Digital Tooth Crown Modeling for Missing Surface Reconstruction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current techniques for creating dental aligners based on impressions or 3-D scans struggle to accurately account for interproximal and unerupted tooth surfaces, leading to poorly fitting aligners that compromise treatment effectiveness and aesthetics, and patient compliance.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that combines digital data sets from generic tooth models with patient scans to fill in missing tooth crown surfaces, using algorithms to merge and adjust the models to create a complete tooth representation, incorporating additional patient information for precise alignment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional impression-based or 3-D scan techniques are used to capture tooth surfaces, then the scanning process is simple and quick, but the captured data is incomplete for teeth in close proximity or unerupted teeth, leading to poor aligner fit
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by creating complete tooth models before aligner fabrication, using generic tooth geometry to fill in missing interproximal and unerupted surfaces. This preliminary modeling ensures that all tooth surfaces are accounted for before the aligner is made, preventing fit problems later in treatment.
Solution Approach 2:
Generic tooth models serve as intermediaries between the incomplete patient scan data and the complete tooth representation needed for aligner design. These generic models provide the missing surface information that cannot be directly captured from the patient's actual teeth, acting as a bridge to achieve complete data representation.
2Reliability
If aligners are created from incomplete tooth surface data, then the manufacturing process is faster and simpler, but the aligners do not fit properly in areas that are later exposed through eruption or uncrowding
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by creating complete tooth models before aligner fabrication, using generic tooth geometry to fill in missing interproximal and unerupted surfaces. This preliminary modeling ensures that all tooth surfaces are accounted for before the aligner is made, preventing fit problems later in treatment.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the completeness parameter of the tooth surface data by incorporating generic tooth geometry to supplement incomplete scan data. This parameter change transforms partial surface information into complete three-dimensional tooth models, ensuring accurate aligner fit throughout treatment.
3Loss of information
If generic tooth models are merged with patient scan data to complete missing surfaces, then the tooth model completeness improves, but the data processing and model merging complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Generic tooth models serve as intermediaries between the incomplete patient scan data and the complete tooth representation needed for aligner design. These generic models provide the missing surface information that cannot be directly captured from the patient's actual teeth, acting as a bridge to achieve complete data representation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system merges generic tooth models with patient-specific scan data to create complete three-dimensional tooth models. This combining process integrates the completeness of generic models with the patient-specific accuracy of scanned surfaces, achieving comprehensive tooth representation.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for modeling a patient's tooth are provided. In some embodiments, a system includes a scanner configured to generate image data of a partial portion of a crown of a patient's tooth, a memory, and one or more processors operably coupled to the scanner and to the memory. The one or more processors can be configured to perform operations including: receiving the image data from the scanner, generating a digital representation of the crown of the patient's tooth based on the image data, selecting a digital tooth template having a crown portion, generating a morphed crown portion based on the crown portion of the digital tooth template, and generating a digital patient crown model by combining the morphed crown portion with the digital representation of the crown of the patient's tooth.