Orthodontic appliance performance monitor
AssigneeAlign Technology, Inc.
InventorsYaser SHANJANI, Bruce CAM, Allen R. BORONKAY, Jun SATO, John Y. MORTON, Chunhua LI, Srinivas KAZA
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Apparatuses and methods for monitoring the performance of an orthodontic appliance for repositioning a patient's teeth. An orthodontic appliance may include a plurality of teeth receiving cavities shaped to reposition the patient's teeth from an initial arrangement towards a target arrangement, and one or more sensors configured to determine tooth movement (based on position and/or orientation) and/or forces applied to the teeth. The sensor may be distributed between attachments and aligners that mate with the attachments.
Claims29
An orthodontic apparatus for repositioning a patient's teeth and for sensing one or more characteristic from the patient's oral cavity, the apparatus comprising:
- an aligner body comprising a plurality of teeth receiving cavities shaped to reposition the patient's teeth from an initial arrangement towards a target arrangement, the aligner body having an engagement site;
- an attachment configured to be bonded to the patients teeth and to engage with the engagement site on the aligner body;
- a sensor configured to generate sensor data;
- a processor configured to receive the sensor data from the sensor and do one or more of:
- store, analyze and transmit the received sensor data;
- and
- a first electrical contact on the attachment and a second electrical contact on the aligner body, wherein the first electrical contact and the second electrical contact form an electrical connection when the attachment is engaged with the engagement site;
- wherein the sensor is on either the attachment or the aligner and wherein the sensor is in electrical communication with the processor through the electrical connection formed by the first electrical contact and the second electrical contact when the attachment is engaged with the engagement site.
An orthodontic apparatus for repositioning a patient's teeth and for sensing one or more characteristic from the patient's oral cavity, the apparatus comprising:
- an aligner body comprising a plurality of teeth receiving cavities shaped to reposition the patient's teeth from an initial arrangement towards a target arrangement, the aligner body having an engagement site;
- an attachment configured to be bonded to the patients teeth and to engage with the engagement site on the aligner body;
- a sensor on the attachment configured to generate sensor data;
- a processor on the aligner configured to receive the sensor data from the sensor and do one or more of:
- store, analyze and transmit the received sensor data;
- and
- a first electrical contact on the attachment and a second electrical contact on the aligner body, wherein the first electrical contact and the second electrical contact form an electrical connection when the attachment is engaged with the engagement site;
- wherein the sensor is in electrical communication with the processor through the electrical connection formed by the first electrical contact and the second electrical contact when the attachment is engaged with the engagement site.
An orthodontic apparatus for repositioning a patient's teeth and tracking tooth movement, the apparatus comprising:
- an aligner body comprising a plurality of teeth receiving cavities shaped to reposition the patient's teeth from an initial arrangement towards a target arrangement;
- a plurality of movement sensors coupled to the aligner body or configured to couple with the aligner body, wherein each movement sensor is configured to generate movement sensor data indicating one or more of:
- a position of the patient's tooth and an orientation of the patient's tooth;
- and
- a processor configured to receive and store the movement sensor data and to determine tooth movement from the movement sensor data.
-110. (canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.