Mold with weakened region
AssigneeAlign Technology, Inc.
InventorsPeter Webber, Rohit Tanugula, Shiva P. Sambu, Crystal Tjhia
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A mold is for thermoforming a dental appliance. The mold includes a first section of the mold and a second section of the mold. The second section includes a feature having a complex shape, an undercut, or a bite edge. The mold further includes a weakened region that joins the first section to the second section. The weakened region is breakable, deflectable, or deformable in response to a first threshold force to enable the first section and the second section to be removed from the dental appliance after the dental appliance is formed over the mold. The first threshold force is less than a second threshold force that would damage or permanently deform the dental appliance.
Claims20
A method of fabricating a shell, the method comprising:
- forming the shell over a mold of a plurality of teeth of a dental arch for a patient,
- wherein a first section of the mold is joined to a second section of the mold by a weakened region that is breakable,
- deflectable, or
- deformable by application of a first threshold force that is less than a second threshold force that would damage or permanently deform the shell,
- the first section being of at least a portion of one or more first teeth of the plurality of teeth of the dental arch, and the second section being of at least a portion of one or more second teeth of the plurality of teeth of the dental arch;
- breaking, deflecting, or deforming the mold at the weakened region to enable the first section of the mold to at least partially move relative to the second section of the mold;
- and
- removing the first section of the mold from the shell.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions which,
- when executed by a processing device coupled to memory,
- cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:
- causing formation of a shell over a mold of a plurality of teeth of a dental arch for a patient,
- wherein a first section of the mold is joined to a second section of the mold by a weakened region that is breakable,
- deflectable, or
- deformable by application of a first threshold force that is less than a second threshold force that would damage or permanently deform the shell,
- the first section being of at least a portion of one or more first teeth of the plurality of teeth of the dental arch, and
- the second section being of at least a portion of one or more second teeth of the plurality of teeth of the dental arch;
- causing breaking, deflecting, or deforming of the mold at the weakened region to enable the first section of the mold to at least partially move relative to the second section of the mold;
- and
- causing removal of the first section of the mold from the shell.
A computing device comprising:
- memory;
- and
- a processing device coupled to the memory, wherein the processing device is to:
- cause formation of a shell over a mold of a plurality of teeth of a dental arch for a patient,
- wherein a first section of the mold is joined to a second section of the mold by a weakened region that is breakable, deflectable, or
- deformable by application of a first threshold force that is less than a second threshold force that would damage or permanently deform the shell,
- the first section being of at least a portion of one or more first teeth of the plurality of teeth of the dental arch, and the second section being of at least a portion of one or more second teeth of the plurality of teeth of the dental arch;
- cause breaking,
- deflecting, or
- deforming of the mold at the weakened region to enable the first section of the mold to at least partially move relative to the second section of the mold;
- and
- cause removal of the first section of the mold from the shell.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.