Systems and methods for positioning teeth
AssigneeAlign Technology, Inc.
InventorZia Chishti
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A computer-implemented method treats teeth by generating a digital arrangement of teeth; specifying a sequence of tooth movements to move the teeth to a target arrangement; and generating one or more appliances in accordance with the specified sequence of tooth movements, the appliances comprise polymeric shells having cavities and wherein the cavities of successive shells have different geometries shaped to receive and resiliently reposition teeth from one arrangement to a successive arrangement.
Claims18
A computer-implemented method for producing appliances to treat teeth, comprising:
- specifying a sequence of tooth movements to move the teeth through a series of discrete tooth arrangements, wherein at least some of the tooth arrangements are represented by digital data sets, wherein specifying a sequence of tooth movements comprises moving teeth according to an optimization function;
- and
- producing one or more appliances in accordance with the digital data sets wherein the appliances comprise polymeric shells having cavities and wherein the cavities of successive shells have different geometries shaped to receive and resiliently reposition teeth from one tooth arrangement to a successive tooth arrangement.
A computer-implemented method for producing appliances to treat teeth, comprising:
- specifying a sequence of tooth movements to move the teeth through a series of discrete tooth arrangements, wherein at least some of the tooth arrangements are represented by digital data sets,
- generating subsequent digital data sets based on prior digital data sets until a final digital data set representing an acceptable tooth arrangement is achieved;
- and
- producing one or more appliances in accordance with the digital data sets wherein the appliances comprise polymeric shells having cavities and wherein the cavities of successive shells have different geometries shaped to receive and resiliently reposition teeth from one tooth arrangement to a successive tooth arrangement.
An apparatus for producing appliances to treat teeth, the apparatus comprising:
- means for generating a digital arrangement of teeth;
- means for specifying a sequence of tooth movements to move the teeth to a target arrangement according to an optimization function;
- and
- means for generating one or more appliances in accordance with the specified sequence of tooth movements, the appliances comprise polymeric shells having cavities and wherein the cavities of successive shells have different geometries shaped to receive and resiliently reposition teeth from one arrangement to a successive arrangement.
A computer program product, tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium, for producing appliances to treat teeth, comprising instructions operable to cause a programmable processor to:
- generate a digital arrangement of teeth;
- specify a sequence of tooth movements to move the teeth to a target arrangement according to an optimization function;
- and
- generate one or more appliances in accordance with the specified sequence of tooth movements, the appliances comprise polymeric shells having cavities and wherein the cavities of successive shells have different geometries shaped to receive and resiliently reposition teeth from one arrangement to a successive arrangement.
A system for treating teeth, comprising:
- a processor;
- a display device coupled to the processor;
- and
- a data storage device coupled to the processor, the data storage device storing instructions operable to cause the processor to:
- generate a digital arrangement of teeth;
- specify a sequence of tooth movements to move the teeth to a target arrangement according to an optimization function;
- and
- generate one or more appliances in accordance with the specified sequence of tooth movements, the appliances comprise polymeric shells having cavities and wherein the cavities of successive shells have different geometries shaped to receive and resiliently reposition teeth from one arrangement to a successive arrangement.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.