Enhanced tooth shade guide
AssigneeIvoclar Vivadent AG
InventorLee Culp
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The invention relates to an enhanced electronic shade guide that includes addtitional hue-chroma information between the shades of existing shade guides and value information for the measured tooth. The shade guide provides a recipe for constructing a restoration or replacement for the tooth. A comparison of the patient's tooth to the stored tooth shades is preferably performed electronically by a suitable software program that contains the shade guide information of the present invention.
Claims18
A method for determining a patient's tooth color, which comprises:
- generating an electronic image of a patient's tooth wherein the image includes color information representative of the patient's tooth color;
- storing a shade guide comprising a plurality of shades which include hue, chroma, and value information, wherein the hue, chroma, and value information are presented in a matrix where hue and chroma are on one axis and value is on another axis;
- and
- comparing the color information of the image with the stored hue, chroma, and value information of the shade guide to identify one or more tooth shades having colors that correspond to those of portions of the patient's tooth.
A shade guide for determining tooth color comprising a plurality of shades which include hue, chroma, and value information, wherein the hue, chroma, and value information are presented in a matrix where hue and chroma are on one axis and value is on another axis.
A system for determining a patient's tooth color, comprising:
- a camera having a lens for capturing an image of a patient's tooth, the image including color information representative of the patient's tooth color, and
- a shade analyzer sub-system connected for electrical communication with the camera, the shade analyzer having:
- (i) a color processor for determining the patient's tooth color from the color information of the image,
- (ii) a storage medium for storing a shade guide comprising a plurality of tooth shades which include hue, chroma, and value information, wherein the hue, chroma, and value information are presented in a matrix where hue and chroma are on one axis and value is on another axis,
- (iii) a color correlator for comparing the color of the patient's tooth to the hue, chroma, and value information of the shade guide to identify one or more tooth shades having colors corresponding to the patient's tooth color, and
- (iv) means for communicating the identified tooth shades to a user of the system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.