Arrangements for intraoral scanning

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10978201-B2
Application number	US-201916671880-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 1, 2019
Priority date	Jun 21, 2017
Publication date	Apr 13, 2021
Grant date	Apr 13, 2021

Abstract

Systems and methods include determining, by an appointment management system, a condition that an appointment to conduct an intraoral scan at an intraoral scanning site has been missed by a user, automatically generating a message to the user indicating that an at-home dental impression kit can be sent to the user based on determining that the appointment has been missed, and transmitting the automatically generated message to a communications device associated with the user.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
determining, by an appointment management system, that an appointment to conduct an intraoral scan of a mouth of a user at an intraoral scanning site has been missed by the user, wherein determining that the appointment has been missed by the user includes automatically determining that a time difference between a current time and a time associated with the appointment exceeds a threshold;
automatically generating a message to the user indicating that an at-home dental impression kit can be sent to an address of the user in response to determining that the appointment has been missed, the message including a link to select to receive the at-home dental impression kit;
transmitting the automatically generated message to a communications device associated with the user; and
producing, by a fabrication system, one or more aligners based on at least one of a completed at-home impression kit from the user or three-dimensional data generated by an intraoral scan of the mouth of the user.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
accessing, by the appointment management system, a user file associated with the user in a database; and
determining, by the appointment management system and using the user file, that the user has opted into a messaging service.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the message to the user indicating that the at-home dental impression kit can be sent to the user is generated by a message generator associated with the messaging service.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the message generator identifies the communications device associated with the user by identifying the user file associated with the user.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the message generator generates and transmits a prompt to a processing or shipping warehouse.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the prompt comprises the address or shipping label associated with the user.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the prompt further comprises instructions to send the at-home dental impression kit to the user at the address.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
sending the at-home dental impression kit to the address of the user in response to determining that the time difference time or the date exceeds the threshold.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising receiving a completed at- home dental impression kit from the user.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the at-home dental impression kit sent to the user is provided to the user at no additional charge.

11. A system comprising:
an appointment management system configured to:
determine that an appointment to conduct an intraoral scan of a mouth of a user at an intraoral scanning site has been missed by the user, wherein determining that the appointment has been missed by the user includes automatically determining that a time difference between a current time and a time associated with the appointment exceeds a threshold;

a message generator configured to:
automatically generate a message to the user configured to facilitate delivery of an at-home dental impression kit to an address of the user in response to determining that the appointment has been missed, the message including a link to select to receive the at-home dental impression kit; and
transmit the automatically generated message to a communications device associated with the user; and

a fabrication system configured to produce one or more aligners based on at least one of a completed at-home impression kit or three-dimensional data generated by an intraoral scan of the mouth of the user.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the appointment management system is further configured to:
access a user file associated with the user in a database; and
determine, using the user file, that the user has opted into a messaging service.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the message generator is associated with the messaging service.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the message generator is further configured to identify the communications device associated with the user by identifying the user file associated with the user.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein the message generator is further configured to generate and transmit a prompt to a processing or shipping warehouse.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the prompt comprises the address or shipping label associated with the user.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the prompt further comprises instructions to send the at-home dental impression kit to the user at the address.

18. The system of claim 11 , wherein the appointment management system is further configured to transmit instructions to send the at-home dental impression kit to the address of the user.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the appointment management system is further configured to receive confirmation of receipt of a completed at-home dental impression kit from the user.

20. The system of claim 18 , wherein the message generator is further configured to transmit instructions for the at-home dental impression kit to be provided to the user at no additional charge.

21. A method comprising:
determining, by an appointment management system, that an appointment to conduct an intraoral scan of a mouth of a user at an intraoral scanning site has been missed by the user, wherein determining that the appointment has been missed by the user includes automatically determining that a time difference between a current time and a time associated with the appointment exceeds a threshold; and
sending an at-home dental impression kit to the user in response to determining that the appointment has been missed by the user.

22. The method of claim 21 , further comprising acquiring personal information of the user, wherein the personal information includes an address of the user.

23. The method of claim 22 , wherein the at-home dental impression kit is sent to the address of the user.

24. The method of claim 22 , further comprising transmitting a message to the user to facilitate acquisition of the personal information.

25. The method of claim 21 , further comprising:
receiving a completed at-home dental impression kit from the user; and
determining a suitability of the completed at-home dental impression kit for manufacturing dental aligners.

26. The method of claim 1 , wherein the time associated with the appointment is a start time of the appointment.

Assignees

• Sdc Us Smilepay Spv

Inventors

• Katzman Jordan
• Fenkell Alex
• Katzman David
• Yancey Christopher
• Chapman Josh
• Cicurel Jessica

Classifications

• G06Q10/1093

  Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups · CPC title

• G06Q10/02

  Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events · CPC title

• G16H10/60

  for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records · CPC title

• A61C9/0053

  Optical means or methods, e.g. scanning the teeth by a laser or light beam · CPC title

• G16H20/40

  relating to mechanical, radiation or invasive therapies, e.g. surgery, laser therapy, dialysis or acupuncture · CPC title