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US 11,379,097 B2Granted
Treatment of teeth by aligners
AssigneeAlign Technology, Inc.
InventorsHuafeng Wen, Frank Zhenhuan Liu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for treating a subject's teeth. A target configuration for the subject's teeth is determined. Receiving features are produced on a dental base in response to the target configuration, the receiving features being configured to receive physical tooth models. The physical tooth models are assembled on the dental base to form a physical arch model. A dental aligner is produced using the physical arch model to move the subject's teeth to the target configuration.
Claims9
A dental treatment system for moving a subject's teeth, comprising:
- a physical arch model comprising:
- a dental base having a plurality of receiving features;
- and
- physical tooth models configured to be securely attached to the dental base, wherein:
- the plurality of receiving features are shaped to be complementary to the physical tooth models, and are located and oriented to affix at least one of the physical tooth models in a plurality of different configurations, wherein at least one of the plurality of configurations corresponds to an intermediate configuration, and wherein at least one of the plurality of configurations corresponds to a target configuration, wherein the intermediate and target configurations correspond to different tooth positions in an orthodontic treatment plan;
- and
- a dental aligner produced using the physical arch model, configured to move the subject's teeth according to the orthodontic treatment plan.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.