Attachment structure
AssigneeAlign Technology, Inc.
InventorPeter Webber
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A series of appliances including a first shell and a second shell can be designed to incrementally implement a treatment plan. The first and second shells can have cavities designed to receive teeth of a jaw. The first shell can be designed to interface with a first surface of a plurality of surfaces of an attachment structure to provide a first engagement force specific to a first stage of the treatment plan. The second shell can be designed to interface with a second surface of the plurality of surfaces of the attachment structure attached to the at least one tooth of the first jaw to provide a second engagement force specific to a second stage of the treatment plan.
Claims20
A system, comprising:
- an appliance to incrementally implement a treatment plan, comprising a shell having a plurality of cavities therein designed to receive teeth of a jaw of a patient;
- and
- an attachment structure attached to at least one tooth of the jaw, wherein:
- the attachment structure includes a plurality of surfaces arranged about a center point of the attachment structure;
- and
- the shell is designed to interface with a surface of the plurality of surfaces to provide an engagement force specific to a stage of the treatment plan.
A non-transitory computing device readable medium having instructions stored thereon that are executable by a processor to cause a computing device to:
- position an attachment structure on at least one virtual tooth of a virtual model of a jaw, wherein the attachment structure includes a plurality of surfaces arranged about a center point of the attachment structure;
- activate a subset of the plurality of surfaces of the attachment structure at a stage of a treatment plan that is incremented in stages;
- and
- provide the virtual model of the jaw for fabrication of physical models corresponding to the jaw at the stage of the treatment plan for formation of appliances such that the appliance includes a shape designed to interface with the activated surfaces of the attachment structure.
A system, comprising:
- an appliance of a series of appliances designed to incrementally implement a treatment plan, comprising a shell having a plurality of cavities therein designed to receive teeth of a jaw in a stage of the treatment plan;
- and
- an attachment structure designed to be attached to at least one tooth of the jaw, wherein:
- the attachment structure includes a plurality of surfaces arranged about a center point of the attachment structure;
- and
- the shell is designed to interface with a subset of the plurality of surfaces of the attachment structure to provide an engagement force specific to the stage of the treatment plan.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.