Treatment of teeth by aligners

Abstract

A method for moving a subject's teeth in a dental treatment includes moving the subject's teeth toward desired positions by one or more dental aligners. A movement pathway may comprise determining a number of intermediate movement positions on the way to achieving a final configuration. In selecting the movement path, movement in one or more directions may be constrained. Feedback based on the actual position of the subject's teeth during treatment may be used to modify the treatment, including the movement path and aligners.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED INVENTIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent application 60 / 676,278, filed on Apr. 29, 2005, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. [0002] The present invention is related to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60 / 676,546, titled “Digitization of dental arch model components” by Huafeng Wen and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11 / 205,496, titled “System for organizing dental aligners” by Huafeng Wen, which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety. [0003] The present invention is also related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11 / 074,301, titled “Dental aligner for providing accurate dental treatment” by Liu et al, filed Mar. 7, 2005, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11 / 074,297, titled “Producing wrinkled dental aligner for dental treatment” by Liu et al, filed Mar. 7, 2005, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11 / 074,300, titled “Fluid permeable dental aligner” by Huafeng Wen, fil...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0050] The disclosed devices, methods and systems may provide dental aligner devices. The dental aligner devices so obtained are effective at re-aligning the teeth and may have enhanced comfort when worn. The disclosed devices, systems and methods may significantly reduce the treatment time and cost compared to the prior art systems. Physical tooth models and the dental base can be shared between treatment steps. Physical arch models can be configured and re-configured for di

Problems solved by technology

Unfortunately, in the oral environment, it is difficult for a human being to accurately develop a visual three-dimensional image of an orthodontic structure due to the limitations of human sight and the physical structure of a human mouth.

In addition, it is difficult (if not impossible) to accurately estimate three-dimensional wire bends (with accuracy within a few degrees) and to manually apply such bends to a wire.

Further, it is difficult (or impossible) to determine an ideal bracket location to achieve the desired orthodontic structure based on the mental images.

It is also extremely difficult to manually place brackets in what is estimated to be the ideal location.

As a result of multiple wire changes, cost and subject discomfort is increased.

However, the orthodontist does not substantially interact with the appliance design.

Thus, it may be difficult to optimize the interaction between the practitioner and the ongoing aligners produced.

That is, when an appliance is first worn by the subject, certain of the teeth will be misaligned relative to an undeformed geometry of the appliance cavity.

Several drawbacks exist however with the stereo lithography process.

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