US 2014/0154637 A1 · ORTHODONTIC ARCHWIRES WITH REDUCED INTERFERENCE AND RELATED METHODS

Abstract

Provided are customized archwires that facilitate wire insertion into fixed appliances and sliding mechanics during the course of orthodontic treatment. These archwires are harmonized with lingual appliances by modifying the archwire shape to alleviate the adverse effects of bends and archwire length discrepancy while maintaining the overall archwire shape. This in turn can be accomplished by selecting one or more segments of an archwire shape from a library, strategically adjusting arch length, performing morphing or smoothing operations on a wire configuration intended for final occlusion, and combinations thereof.

Claims29

Dependent claims

A method of making an orthodontic archwire, the method comprising:

providing a first archwire shape associated with specified positions of a patient's teeth;
defining a permissible range for an interference parameter relating to archwire shape that provides adequate archwire sliding within an archwire slot having a predetermined dimension;
determining that the first archwire shape has an interference parameter that extends outside the permissible range;
and
modifying at least a portion of the first archwire shape whose interference parameter extends outside the permissible range to an archwire shape whereby the interference parameter no longer extends outside the permissible range.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Orthodontic archwires with reduced interference and related methods

Life of this patent

Orthodontic archwires with reduced interference and related methods

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims29