Tools and automation for tooth setup

A method for setting up a digital dental model, the method comprising:

• receiving, at a treatment planning and appliance design system, a digital dental model for a patient and motion data corresponding to a series of jaw movements performed by the patient and recorded by a motion capture system, wherein the digital dental model comprises (i) a plurality of digital tooth models that each represent an individual tooth, (ii) upper dental arch information (a) identifying a first subset of the plurality of digital tooth models as upper teeth and (b) defining a position and orientation for the upper teeth relative to each other, and (iii) lower dental arch information (a) identifying a second subset of the plurality of digital tooth models as lower teeth and (b) defining a position and orientation for the lower teeth relative to each other;
• identifying, by the treatment planning and appliance design system, tooth landmarks for the plurality of digital tooth models based on the upper dental arch information and the lower dental arch information, wherein the tooth landmarks include cusp tip landmarks;
• determining, by the treatment planning and appliance design system, curves of Spee and Wilson for the digital dental model based on the cusp tip landmarks;
• determining, by the treatment planning and appliance design system, a curved occlusal surface based on the curves of Spee and Wilson;
• positioning, by the treatment planning and appliance design system, (i) the first subset of the plurality of digital tooth models representing the upper teeth and (ii) the second subset of the plurality of digital tooth models representing the lower teeth in the digital dental model based on the curved occlusal surface;
• iteratively repositioning, by the treatment planning and appliance design system, at least a first portion of the digital dental model comprising the first subset of the plurality of digital tooth models by adjusting the position and orientation for the upper teeth relative to each other;
• iteratively repositioning, by the treatment planning and appliance design system, at least a second portion of the digital dental model comprising the second subset of the plurality of digital tooth models by adjusting the position and orientation for the upper teeth relative to each other and relative to the adjusted position and orientation of the first subset of the plurality of digital tooth models;
• receiving, by the treatment planning and appliance design system, user input indicating selection of at least one tooth represented by the digital dental model as a moveable tooth, wherein the movable tooth is moveable within a position, by the computing system, when the motion data is applied to the digital dental model;
• receiving, by the treatment planning and appliance design system, user input indicating selection of a second tooth as a fixed tooth, wherein the fixed tooth remains in a fixed position when the motion data is applied to the digital dental model;
• automatically moving, by the treatment planning and appliance design system, the selected at least one tooth that corresponds the moveable tooth;
• automatically adjusting, by the treatment planning and appliance design system, the position of the moveable tooth based on detecting at least one collision of the moveable tooth with other teeth represented by the digital dental model when the motion data is applied to the digital dental model, wherein the computing system determines the adjusted position of the moveable tooth as a new position of the moveable tooth in which the moveable tooth does not interfere with the other teeth represented by the digital dental model;
• and
• returning, by the treatment planning and appliance design system, the repositioned digital dental model as appliance data configured to be used by a fabrication system to fabricate a dental appliance corresponding to the repositioned digital dental model.