Align Technology, Inc.

Immersion Corporation

Caliper Life Sciences, Inc.

Canon U.S. Life Sciences, Inc.

Virtual Technologies, Inc.

Other

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.

Canon U.s.a., Inc.

Integenx, Inc.

Allen R Boronkay

Yaser Shanjani

Srinivas Kaza

Avi Kopelman

Jun Sato

Chunhua Li

Eric E Kuo

John Y Morton

Ryan Kimura

Jihua Cheng

Bruce Cam

Vadim Matov

Peter Webber

Crystal Tjhia

Mitra Derakhshan

Ken Wu

Andrew Jang

Eric Yau

Victor Chen

Michael R Knapp

Steven A Sundberg

Edward P Donlon

Bastien Pesenti

Wesley Bryan Dong

Aaron J Rulison

Ivor T Knight

Reza Shirazi Aghjari

Deborah John Boles

Robert John Moti

Michael Slater

Andrew Fabans

Vladimir Shelbakh

James F Kramer

Fuming Wu

John Meron Ananny

Tzishing Jesse Lim

Gleb Krivovyaz

Paul L Korff

Loren F Bentley

Conor McNamara

Bruce M Schena

Yan Chen

Christopher J Hasser

Huizhong Li

Andrea W Chow

Stevan Bogdan Jovanovich

Michael Christopher Cole

Colin B Kennedy

Michael A Spaid

Rohit Tanugula

Morten Juel Jensen

Jeremy Riley

Yuxiang Wang

Iuliu Ioan Blaga

Matthew Latham

Seth Stern

Carlton F Brooks

Siobhan O'Leary

Yevgeny Yurkovetsky

Ken Swartz

Paula Alvarado

Systems and methods for fabricating dental appliances are provided. In some embodiments, a method includes determining an appliance geometry for a dental appliance, where the appliance geometry includes a first region representing a first shell portion having a first set of cavities configured to receive one or more first teeth at a first side of a dental arch of a patient, a second region representing a second shell portion having a second set of cavities configured to receive one or more second teeth at a second side of the dental arch, and a third region representing an integrally formed arch expander configured to exert forces to increase a width of the dental arch. The method can also include generating instructions for fabricating the dental appliance having the appliance geometry via an additive manufacturing process, and using the instructions to instruct a fabrication system to fabricate the dental appliance.

Methods and systems for fabricating dental appliances with integrally formed arch expander

Dental appliances for treatment of a patient's dentition are provided. In some embodiments, a dental appliance includes a plurality of 3D printed polymer layers, where the plurality of 3D printed polymer layers includes a plurality of sequentially polymerized appliance cross-sections. The dental appliance can include an appliance shell formed from the plurality of sequentially polymerized appliance cross-sections. The appliance shell can include a plurality of tooth receiving cavities formed from the plurality of sequentially polymerized appliance cross-sections, the plurality of tooth receiving cavities arranged to receive a dentition and to exert one or more forces on the dentition, and a plurality of variable thickness regions formed from the plurality of sequentially polymerized appliance cross-sections. The plurality of variable thickness regions can include a corresponding plurality of different appliance thicknesses, and the plurality of variable thickness regions can be arranged to implement one or more treatment outcomes.

3D printed dental appliances with variable thickness regions

Orthodontic appliance cases configured to receive the orthodontic appliance and systems including them may include: a first antenna configured to receive the data from the sensor module via near field communication (NFC) when the orthodontic appliance including the sensor module is within the orthodontic appliance case, a data store configured to store the data; and a second antenna configured to transmit the stored data to an external computing device via Bluetooth communication when the external computing device is within communication range of the second antenna; and may also include an NFC to Bluetooth transmission circuitry.

Systems including orthodontic appliance cases and methods of use

Methods of planning dental treatments are provided. In some embodiments, a method includes determining a plurality of stages for incremental repositioning of a patient's teeth. The method can include determining, for at least one stage, a shape of a corresponding dental appliance body, and generating instructions for direct fabrication of the dental appliance body. The dental appliance body can include a support formed in a tooth-receiving cavity, one or more coupling structures formed proximate to the support, and an attachment formed proximate to the one or more coupling structures. The dental appliance body can be configured to align the attachment to a predetermined location on a tooth. The one or more coupling structures can be configured to release the attachment with removal of the dental appliance body from the tooth.

Methods for designing attachment placement appliances

Tooth attachments are provided comprising one or more convex surfaces for engagement by a surface of an orthodontic appliance. Polymeric shell appliances are provided in which the polymeric shell appliances are configured to provide one or more activation forces to facilitate tooth movement. The polymeric shell appliances may comprise one or more tooth receiving cavities. The polymeric shell appliances may further comprise an engagement portion with a surface configured to engage a convex attachment surface in order to apply a tooth moving force.

Variable direction tooth attachments

A method may include identifying a jaw position of a misaligned jaw of a patient from the virtual image of the patient's jaw and providing a treatment plan. The treatment plan may include tooth repositioning forces and jaw repositioning forces. The method may also include virtually modeling application of jaw repositioning forces between a first repositioning jaw element and a second repositioning jaw element to obtain a virtual model of the application of the jaw repositioning forces on the virtual model of the patient's jaw, identifying one or more constraints limiting the application of the jaw repositioning forces to the misaligned jaw, and adjusting the first repositioning jaw element and the second repositioning jaw element to accommodate the one or more constraints.

Methods and devices for jaw repositioning

Systems for determining patient compliance with an orthodontic treatment or retention plan may include a polymeric shell appliance for receiving the patient's teeth, a sensor module on the polymeric shell appliance having a temperature sensor, a proximity sensor, a power source, and a communication antenna for communicating with an external case, and a processor configured to determine that the polymeric shell is being worn by the patient based on temperature data from the temperature sensor and proximity data from the proximity sensor, by determining that a measured temperature is within a body temperature range and that a measured proximity value is within a threshold proximity to an intraoral target. Methods of manufacturing these dental appliances are also described herein.

Systems for determining patient compliance with an orthodontic treatment or retention plan

Systems, methods, and devices for producing appliances for expansion of the arch of a patient. Methods may include forming a shell from a prepolymer material, the shell including teeth receiving structures configured to receive at least a portion of the patient's teeth. The prepolymer material may be crosslinked to provide a first crosslinked polymer having a first degree of crosslinking. Methods may also include forming a force generating portion connected with the shell. The force generating portion may be configured to span a space between opposing posterior teeth of the patient and to apply an expansion force between the opposing posterior teeth of the patient. The force generating portion may be formed from the same prepolymer material as the shell. Forming the force generating portion may include varying crosslinking to provide a second crosslinked polymer having a second degree of crosslinking that is different than the first degree of crosslinking.

Methods of forming appliances for arch expansion

A mandibular repositioning apparatus may include anchoring devices shaped for positioning in an intraoral cavity of a patient. Each of the anchoring devices may be configured to be positioned in a respective bone of a respective jaw of the patients. The mandibular repositioning apparatus may include one or more connecting structures configured to displace a lower jaw in an anterior-posterior direction relative to an upper jaw. The one or more connecting structures and the anchoring devices may be configured to be arranged to produce an anterior-posterior force component to move the lower jaw that is greater than a vertical force component.

Mandibular repositioning via bone anchoring devices

Systems for fabricating dental appliances are provided. In some embodiments, a system comprising one or more processors, and a memory operably coupled to the one or more processors and storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to determine an appliance geometry for a dental appliance including a shell configured to move the patient's teeth from an initial arrangement toward a target arrangement. The appliance geometry can include a first power arm having a first connection point for connecting to the shell, a second power arm having a second connection point for connecting to the shell or to a tooth, an elongate connecting structure coupled to the first and second power arms, and an elongate counter-force connector coupled to the first power arm and extending toward the second power arm.

Systems for fabricating orthodontic appliances with power arms

Methods and systems for imaging removable dental appliances. Image data taken while a removable dental appliance was worn on a patient's teeth may be used to identify one or more locations of undesirable contact between the removable dental appliance and the patient's teeth and/or one or more attachments on the patient's teeth. The one or more locations of undesirable contact can correlate with undesirable tooth movement compared to expected tooth movement according to a treatment plan. A three-dimensional (3D) model of the removable dental appliance and the patient's teeth may be displayed on a user interface, with the identified one or more locations of undesirable contact highlighted in the 3D model. An alert of the identified one or more locations of undesirable contact may be emitted via the user interface.

Methods and systems for imaging removable dental appliances

Methods and systems for digitally designing a plurality of aligners are provided. In some embodiments, a method includes receiving an intraoral scan of the patient's teeth, and generating 3D dental model of the patient's teeth using the intraoral scan. The method can include identifying a movement path to move the patient's teeth from an initial arrangement toward a target arrangement through a plurality of intermediate arrangements in accordance with a treatment plan. The method can also include identifying one or more appliance features of at least one aligner, the one or more appliance features including one or more feature regions having one or more feature thicknesses. The method can further include instructing an additive manufacturing machine to directly fabricate the at least one aligner in a layer-by-layer fashion.

Methods for direct fabrication of dental appliances with varying feature thicknesses and associated systems

Systems, methods, and devices for improved orthodontic treatment of a patient's teeth are provided herein. In some embodiments, a method includes determining an appliance geometry for a dental appliance. The appliance geometry can include a first region representing a shell comprising a plurality of teeth receiving cavities, and a second region representing at least one integrally formed component to be integrally joined to the shell. The method can also include generating instructions including a first digital representation of the shell based on the first region, and a second digital representation of the at least one integrally formed component based on the second region. The method can further include transmitting the instructions to a fabrication system configured to additively manufacture the dental appliance by fabricating the shell based on the first digital representation, concurrently with fabricating the at least one integrally formed component based on the second digital representation.

Methods for fabricating dental appliances with integrally formed components

Methods for designing orthodontic appliances for repositioning a patient's teeth are provided. In some embodiments, a method includes determining a movement path to move one or more teeth from an initial arrangement to a target arrangement, determining a force system to produce movement of the one or more teeth along the movement path, and determining an appliance geometry for an orthodontic appliance configured to produce the force system. The orthodontic appliance can include an outer shell comprising a plurality of teeth-receiving cavities and an inner structure positioned on an inner surface of the outer shell. The inner structure can have an elastic modulus different than an elastic modulus of the outer shell. The method can also include generating instructions for directly fabricating the orthodontic appliance using a layer-by-layer additive manufacturing technique.

Methods for designing multi-material aligners

According to the techniques herein, one or more sensors coupled to an aligner are used to sense one or more physical qualities of the aligner to determine whether the physical qualities indicate that the aligner material has relaxed and has, e.g., reduced the force systems applied to teeth and/or that the teeth movement for the stage has slowed down. The sensors may provide a signal that represents whether or not the physical qualities fall below a threshold value. A treatment plan may be modified if needed. These techniques have the potential to make treatment plans faster and more effective by speeding up some stages while making sure some, perhaps other, stages are implemented only after the teeth are near the appropriate position.

Customized aligner change indicator

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Allen R Boronkay