Loading patent…
AssigneeOrtho-Tain, Inc.
InventorEarl O. Bergersen
Estimating the term…
An apparatus, a system and a method are provided for automatic tooth straightening. An appliance may be placed on teeth to straighten teeth. The appliance may be fabricated manually or by stereolithography using a computer program that formulates a three-dimensional digital model. The appliance or series of appliances may be made to fit a particular patient wherein a portion of the appliance may be attached to fully erupted teeth that are substantially straight. The appliance may fit onto the teeth that do not require straightening using a section that may be made from relatively stiff material. The appliance may remain in the mouth in a relative constant position. The erupted teeth that require straightening may be straightened with a softer more resilient material so that fewer appliances may be required than if a stiffer material were used. The unerupted teeth may be guided into the mouth by another portion of the appliance that is preformed with predicted sizes and shapes of teeth determined from sizes of other erupted adult teeth and shapes from anatomical standards. A hard stiffer inner shell and/or a stiffer isthmus having a softer material is overlayed to directly contact the teeth.
A generally U-shaped orthodontic appliance worn on teeth in a mouth of a patient wherein at least one of the teeth require correcting and further wherein the orthodontic appliance has a plurality of layers of material, the orthodontic appliance comprising:
A method for correcting a position of a tooth in a mouth of a patient having teeth wherein one of the teeth has a correct position and one of the teeth has an incorrect position wherein the patient has a plurality of types of teeth wherein one of the types of the teeth is erupted teeth, the method comprising the steps of:
An orthodontic appliance for teeth of a patient having either a correct position or an incorrect position in the mouth of the patient, the appliance comprising:
A method for adjusting teeth of a patient, the method comprising the steps of:
A system for adjusting teeth of a patient, the system comprising:
A generally U-shaped orthodontic appliance for teeth of a patient having either a correct position or an incorrect position in the mouth of the patient wherein a predicted position is a correction of the incorrect position in the mouth, the orthodontic appliance comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.