Aligner material, cleanliness, and quality detection via aligner case
AssigneeAlign Technology, Inc.
InventorsJun Sato, Bruce Cam, Yaser Shanjani
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Embedded sensors and onboard or off-board processing in an aligner case can detect aligner material and/or quality. Material detection can be used for counterfeit detection, or to trigger material specific events. Quality detection can include detection of common aligner failures or defects. A case for a dental appliance may include a tray for supporting the dental appliance, a cover coupled to the tray, and at least one sensor to detect a deformation of the dental appliance. A case for a dental appliance may include a tray for housing the dental appliance, a cover coupled to the tray, and at least one sensor configured to detect a change in material of the dental appliance.
Claims27
A case for a dental appliance, the case comprising:
- a tray including a flat platform for supporting the dental appliance directly thereon;
- a cover coupled to the tray;
- and
- at least one contact sensor on the tray configured to detect positions of a plurality of contact points of the dental appliance between the dental appliance and the tray over time, the contact sensor couplable in electronic communication to a processor configured to determine a deformation of the dental appliance based on tracking a change in relative positions of the plurality of contact points of the dental appliance and the tray over time.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.