The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 30, 2003
Filed:
Oct. 03, 2001
Jaime Gateno, Houston, TX (US);
John F. Teichgraeber, Houston, TX (US);
James Xia, Houston, TX (US);
Board of Regents University of Texas System, Austin, TX (US);
Abstract
A method of forming a surgical splint to receive a patient's dentition and thereby align the upper jaw and the lower jaw during surgery includes generating a CT computer model of bone structure, generating a digital dental computer model of the patient's dentition, and then combining the CT computer model and the digital dental computer model to form a composite computer model. The composite computer model may be displayed, and at least one of the upper jaw and lower jaw repositioned relative to the patient's skull and the composite computer model to form a planned position computer model. Using this desired position computer model, a computer model surgical splint of the patient's dentition may be formed, which is then input into a fabrication machine to form a surgical splint. The method also includes forming and displaying the composite computer model. A workstation includes a CT machine, a digital scanner, a computer, an input command mechanism, a display, and a fabricating machine.