Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090098502 | Software and Methods for Dental Treatment Planning - Computer-implemented methods to plan, display and evaluate orthodontic treatment plans. A plurality of teeth in a representation on a computer display may be moved simultaneously in accordance with a mathematically defined pattern. Software tools available to generate the treatment path may include adjusting the smile teeth, moving teeth along a curve fit to points in the mandible, individually moving a tooth, cross sectioning to check for interference and simulations of occlusal points, highlighting teeth that have moved from their original position, making notations on the teeth, and generating and saving animation sequences of before and after treatment tooth positions. | 04-16-2009 |
20120036719 | Torque Overcorrection Model - A custom orthodontic appliance comprised of brackets to be positioned on a patient's teeth, and an archwire, is customized to provide a desired torque to a tooth by selecting an angle for the slot of at least one bracket so as to provide a torque interaction between that bracket slot and the archwire. The torque interaction is computed to compensate for tooth tilt resulting from misalignment of the force vector applied by the archwire with the tooth center of resistance. The torque interaction is computed at the desired final position of the teeth, and may be computed to provide for an applied torque even where the tooth is positioned in the desired final tooth position to compensate for force diminution. Material properties of the archwire and the relative archwire slot geometry are evaluated to determine an archwire/slot angular offset in which torque is applied to the bracket. | 02-16-2012 |
20120123577 | CUSTOM ORTHODONTIC APPLIANCE FORMING METHOD AND APPARATUS - A method by which an orthodontic appliance is automatically designed and manufactured from digital lower jaw and tooth shape data of a patient provides for the scanning of the mouth of a patient to produce a three-dimensional digitized model of the shapes of the patient's teeth and their positions in the patient's mouth. The appliance is automatically designed according to the final design, which also can be interactively modified and approved by the orthodontist, with the computer recalculating the effects on the treatment as a result of the doctor's changes. Brackets are fabricated as an integrated set, either by cutting slots therein or by building the brackets in layers. Three-dimensional custom jigs are automatically made to exactly position the brackets on a patient's teeth. | 05-17-2012 |
20130078593 | Orthodontic Appliance and Method of Orthodontic Treatment with Same - An orthodontic aligner of the type that is deformable from its initial shape to a deformed shape when fitted upon a patient's teeth in order to apply a load to the teeth to move the teeth to an orthodontically preferred position is made from a polymeric material that generates a continuing elastic return stress driving toward the initial shape after a substantial period of continuous deformation, such as longer than one day and up to or exceeding two weeks. Elastic stress loads applied to teeth over such durations cause greater remodeling of the bone adjacent to a tooth's roots than is possible with known aligner materials. | 03-28-2013 |
20130095446 | Direct Manufacture of Orthodontic Aligner Appliance - A method for direct fabrication of an orthodontic device having tooth-fitting cavities, such as an aligner, using layer-by-layer printing of a single or multiple polymeric materials. The cavities of the appliance are defined by the boundaries of the multiple layers, encapsulating up to fourteen teeth of a patient, and shaped to apply a load to at least one tooth that is sufficient to cause movement of the tooth, and remodeling of the adjacent bone. A series of such appliances may be used to treat malocclusion of teeth, each directly manufactured appliance used in series to incrementally move one or more teeth from initial positions toward a desired final position. The appliance may be fabricated with a variety of disclosed materials, and may include auxiliary features for interaction with other orthodontic elements. | 04-18-2013 |
20130183633 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR THREE-DIMENSIONAL INTRA-ORAL IMAGING - A portable three-dimensional intra-oral imaging system is comprised of a processor, a housing encasing the processor, an imaging sensor extensibly coupled to the housing for capturing images, and a touchscreen display to display the images acquired by the imaging sensor. An arm is coupled to the housing and supports the touchscreen display, wherein the arm is configurable to be retracted and protracted to allow placement of the touchscreen display within a range of heights. A handle of the housing is provided for portability. | 07-18-2013 |
20130323671 | SPECTRAL FILTER FOR AN INTRA-ORAL IMAGING SYSTEM - An imaging device is coupled to a wand having an optical source that generates light at a metrology wavelength, wherein the wand is included in an intra-oral imaging system. The imaging device comprises a spectral filter that transmits the light of the metrology wavelength and blocks light of other wavelengths. The imaging device also comprises a lens coupled to the spectral filter. Additionally, the imaging device further comprises a sensor, wherein the light of the metrology wavelength is incident on the sensor after being transmitted through the lens and the spectral filter, and wherein the sensor converts the light of the metrology wavelength that is incident on the sensor, into electrical signals to generate intra-oral imagery. | 12-05-2013 |
20130330684 | MULTIFUNCTION WAND FOR AN INTRA-ORAL IMAGING SYSTEM - A wand having a housing is coupled to an intra-oral imaging system. The wand comprises a first device and a second device coupled to the housing. The first device is an intra-oral imaging device for capturing images of a patient's teeth, and the second device provides an additional function. | 12-12-2013 |
20140067335 | CUSTOM ORTHODONTIC APPLIANCE SYSTEM AND METHOD - Various features are provided for a custom orthodontic appliance manufacturing or designing system. These include features for inputting of data of patient anatomy and practitioner decisions, features for interactively or automatically manipulating data to arrive at applicant characteristics, and features for affecting design or manufacture of the appliance. | 03-06-2014 |
20140122027 | METHOD, SYSTEM, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT TO PERFORM DIGITAL ORTHODONTICS AT ONE OR MORE SITES - A set of rules to design an orthodontic appliance for generating an aesthetic smile is maintained in a computational device, where the set of rules is associated with an application that executes in the computational device. At least one measured value is computed from one or more features extracted by processing dental information of a patient. The application generates a parameter to design an orthodontic appliance based on the at least one measured value and the set of rules for generating the aesthetic smile. | 05-01-2014 |
20140169648 | INTEGRATION OF INTRA-ORAL IMAGERY AND VOLUMETRIC IMAGERY - Shape data of a patient's crown and volumetric imagery of the patient's tooth are received. A determination is made of elements that represent one or more crowns in the shape data. A computational device is used to register the elements with corresponding voxels of the volumetric imagery. A tooth shape is determined from volumetric coordinates and radiodensities. | 06-19-2014 |