Custom Ceramic Orthodontic Brackets With Tooth-Specific Breakaway
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current orthodontic bracket manufacturing methods, particularly for ceramic brackets, face challenges in achieving precise customization, consistent debonding, and efficient in-office fabrication, leading to increased treatment time and patient discomfort due to misplacement and inconsistent debonding mechanisms.
Innovation Solution
Utilizing ceramic slurry-based additive manufacturing (AM) technologies like digital light processing (DLP) and laser photopolymerization stereolithography to create customized labial/lingual brackets with tooth-specific fault lines or stress concentrators, enabling precise bracket placement and consistent debonding through fracture grooves designed to match individual tooth morphology.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If ceramic brackets are manufactured using traditional injection molding, then production efficiency is improved, but manufacturing precision and customization capability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical injection molding with additive manufacturing (3D printing) technology. This substitution enables precise customization of ceramic brackets by building them layer-by-layer according to digital models, achieving high manufacturing precision while maintaining efficient production through automated printing processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the manufacturing parameters from mass production injection molding to additive manufacturing parameters. This includes controlling layer thickness, printing speed, and curing conditions to achieve both high precision customization and efficient production of ceramic brackets with patient-specific geometries.
2Ease of manufacture
If ceramic brackets use static stress concentrators for debonding, then manufacturing simplicity is improved, but debonding consistency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating variable stress concentrators with different geometries at different locations on the bracket base. Each stress concentrator is customized according to the specific tooth morphology and bracket position, ensuring consistent debonding forces across different clinical cases while maintaining manufacturability through automated design and printing.
3Adaptability or versatility
If custom metal lingual brackets are fabricated using selective laser melting, then customization capability is improved, but surface finish and resolution deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses composite materials by combining ceramic particles with photopolymerizable resin to create a slurry that can be printed with high resolution. The ceramic-provided aesthetic and mechanical properties while the resin enables precise additive manufacturing. After printing, the green brackets are sintered to achieve dense, high-quality ceramic brackets with excellent surface finish.
4Device complexity
If ceramic brackets are designed without tooth-specific features, then manufacturing complexity is reduced, but bracket placement accuracy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-customizing each bracket's base geometry to match the specific tooth morphology before manufacturing. Digital models of patient teeth are created from scans, and bracket bases are designed with custom contours that precisely fit each tooth's shape. This preliminary customization ensures accurate bracket placement while the automated design and printing processes keep manufacturing complexity manageable.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach allows for improved bracket placement accuracy, reduced treatment time, enhanced patient comfort by ensuring consistent debonding forces, and cost-effective in-office fabrication of customized ceramic brackets with aesthetic options, addressing the limitations of traditional methods.
Implementation Method 1
ceramic slurry-based additive manufacturing (AM) technologies like digital light processing (DLP) and laser photopolymerization stereolithography
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments may provide improved techniques for creating custom lingual or labial ceramic orthodontic brackets, and which provides the capability for in-office fabrication of such brackets. For example, a method of manufacturing customized ceramic labial/lingual orthodontic brackets by ceramic slurry-based AM may comprise measuring dentition data of a profile of teeth of a patient, based on the dentition data, creating a three dimensional computer-assisted design (3D CAD) model of the patient's teeth using reverse engineering, and saving the 3D CAD model on a computer, designing a 3D CAD bracket structure model for a single labial or lingual bracket structure, importing data related to the 3D CAD bracket structure model into a ceramic slurry-based AM machine, directly producing the bracket (green part) in the ceramic slurry-based AM machine by layer manufacturing, and processing the brackets in a sintering and debinding oven prior to direct use.