Systems and methods for accounting for changes in surface topology when scanning a patient's teeth

A system for accounting for changes in surface topology when scanning a patient's teeth for a dental procedure, the system comprising:

• a hand-held intraoral scanner;
• and
• a computer readable medium including instructions that when executed by a computer system, causes the computer system to:
• receive first scan data of a first surface portion and a second surface portion of the patient's intraoral cavity from the hand-held intraoral scanner, the first surface portion having a first surface topology, the first scan data associated with a first plurality of captured images of the patient's intraoral cavity;
• display a first model of the patient's intraoral cavity, wherein the first model of the patient's intraoral cavity is based on the received first scan data of the patient's teeth and comprises surface data representative of the first surface portion and the second surface portion;
• receive user input, via the displayed first model, demarcating the surface data representative of the first surface portion and the surface data representative of the second surface portion;
• receive second scan data of the patient's intraoral cavity from the hand-held intraoral scanner, the second scan data including surface data of the first surface portion, the second scan data associated with a second plurality of captured images of the patient's intraoral cavity;
• update the first model by modifying only at least a portion of the surface data representative of the first surface portion according to the user input using at least a portion of the second scan data of the patient's intraoral cavity including the first surface portion;
• and
• output the updated first model of the patient's teeth with the at least the portion of the surface data updated using the received second scan data.

A system for accounting for changes in surface topology when intraorally scanning a patient's teeth for a dental procedure, the system comprising:

• a hand-held intraoral scanner;
• and
• a computer readable medium including instructions that when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to:
• receive first scan data of a first surface portion and a second surface portion of the patient's intraoral cavity from the hand-held intraoral scanner, the first surface portion having a first surface topology, the first scan data associated with a first plurality of captured images of the patient's intraoral cavity;
• display, to a display, a first model of the patient's intraoral cavity, wherein the first model of the patient's intraoral cavity is based on the received first scan data of the patient's intraoral cavity and comprises surface data representative of the first surface portion and the second surface portion;
• receive user input defining the surface data representative of the first surface portion having the surface data representative of the first surface topology;
• receive second scan data of the patient's teeth from the hand-held intraoral scanner, the second scan data comprising the first surface portion being associated with a second plurality of captured images of the patient's intraoral cavity;
• register the second scan data with the first model by aligning identifying data of the second scan data with corresponding parts of the first model;
• update the first model by modifying only at least a portion of the first surface portion having the first surface topology of the first model using at least a portion of the received second scan data of the patient's teeth including the first surface portion by removing at least the surface data representative of the first surface portion having the first surface topology and replacing at least a portion of the removed surface portion using at least a portion of the received second scan data of the patient's teeth;
• discarding a remainder of the second scan data, including the identifying data, after registering the second scan data with the first model;
• and
• display, to the display, the updated first model of the patient's teeth with the portion of the first surface portion having a first surface topology updated using the first surface portion of the second scan data.