3D dental scanner
OwnerDuane Durbin, Dennis Durbin +2inventors
InventorsDuane Durbin, Dennis Durbin, Arun Dalmia, Edwin Childers
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Abstract
Systems and methods for optically imaging a dental structure within an oral cavity by moving one or more image apertures on an arm coupled to a fixed coordinate reference frame external to the oral cavity; determining the position of the one or more image apertures using the fixed external coordinate reference frame; capturing one or more images of the dental structure through one or more of the image apertures; and generating a 3D model of the dental structure based on the captured images.
Claims30
A method for optically imaging a dental structure within an oral cavity, comprising:
- moving one or more image apertures on an arm coupled to a fixed coordinate reference frame external to the oral cavity;
- determining the position of the one or more image apertures using the fixed coordinate reference frame;
- capturing one or more images of the dental structure through one or more of the image apertures;
- and
- generating a 3D model of the dental structure based on the captured images.
The method of claim 11, comprising stabilizing patient jaws with the bite fixture during an image capture scan.
A scanner system to generate a 3D model of teeth, comprising:
- a reference plate having position fiducials marked thereon;
- a position sensor coupled to the reference plate to read the fiducials and determine position;
- a support arm coupled to the reference plate, the support arm having an intra-oral end;
- a scanner probe positioned on the intra-oral end of the support arm;
- and
- a motor coupled to the support arm to move the scanner probe on the intra-oral end of the support arm inside an oral cavity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.