Remote Dental Progress Scanning with Iterative Model Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
The reliance on in-person dental consultations for dental care, particularly in remote or underserved areas, leads to geographical inaccessibility and financial barriers, while existing tele-dentistry solutions lack accurate and accessible tools for remote dental imaging and progress tracking.
Innovation Solution
A system utilizing an intraoral scanner and remote computing systems to generate accurate dental models, track treatment progress, and update treatment plans using lower quality scanners for remote patient monitoring, enabling precise dental imaging and tracking through iterative alignment and machine learning algorithms.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If dental office 3D scanners are used for accurate dental imaging, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a digital copy (3D model) of the patient's dentition that can be used for treatment planning and progress tracking without requiring the physical scanner to be present. This digital replica allows remote dentists to assess treatment progress accurately without the patient returning to the office with expensive scanning equipment.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses disposable or low-cost intraoral scanners that patients can use at home to capture their own dental progress. These simpler, more affordable scanners replace the need for expensive, complex office-based scanning equipment while still providing sufficient accuracy for monitoring treatment progress.
2Measurement precision
If in-person dental consultations are required for progress monitoring, then measurement precision is improved, but loss of time and accessibility worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables patients to perform their own dental progress monitoring at home using provided scanning equipment. Patients scan their own teeth and automatically upload the data to the cloud, eliminating the need to travel to the dentist's office for routine progress checks while maintaining accurate measurement capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a cloud-based platform as an intermediary between the patient's home scanner and the remote dentist. This intermediary system receives scan data from the patient, processes it, compares it to the treatment plan, and provides feedback to both the patient and dentist, enabling accurate progress monitoring without physical presence.
3Ease of operation
If consumer cameras are used for remote dental imaging, then ease of operation is improved, but measurement precision deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional optical imaging systems (cameras taking photos) with active 3D scanning technology that uses structured light or time-of-flight sensors. This substitution transforms the system from passive 2D photography to active 3D measurement, providing accurate depth and dimensional information while remaining easy to operate through automated scanning protocols.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for scanning a dentition may include an intraoral scanner, a processor, and memory storing instructions that when executed by the one or more processors may cause the system to receive point cloud data of a patient's detention, and generate a plurality of possible models of the patient's dentition based on the received point cloud data by manipulating an aspect of the point cloud data multiple times, for each manipulation of the point cloud data, generating a possible model of the patient's dentition to generate the plurality of possible models of the patient's dentition and determine a position variance between positions of respective dental features of the patient's detention between each of the possible models of the of the patient's dentition. The system may also output a depiction of the scanned location on the patient's detention based the measured range of possible models.