of the dental site using the first intraoral scan data; processing at least one of the first intraoral scan data or data from the virtual 3D model to identify a margin line of the preparation tooth, wherein at least a portion of the margin line is unclear; outputting instructions to generate second intraoral…
Intraoral scanner calibration
Granted: June 13, 2023
Patent Number:
11672631
A method comprises obtaining reference data about a 3D calibration object, the reference data comprising known coordinates for a plurality of points on the object, and obtaining measurement data comprising measurements for the plurality of points on the object, the measurement data having been generated based on scanning of the object by an uncalibrated intraoral scanner. The method comprises comparing the measurement data to the reference data to determine differences therebetween and…
Photo realistic rendering of smile image after treatment
Granted: June 13, 2023
Patent Number:
11672629
A method may include: receiving facial image of the patient that depicts the patient's teeth; receiving a 3D model of the patient's teeth; determining color palette of the depiction of the patient's teeth; coding 3D model of the patient's teeth based on attributes of the 3D model; providing the 3D model, the color palette, and the coded 3D model to a neural network; processing the 3D model, the color palette, and the coded 3D model by the neural network to generate a processed image of…
Methods for packaging orthodontic appliances
Granted: June 6, 2023
Patent Number:
11667412
A system for packaging mass-customized items includes a computer system including a database containing item identification information unique to each item; (2) outer container identification apparatus that applies the item identification information received from the database to each outer container in a plurality of outer containers; (3) inner pack identification apparatus that applies the item identification information received from the database to each inner pack in a plurality of…
Methods for simulating orthodontic treatment
Granted: June 6, 2023
Patent Number:
11666416
Methods for simulating orthodontic treatment are provided. In some embodiments, a method includes capturing a first representation, the first representation including a depiction of a patient's teeth. The method can include building a parametric model of the patient's teeth based on the first representation, using one or more case-specific parameters for one or more shapes associated with at least one of the patient's teeth. The method can also include simulating an outcome of a dental…
Automatic aligner design with robust parametric optimization method
Granted: June 6, 2023
Patent Number:
11666415
Methods and systems for producing orthodontic appliances are provided herein utilizing iterative modeling techniques to increase the efficiency and efficacy of said appliances. Further disclosed herein are the orthodontic appliances fabricated from such methods.
Method for defining a finish line of a dental prosthesis
Granted: June 6, 2023
Patent Number:
RE49541
A computer-based prosthodontic method is provided, for enabling a dental practitioner to define a finish line of a dental prosthesis of at least one tooth to be fitted over a tooth preparation. The method comprises the following steps: providing a three-dimensional (3D) digital data relating to the patient's dentition, the 3D data includes data representative of the surface topology of the preparation and its surroundings; generating first finish line data representative of at least a…
