Smart scanning for intraoral scanners

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12453473-B2
Application number	US-202117230825-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 14, 2021
Priority date	Apr 15, 2020
Publication date	Oct 28, 2025
Grant date	Oct 28, 2025

Abstract

A method of intraoral scanning includes receiving a first one or more intraoral scans of a patient's oral cavity; automatically determining, based on processing of the first one or more intraoral scans, a first scanning role associated with the first one or more intraoral scans, wherein the first scanning role is a first one of an upper dental arch role, a lower dental arch role or a bite role; and determining a first three-dimensional surface associated with the first scanning role.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:
receiving a first one or more intraoral scans of a patient's oral cavity;
determining that the first one or more intraoral scans depict a first dental arch of a patient;
determining a first three-dimensional surface of the first dental arch using the first one or more intraoral scans; and
determining that the first dental arch of the patient is a lower dental arch rather than an upper dental arch responsive to determining that at least one of the first three-dimensional surface or some of the first one or more intraoral scans include a representation of a tongue, wherein for at least one of the first three-dimensional surface or an intraoral scan of the first one or more intraoral scans the lower dental arch is detected if at least a threshold number of points in the first three-dimensional surface or the intraoral scan depict the tongue.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , the operations further comprising:
determining that the first three-dimensional surface of the first dental arch is complete; and
automatically generating a first three-dimensional model of the first dental arch responsive to determining that the first dental arch is complete.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the first one or more intraoral scans of the patient's oral cavity are received without first receiving an indication of whether the first dental arch is the upper dental arch or the lower dental arch, or receiving an indication that a new dental arch is being scanned.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein determining that the first one or more intraoral scans depict the first dental arch of the patient and determining that the first dental arch of the patient is the lower dental arch comprises:
inputting the first one or more intraoral scans into a machine learning model that has been trained to classify intraoral scans as depicting the upper dental arch, the lower dental arch, or a bite, wherein the machine learning model outputs a first classification indicating whether the first dental arch of the patient is the upper dental arch or the lower dental arch.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 4 , wherein the first one or more intraoral scans comprises a plurality of intraoral scans, and wherein determining that the first one or more intraoral scans depict the first dental arch of the patient and determining that the first dental arch of the patient is the lower dental arch comprises:
inputting each intraoral scan of the plurality of intraoral scans into the machine learning model, wherein the machine learning model outputs a plurality of classifications, each of the plurality of classifications being associated with one of the plurality of intraoral scans; and
determining that a majority of the classifications output by the machine learning model indicate that the first dental arch is the lower dental arch.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 5 , wherein the first one or more intraoral scans comprises a plurality of intraoral scans, and wherein determining that the first one or more intraoral scans depict the first dental arch of the patient and determining that the first dental arch of the patient is the lower dental arch comprises:
inputting each intraoral scan of the plurality of intraoral scans into the machine learning model, wherein the machine learning model outputs a plurality of classifications, each of the plurality of classifications being associated with one of the plurality of intraoral scans; and
determining a moving average of the plurality of classifications output by the machine learning model, wherein the moving average indicates whether the first dental arch is the upper dental arch or the lower dental arch.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 5 , wherein the first one or more intraoral scans comprise a plurality of intraoral scans received in sequential order, wherein the first one or more intraoral scans are input into the machine learning model in the sequential order, and wherein the machine learning model is a recurrent neural network.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 5 , wherein for each of the first one or more intraoral scans the machine learning model outputs a confidence value, the operations further comprising:
for each of the first one or more intraoral scans, determining whether the confidence value associated with an output of the machine learning model for that intraoral scan is below a confidence threshold; and
discarding those outputs of the machine learning model having confidence values below the confidence threshold.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 5 , wherein the first one or more intraoral scans are input into the machine learning model as the first one or more intraoral scans are received and before intraoral scanning of the first dental arch is complete, the operations further comprising:
generating a height map of the first dental arch by projecting at least a portion of the first three-dimensional surface of the first dental arch onto a plane; and
processing data from the height map using the machine learning model or an alternate machine learning model that has been trained to classify height maps as depicting the upper dental arch, the lower dental arch, or a bite, wherein the machine learning model or the alternate machine learning model outputs a second classification indicating whether the first dental arch is the upper dental arch or the lower dental arch with a higher level of accuracy as compared to the first classification.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , the operations further comprising:
labeling the first one or more intraoral scans as belonging to a first segment of the first dental arch;
receiving a second one or more intraoral scans of the patient's oral cavity;
determining that the second one or more intraoral scans depict the first dental arch of the patient; and
labeling the second one or more intraoral scans as belonging to a second segment of the first dental arch.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , the operations further comprising:
determining whether the first one or more intraoral scans depict a lingual view, a buccal view or an occlusal view of the first dental arch.

12. A computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:
receiving a first one or more intraoral scans of a patient's oral cavity;
determining that the first one or more intraoral scans depict a first dental arch of a patient;
determining that the first dental arch is an upper dental arch;
determining a first three-dimensional surface of the first dental arch using the first one or more intraoral scans;
receiving a user input indicating that the first one or more intraoral scans depict a lower dental arch of the patient;
determining that the user input is incorrect; and
outputting a notification that the first one or more intraoral scans depict the upper dental arch of the patient.

13. A computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:
receiving a first one or more intraoral scans of a patient's oral cavity;
determining that the first one or more intraoral scans depict a first dental arch of a patient;
determining whether the first dental arch of the patient is an upper dental arch or a lower dental arch;
receiving a second intrao

Assignees

• Align Technology Inc

Inventors

• Saphier Ofer
• Agniashvili Pavel
• Ben-Dov Moti
• Katz Ran
• Kopelman Avi
• Volgin Maxim
• Malka Doron
• Zulti Avraham
• Veryovkin Pavel
• Moshe Maayan
• Tishel Ido
• Levin Adi
• Farkash Shai
• Karapetyan Inna
• Bova Dina
• Fridman Edi
• Coslovsky Jonathan

Classifications

• G06V20/64

  Three-dimensional [3D] objects · CPC title

• G06V10/82

  using neural networks · CPC title

• G06V10/764

  using classification, e.g. of video objects · CPC title

• G06T2210/41

  Medical · CPC title

• G06T17/20

  Finite element generation, e.g. wire-frame surface description, {tesselation} · CPC title