Digital Smile Design Using 3D Tooth Mapping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods for improving a patient's smile, such as orthodontic and restorative procedures, face challenges in creating aesthetically pleasing results due to subjective nature of beauty and difficulties in closing spaces between teeth without disrupting tooth and gum harmony.
Innovation Solution
A method combining imaging techniques, computer-aided design, and milling to create a personalized smile design by mapping anterior teeth and soft tissue structures, allowing for temporary and permanent prosthesis creation based on patient input and desired smile images, with adjustments made through a digital process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional orthodontic and restorative procedures are used to improve smile appearance, then tooth position and shape can be changed, but the results are difficult to predict and may not satisfy patient subjective aesthetic criteria
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a digital copy of the patient's smile using photogrammetry and 3D scanning techniques. This digital replica allows for virtual manipulation and prediction of treatment outcomes without physically altering the teeth, enabling accurate aesthetic assessment before treatment begins.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary digital planning and visualization of the desired smile outcome before actual treatment. By creating a digital treatment plan and showing it to the patient in advance, the aesthetic goals are established and agreed upon before any dental work commences.
2Area of stationary object
If spaces between teeth are closed using conventional methods, then the spaces are reduced, but tooth width increases which disrupts harmony with adjacent teeth and gums
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different treatment approaches to different areas of the smile. Instead of uniformly closing all spaces, the digital plan allows selective closure of specific gaps while maintaining appropriate tooth proportions and relationships in other areas, preserving overall aesthetic harmony.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses dynamic digital manipulation to explore multiple treatment scenarios. The software allows adjustment of space closure amounts and tooth reshaping parameters to find the optimal balance between closing gaps and maintaining proportional harmony with adjacent structures.
3Manufacturing precision
If digital imaging and mapping techniques are implemented for personalized smile design, then aesthetic prediction accuracy and patient satisfaction improve, but the complexity of the treatment planning process increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a digital planning system that performs multiple functions: capturing 3D dental impressions, creating photorealistic smile simulations, planning orthodontic movements, designing restorative treatments, and generating treatment presentations. This multi-functional system consolidates what would otherwise require multiple separate tools and processes.
Data Source
AI summary
A patient's smile is improved by photoimaging the patient's smile and scanning the patient's anterior teeth and associated soft lip structure to obtain sets of data mapping the patient's anterior teeth and associated soft tissue structure. The photo image is used to create a desired smile image which is then used to amend the data map of anterior teeth to a substantially identical resultant image which is then used to mill temporary and permanent prosthesis.