Align Technology, Inc.

Bruce Cam

Jun Sato

Yaser Shanjani

John Y Morton

Chunhua Li

Crystal Tjhia

Srinivas Kaza

Allen R Boronkay

Rohit Tanugula

Yuxiang Wang

Vadim Matov

Ryan Kimura

Ken Wu

Victor Chen

Peter Webber

Mitra Derakhshan

Eric Yau

Bastien Pesenti

Andrew Jang

Sergey Vinnichenko

Luyao Cai

Kangning Su

Jeeyoung Choi

Pavel Pokotilov

Edi Fridman

Dennis Te

Dental aligners and systems for producing controlled tooth-moving forces. A dental aligner may include a first tooth receiving cavity with a wall configured to resiliently apply a first force to a first tooth in accordance with a treatment plan. The first tooth receiving cavity may include an occlusal inner surface forming a first configuration of cusps and nadirs shaped to conform to an occlusal surface of the first tooth, and an occlusal outer surface forming a second configuration of cusps and nadirs. One or more occlusal contact features protruding from the outer occlusal surface may redirect a bite force on the first tooth that is produced by a person wearing the dental aligner toward a same or a complementary direction as the first force in accordance with the treatment.

Dental appliance having selective occlusal loading and controlled intercuspation

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

Apparatuses and methods for performing orthodontic treatment planning are provided. Virtual/Augmented Reality devices can be used to virtually manipulate patient's teeth, modify virtual models of the patient's teeth, analyze the fit of a dental appliance on the patient's teeth, analyze the position of attachment sites for dental appliances, and provide overlays showing forces applied to the patient's teeth. The VR/AR devices can be used by physicians and/or the patient to provide and display treatment planning. In some examples, a length and/or angle of an elastic band or wire and one or more effective forces on a patient's teeth when a dental appliance is applied to the patient's teeth may be determined. A visual overlay graphically illustrating the one or more effective forces may be generated and displayed.

Augmented reality enhancements for dental practitioners

Methods of fabricating orthodontic alignment devices. First forces may be applied to teeth of a digital model to simulate movement of the teeth from one stage of an ordered sequence of stages to a next stage. The first forces may include one or more unwanted forces that move one or more teeth of the digital model in an unwanted direction. One or more forces may be applied to the palate of the digital model that results in second forces applied to the teeth of the digital model to replace or offset the one or more unwanted forces. A shape for the orthodontic alignment device may be determined based on the first and second forces applied to the teeth and in combination with the one or more forces applied to the palate of the digital model. An orthodontic alignment device may be fabricated based on the determined shape.

Methods of forming orthodontic devices with palatal anchorage

Improved systems, methods, and devices for treating sleep apnea are provided herein. In one aspect, an intraoral appliance for treating sleep apnea in a patient comprises an appliance shell comprising a plurality of cavities shaped to receive teeth of a jaw of the patient. The appliance shell can comprise an advancement structure arranged to interact with an opposing jaw of the patient so as to displace the lower jaw anteriorly relative to the upper jaw. The plurality of cavities can comprise cavity geometries shaped to reduce repositioning of one or more received teeth elicited by displacement of the lower jaw anteriorly relative to the upper jaw.

Systems and methods for mandibular advancement

A system for correcting malocclusions may include a maxillary appliance having tooth receiving cavities shaped to receive teeth of a maxilla and a first elastic coupling at gingival line of the maxillary appliance. The first elastic coupling may be configured for receiving an elastic. The system may also include mandibular appliance having tooth receiving cavities shaped to receive teeth of a mandible. The system may also include a corrective appliance having a first coupling configured to be coupled to the mandibular appliance at a first location on a first side of incisors of a patient and a second coupling configured to be coupled to the mandibular appliance on a second side of the incisors, and having an arm extending from the corrective appliance towards the gingival line of the maxillary appliance and being shaped to receive the elastic.

Orthodontic appliance systems for correcting malocclusions

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 and methods for monitoring the status of oral appliances using sensors. One or more oral appliances may include one or more sensor receiver and emitter pairs configured to collect sensor data. Each sensor receiver and emitter pair may include a sensor receiver on or in a first portion of the oral appliance(s) and a sensor emitter on a second portion of the oral appliance(s), where each sensor receiver is configured to receive a signal emitted by a corresponding sensor emitter. At least one processor may be configured to determine the status of the oral appliance(s) and determine whether to modify a treatment plan implemented by the oral appliance(s) based on the status. The status may include one or more of: user compliance, condition of the oral appliance(s), and effectiveness of the oral appliance(s).

Sensors for monitoring oral appliances

Aligner systems and methods including a sequence of aligners having energy-delivering elements. For example, first and second aligners of the sequence of aligners may include first and second polymer shells that have shapes for applying respective first and second local forces to first and second regions of a dental arch to move one or more first teeth and one or more second teeth, respectively. The first and second aligners may also include corresponding first and second heating elements that are arranged to heat first and second target regions of the dental arch associated with moving the one or more first teeth and one or more second teeth, respectively. Heat energy from the first and second heating elements may improve an outcome of respective first and second stages of a treatment plan.

Energy-delivering orthodontic aligner systems

Embedded sensors and onboard or off-board processing in an aligner case can detect aligner material and/or quality. Material detection can be used for counterfeit detection, or to trigger material specific events. Quality detection can include detection of common aligner failures or defects. A case for a dental appliance may include a tray for supporting the dental appliance, a cover coupled to the tray, and at least one sensor to detect a deformation of the dental appliance. A case for a dental appliance may include a tray for housing the dental appliance, a cover coupled to the tray, and at least one sensor configured to detect a change in material of the dental appliance.

Aligner material, cleanliness, and quality detection via aligner case

Methods for designing orthodontic appliances are provided. In some embodiments, a method includes receiving a treatment plan for a patient's dentition and generating an aligner model representing an aligner configured to implement a treatment stage of the treatment plan. The aligner model can include a thickness map having a thickness parameter for each location of the aligner model. The method can include adjusting the thickness map by using the aligner model to evaluate an outcome when the aligner is applied to the patient's dentition, and iteratively reducing the value of each thickness parameter of the thickness map based on the evaluation until a resulting thickness is determined for each thickness parameter. The method can also include providing instructions to manufacture the aligner based on the aligner model with the resulting thickness for each thickness parameter of the thickness map.

Methods for aligner design using thickness maps

The present disclosure describes devices, systems, and methods for monitoring use of an oral appliance in an oral cavity using extra-oral sensor(s). One method includes sensing one or more physical properties of an oral appliance using an extra-oral sensor, providing a compliance signal from the extra-oral sensor, identifying one or more patient compliance factors based on the compliance signal, the one or more patient compliance factors providing a basis to identify an extent of compliance of usage of the oral appliance with an orthodontic treatment plan, determining the extent of compliance, and outputting the extent of compliance.

Dental appliance compliance monitoring

Methods and systems are provided for generating a treatment plan for arch expansion where a polymeric shell appliance is utilized to generate one or more activation forces that facilitate tooth movement. The polymeric shell appliances may comprise one or more tooth receiving cavities, in which each of the plurality of tooth receiving cavities is shaped and arranged to provide a counter moment of each of the plurality of teeth.

Devices, systems, and methods for dental arch expansion

A system for correcting class III malocclusions is disclosed. The system may include a maxilla appliance having tooth receiving cavities shaped to receive teeth of the maxilla and a first coupling for receiving an elastic. The system may also include a mandibular appliance having tooth receiving cavities shaped to receive teeth of the mandible. In some embodiments, the system includes a class III corrective appliance having a first mount shaped to engage with the mandibular arch of the patient and having a second coupling shaped to receive the elastic.

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Bruce Cam