Methods and devices for jaw repositioning

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12232929-B2
Application number	US-202318181439-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 9, 2023
Priority date	Feb 21, 2014
Publication date	Feb 25, 2025
Grant date	Feb 25, 2025

Abstract

A method may include identifying a jaw position of a misaligned jaw of a patient from the virtual image of the patient's jaw and providing a treatment plan. The treatment plan may include tooth repositioning forces and jaw repositioning forces. The method may also include virtually modeling application of jaw repositioning forces between a first repositioning jaw element and a second repositioning jaw element to obtain a virtual model of the application of the jaw repositioning forces on the virtual model of the patient's jaw, identifying one or more constraints limiting the application of the jaw repositioning forces to the misaligned jaw, and adjusting the first repositioning jaw element and the second repositioning jaw element to accommodate the one or more constraints.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A non-transitory computing device readable medium storing instructions executable by a processor to cause a computing device to perform a method, the method comprising:
identifying a jaw position of a misaligned jaw of a patient from a virtual image of a patient's jaw;
providing a treatment plan, the treatment plan including tooth repositioning forces to reposition at least one tooth of the patient and to apply jaw repositioning forces to modify the jaw position of the misaligned jaw;
virtually modeling application of the jaw repositioning forces between a first repositioning jaw element and a second repositioning jaw element to obtain a virtual model of the application of the jaw repositioning forces on the virtual model of the patient's jaw;
identifying one or more constraints limiting the application of the jaw repositioning forces to the misaligned jaw, based on the virtual model of the application of the jaw repositioning forces; and
adjusting the first repositioning jaw element and the second repositioning jaw element to accommodate the one or more constraints.

2. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the one or more constraints include physical limitations or restrictions of a placement and an orientation of the first and second repositioning jaw elements in relation to a current tooth arrangement, a current jaw position, and a predicted corrected jaw position of the patient.

3. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the one or more constraints include a slant of an interface between a first surface of the first repositioning jaw element and a second surface of the second repositioning jaw element are within a threshold degree of parallel to an occlusal plane normal of the patient.

4. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the one or more constraints include the first and second repositioning jaw elements crisscross when viewed posteriorly or anteriorly.

5. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the adjusting satisfies a greatest subset of the one or more constraints to optimize placement of the first and second repositioning jaw elements.

6. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 1 , wherein identifying the jaw position includes identifying one of a plurality of virtual jaw positions of a virtual model of the jaw of the patient between treatment stages of the treatment plan.

7. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 1 , further comprising modifying the treatment plan to accommodate the adjusting.

8. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 1 ,
further comprising: providing instructions to model the one or more constraints on the virtual model of the patient's jaw.

9. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises providing a plurality of virtual models of dental appliances for each stage of the treatment plan.

10. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the method further comprises adjusting the position of virtual representations of the first and second repositioning jaw elements at one or more stages of the treatment plan.

11. A method comprising:
scanning a patient's jaw to generate a virtual image of the patient's jaw;
identifying a jaw position of a misaligned jaw of a patient from the virtual image of the patient's jaw;
providing a treatment plan, the treatment plan including tooth repositioning forces to reposition at least one tooth of the patient and to apply jaw repositioning forces to modify the jaw position of the misaligned jaw;
virtually modeling application of the jaw repositioning forces between a first repositioning jaw element and a second repositioning jaw element to obtain a virtual model of the application of the jaw repositioning forces on the virtual model of the patient's jaw;
identifying one or more constraints limiting the application of the jaw repositioning forces to the misaligned jaw, based on the virtual model of the application of the jaw repositioning forces; and
adjusting the first repositioning jaw element and the second repositioning jaw element to accommodate the one or more constraints.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more constraints include physical limitations or restrictions of a placement and an orientation of the first and second repositioning jaw elements in relation to a current tooth arrangement, a current jaw position, and a predicted corrected jaw position of the patient.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more constraints include a slant of an interface between a first surface of the first repositioning jaw element and a second surface of the second repositioning jaw element are within a threshold degree of parallel to an occlusal plane normal of the patient.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the number of one or more constraints include the first and second repositioning jaw elements crisscross when viewed posteriorly or anteriorly.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the adjusting satisfies a greatest subset of the one or more constraints to optimize placement of the first and second repositioning jaw elements.

16. The method of claim 11 , wherein identifying the jaw position includes identifying one of a plurality of virtual jaw positions of a virtual model of the jaw of the patient between incremental treatment stages of the treatment plan.

17. The method of claim 11 , further comprising modifying the treatment plan to accommodate the adjusting.

18. The method of claim 11 , further comprising: modeling the one or more constraints on the virtual model of the patient's jaw.

19. The method of claim 11 , further comprising providing a plurality of virtual models of dental appliances for each stage of the treatment plan.

20. The method of claim 19 , further comprising adjusting the position of virtual representations of the first and second repositioning jaw elements at one or more of the stages of the treatment plan.

Assignees

• Align Technology Inc

Inventors

• Wu Ken
• Kuo Eric E
• Derakhshan Mitra
• Tjhia Crystal
• Yau Eric
• Boronkay Allen R
• Li Chunhua
• Krivovyaz Gleb

Classifications

• A61C7/36

  Devices acting between upper and lower teeth · CPC title

• A61C7/002

  Orthodontic computer assisted systems · CPC title

• A61C7/08 Primary

  Mouthpiece-type retainers {or positioners, e.g. for both the lower and upper arch (arch-shaped medicament applicators for teeth or gums A61C19/063; mouthguards for protecting the teeth of sportsmen A63B71/085)} · CPC title