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US 12,226,278 B2Granted
Orthodontic treatment system
AssigneeKLOwen Braces, Inc.
InventorBrandon Owen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A computer system and computerized method in which orthodontic treatment, including midcourse correction of one or more teeth in a dental arch fitted with a dental appliance, comprises a virtual simulation of a dental arch fitted with a virtual dental appliance in which each of the one or more teeth can be discretely moved from an initial position to a final position allowing modification of the fitted dental appliance by computerized selection of one or more brackets and production of a bonding tray adapted to hold the selected brackets in correspondence to determined bracket bonding locations in the virtual simulation of dental arch.
Claims14
A system for correcting malocclusion of teeth, comprising:
- a processor communicatively coupled to a non-transitory memory containing computer program executable to:
- convert captured images of a dental arch including a plurality of teeth fitted with existing braces interconnected by an existing archwire into a virtual dental arch including a plurality of virtual teeth fitted with virtual braces interconnected by a virtual archwire presented on a display surface of a display device;
- segregate each of said plurality of virtual teeth in said virtual dental arch to allow independent movement of a virtual tooth in said virtual dental arch;
- remove said virtual braces from said virtual tooth;
- move said virtual tooth within said plurality of virtual teeth from an initial position in said virtual dental arch to a final position in said virtual dental arch;
- identify a virtual bracket bonding location on said virtual tooth in said virtual dental arch based on movement of said virtual tooth from said initial position to said final position in said virtual dental arch;
- determine a three-dimension bracket volume to be filled by a virtual bracket at said virtual bracket bonding location with said virtual tooth in said final position in said virtual dental arch, said three-dimensional bracket volume delimited by a surface of said virtual tooth in said final position in said virtual dental arch and a location of:
- said virtual archwire crossing said virtual tooth;
- or
- said location of said virtual archwire crossing said virtual tooth extrapolated based upon a location of virtual archwire slots of said virtual braces on a pair of virtual teeth disposed on either side of said virtual tooth;
- or
- said location of said virtual archwire crossing said virtual tooth extrapolated based upon position of virtual archwire ends of said virtual archwire of said virtual braces on a pair of virtual teeth disposed on either side of said virtual tooth;
- and
- select a bracket from a plurality of brackets based on determination of said three-dimension bracket volume;
- and
- generate a digital model of a bonding jig configured to hold the selected bracket at said virtual bonding location on said virtual tooth;
- and
- a three-dimensional materials deposition apparatus configured to fabricate the bonding jig based on the digital model of the bonding jig.
15 more elements
A method of correcting malocclusion of teeth comprising:
- obtaining images of a dental arch including a plurality of teeth fitted with braces interconnected by an archwire;
- converting said images of a dental arch including said plurality of teeth fitted with braces into a virtual dental arch including a plurality of virtual teeth fitted with virtual braces interconnected by a virtual archwire presented on a display surface of a display device;
- segregating movement of each of said plurality of virtual teeth in said virtual dental arch to allow independent movement of a virtual tooth in said virtual dental arch;
- removing said virtual braces from a virtual tooth;
- moving, based on user interaction with said system, said virtual tooth from an initial position to a final position in said virtual dental arch;
- identifying a virtual bracket bonding location on said virtual tooth in said virtual dental arch based on movement of said virtual tooth from said initial position to said final position in said virtual dental arch;
- determining a three-dimension bracket volume to be filled by a virtual bracket at said virtual bracket bonding location with said virtual tooth in said final position in said virtual dental arch, said three dimensional bracket volume delimited by a surface of said virtual tooth in said final position in said virtual dental arch and a location of:
- said virtual archwire crossing said virtual tooth;
- or
- said location of said virtual archwire crossing said virtual tooth extrapolated based upon a location of virtual archwire slots of said virtual braces on a pair of virtual teeth disposed on either side of said virtual tooth;
- or
- said location of said virtual archwire crossing said tooth extrapolated based upon position of virtual archwire ends of said virtual archwire of said virtual braces on a pair of virtual teeth disposed on either side of said virtual tooth;
- selecting a bracket from a plurality of brackets based on determination of said three-dimension bracket volume;
- and
- bonding said bracket selected from said plurality of brackets to a physical tooth.
12 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.