Align Technology Patent Grants

Buccal corridor assessment and computation

Granted: February 25, 2025
Patent Number: 12232924
Apparatuses and methods for improving a patient's buccal corridor, including developing treatment plans and/or appliances to improve and enhance buccal corridor. Also described herein are methods of treating a patient's teeth to enhance the patient's buccal corridor.

Intraoral scanner wand

Granted: February 25, 2025
Patent Number: D1064272

Dental imaging attachment for a smartphone

Granted: February 18, 2025
Patent Number: D1063077

Indicators that facilitate intraoral scanning

Granted: February 18, 2025
Patent Number: 12226285
A processing device of a system makes a comparison between a current image of an oral cavity of a patient and one or more previously received images of the oral cavity of the patient, the current image and the one or more previously received images having been generated by an intraoral scanner. The processing device determines an amount of overlap between a current field of view of the intraoral scanner and topography scans of the oral cavity based on the comparison. The processing…

Generating a virtual 3D model of a mold

Granted: February 18, 2025
Patent Number: 12226284
A mold includes a first section, a second section, and a weakened region that joins the first section to the second section. The weakened region is breakable, deflectable, or deformable in response to a first threshold force to enable the first section to be removed from a shell independently of the second section after the shell is formed over the mold. The first threshold force is less than a second threshold force that would damage or permanently deform the shell. The first section is…

Dental implant positioning in treatment planning

Granted: February 18, 2025
Patent Number: 12226283
Methods for accommodating dental implants in treatment planning. Methods may include generating a treatment plan to treat a dentition using a series of dental appliances, where a position of a digital implant in a digital dental model is identified. At least one dental appliance of the series of dental appliances may be created, where the at least one dental appliance may be shaped to implement at least one stage of the treatment plan and include an offset portion that is shaped to…

Flexible 3D printed orthodontic device with attachment supports

Granted: February 18, 2025
Patent Number: 12226281
A dental attachment placement device comprises a plurality of articulated registration elements shaped for placement on a plurality of teeth, which can facilitate placement, accommodate tooth movement, and improve alignment of the registration elements with the teeth, so as to accurately position an attachment for placement. The plurality of registration elements may comprise one or more attachment supports and one or more retention supports extending from the plurality of registration…

Direct fabrication of orthodontic appliances with 4D printing

Granted: February 18, 2025
Patent Number: 12226280
An appliance comprises a passive component and an active force generating component, in which the active force generating component is configured to react to a stimulus and generate tooth movement forces. In some embodiments, the passive component is configured to deflect when placed on one or more teeth and generate tooth movement forces, which are combined with tooth movement forces of the force generating component. In some embodiments, the passive component comprises a polymer which…

Methods of forming appliances for arch expansion

Granted: February 18, 2025
Patent Number: 12226279
Systems, methods, and devices for producing appliances for expansion of the arch of a patient. Methods may include forming a shell from a prepolymer material, the shell including teeth receiving structures configured to receive at least a portion of the patient's teeth. The prepolymer material may be crosslinked to provide a first crosslinked polymer having a first degree of crosslinking. Methods may also include forming a force generating portion connected with the shell. The force…

Methods for orthodontic progress tracking

Granted: February 18, 2025
Patent Number: 12226277
A method may include generating a comparison of one or more anatomical reference shapes and one or more surface features on a planned dentition model with a corresponding one or more anatomical reference shapes and one or more surface features on a tracking dentition model using a coarse to fine volume 3D array to represent one or both of the plan model and the tracking model to minimize distances between teeth represented in the plan model and corresponding teeth represented in the…

Systems and methods for orthodontic and restorative treatment planning

Granted: February 11, 2025
Patent Number: 12220288
Systems and methods for planning a treatment for a patient's teeth are provided. In some embodiments, a method includes receiving input data representing an initial tooth arrangement of a patient's teeth. The method can include determining a target tooth arrangement for the patient's teeth, the target tooth arrangement including a change in mass of at least one tooth. The method can also include generating a plurality of intermediate tooth arrangements configured to adjust the patient's…

Portable intraoral scanning device

Granted: February 11, 2025
Patent Number: D1061895

Crystallizable resins

Granted: February 4, 2025
Patent Number: 12215223
This disclosure provides polymeric materials comprising polymer crystals, methods and resins for making the same, and objects and appliances made from said polymeric materials. Polymeric materials having polymer crystals provide favorable properties, such as enhanced durability and rigidity. This disclosure also provides polymeric materials comprising a crystalline phase comprising at least one polymer crystal, as well as an amorphous phase comprising at least one amorphous polymer. The…

Treatment plan generation using collision detection by shape filling

Granted: February 4, 2025
Patent Number: 12213856
Orthodontic and/or dental treatment planning methods and apparatuses. In particular, described herein are methods of generating a plurality of orthodontic treatment plans digitally using a hierarchy of bounding boxes enclosing the plurality of 3D shapes to avoid collisions during treatment.

Methods of manufacturing dental aligners

Granted: February 4, 2025
Patent Number: 12213855
Method of manufacturing a series of aligners for an orthodontic and/or dental treatment of a patient's teeth. In particular, described herein are methods of manufacturing a series of aligners that includes displaying images of the patient's teeth at the final stages for a subset of the treatment plans from the array of treatment plans in a manner that allows the user to select between the different treatment plans in order to select a treatment plan for fabrication.

Methods and systems for forming dental attachment formation apparatuses

Granted: February 4, 2025
Patent Number: 12213851
Methods and systems for forming dental attachment formation apparatuses. Methods may include creating a virtual dental attachment formation apparatus including a body having a surface shaped to conform to contours of a virtual model of a patient's dentition, a well in the body that is shaped to receive a dental attachment, and a light path directed through the body to the well. A physical dental attachment formation apparatus may be manufactured based on the virtual dental attachment…

Dental models for dental implant and related procedures

Granted: January 28, 2025
Patent Number: 12207980
A method may include generating a first virtual model of a dental structure of a patient from three-dimensional scan data, identifying a first virtual surface of the first virtual model corresponding to a first portion of the soft dental surfaces that surrounds a location of the restorative object, separating the identified first virtual surface of the soft dental surfaces from at least the portion associated with hard dental surfaces to create a second virtual model of a soft model part…

Generating teeth images colored based on teeth depth

Granted: January 28, 2025
Patent Number: 12211123
Embodiments include receiving image data comprising a representation of teeth, wherein the image data comprises a set of pixel locations for the teeth and depth values associated with the pixel locations in the set of pixel locations. The method further includes generating new image based on applying one or more functions to the image data, wherein the one or more functions adjust one or more color channels of the set of pixel locations based at least in part on the depth values.

Methods for manufacturing thermoformed objects

Granted: January 28, 2025
Patent Number: 12208542
Methods for manufacturing thermoformed objects are provided. In some embodiments, a method includes controlling a material transport system to move a material to a first location proximate to one or more heat sources. The method can include controlling the one or more heat sources to heat a first region of the material to a first temperature and heat a second region of the material to a second temperature. The method can also include controlling the material transport system to move the…

Methods and apparatuses for dental images

Granted: January 28, 2025
Patent Number: 12207986
Described herein are methods and apparatuses to obtain an image, or a set of images, of a user's teeth from one or more predetermined viewing angles. These methods and apparatuses may include guiding a user to capture a predetermined set of images of the user's teeth at specified views using an indicator that is output from a mobile telecommunications device, wherein the indicator indicates to the user one or more positions of the mobile telecommunications device relative to a mouth of…