Methods of manufacturing dental aligners

A method of manufacturing a series of aligners for a patient's teeth, the method comprising:

• transmitting a model of the patient's teeth to a remote site;
• receiving, from the remote site, an array of treatment plans specific to the patient's teeth, wherein each treatment plan in the array describes a set of sequential stages for orthodontic movement of the patient's teeth, including a final stage, further wherein at least three of the treatment plans have different numbers of sequential stages, and further wherein the final stages of the treatment plans within the array of treatment plans are different;
• displaying, on a screen, images of the patient's teeth at the final stages for a first subset of the treatment plans from the array of treatment plans;
• receiving, from a user, a selection to modify one or more treatment parameters for the first subset of the treatment plans;
• displaying, on the screen, one or more modified images of the patient's teeth at the final stages based on the received selection to modify the one or more treatment parameters for the first subset of the treatment plans;
• receiving, from the user, a selection of two or more treatment plans from the first subset of the treatment plans using one or more controls on the screen;
• displaying, to the patient, the two or more treatment plans and annotations describing changes in the final stage of each of the two or more treatment plans compared to the model of the patient's teeth;
• and
• fabricating the series of aligners based on a selected one of the two or more displayed treatment plans selected by the patient.

A method of manufacturing a series of aligners for a patient's teeth, the method comprising:

• receiving, in a processor, an array of treatment plans specific to the patient's teeth, wherein each treatment plan in the array describes a set of sequential stages for orthodontic movement of the patient's teeth, including a final stage, further wherein at least three of the treatment plans have different numbers of sequential stages, and further wherein the final stages of the treatment plans within the array of treatment plans are different;
• displaying, on a screen, images of the patient's teeth at the final stages for a first subset of the treatment plans from the array of treatment plans;
• receiving, from a user, a selection to modify one or more treatment parameters for the first subset of the treatment plans;
• determining that the modifications of the one or more treatment parameters requires recalculating one or more treatment plans of the array of treatment plans;
• transmitting the modifications of the one or more treatment parameters to a treatment planning subsystem to generate one or more additional treatment plans based on the modifications;
• displaying, on the screen, images of the patient's teeth at the final stages for a second subset of the treatment plans from the one or more additional treatment plans;
• receiving, from the user, a selection of two or more treatment plans from the second subset of the treatment plans using one or more controls on the screen;
• displaying, to the patient, the two or more treatment plans;
• and
• fabricating the series of aligners based on a selected one of the two or more displayed treatment plans selected by the patient.