Systems and Methods for Laterally Offset Aligner Hooks

Abstract

A method of designing a patient removable tooth positioning appliance may include receiving a digital representation of teeth of the patient in a selected arrangement and modeling the patient removable tooth positioning appliance having tooth receiving cavities shaped to receive and apply a resilient positioning force to the teeth of the patient based on the digital representation. The method may also include modeling a hook integral to the patient removable tooth positioning appliance and configured to interface with an elastic member so as to react a force from the elastic member into the appliance. The hook may be configured to be laterally offset from a portion of a tooth receiving cavity of the tooth receiving cavities. The method may also include outputting a three-dimensional representation of the patient removable tooth positioning appliance having the hook for fabrication by one or more fabrication machines.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.