Dental imaging instrument having an air stream auxiliary
AssigneeAlign Technology, Inc.
InventorsNoam Babayoff, Eldad Taub, Avi Kopelman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A dental instrument and method for imaging the three-dimensional topography of one or more teeth in the oral cavity of an individual is provided. The instrument includes a probe insertable into the oral cavity to receive the image of these surfaces which can then be processed. Combined with the probe is an auxiliary which projects an air stream toward the surface to be imaged by the probe and acts to evaporate and remove from these surfaces a liquid film coating formed by saliva and other fluids present in the oral cavity, to render these surfaces dry and to enhance their reflectivity and in doing so, provide clearer images.
Claims21
1-18. (canceled)
A dental instrument for determining three dimensional (3D) topography of one or more teeth, said instrument comprising:
- a probe head having a sensing face configured to transmit incident light onto surfaces of the one or more teeth and to transmit reflected light that is incident light reflected from the surfaces of the one or more teeth;
- a detector configured to capture the light reflected from surfaces of the one or more teeth in order to determine 3D topography of the surfaces of the one or more teeth;
- and
- an auxiliary coupled to the probe so as to direct a stream of heated gas over the sensing face, to dry the sensing face.
The instrument according to claim 91, wherein the auxiliary includes a pair of nozzles mounted on opposite sides of the probe.
A method for determining a three-dimensional (3D) surface topography of a tooth surface, the method comprising:
- directing incident beams of light through an external optical sensing face of a intraoral scanner and toward the tooth surface;
- acquiring a plurality of images of the tooth surface by detecting light reflected from the tooth surface with the probe to determine 3D topography of the tooth surface, the reflected light being reflected incident light beams;
- and
- flowing a first stream of heated gas over the tooth surface using an auxiliary coupled to the probe over the external sensing face to dry the external sensing face.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.