Filling undercut areas of teeth relative to axes of appliance placement

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9364296-B2
Application number	US-201213680888-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 19, 2012
Priority date	Nov 19, 2012
Publication date	Jun 14, 2016
Grant date	Jun 14, 2016

Abstract

The present disclosure provides computing device implemented methods, computing device readable medium, and molds for filling undercut areas of teeth relative to an axis of placement. Filling undercut areas of teeth relative to an axis of placement can include calculating an undercut area of a tooth relative to an axis of placement of part of a dental appliance over a number of teeth and a height of contour that is defined based on the axis of placement. Filling undercut areas of teeth relative to an axis of placement can also include filling in a part of the undercut area of the tooth with a virtual filler wherein the undercut is filled to within a threshold distance from the tooth that is defined relative to the axis of placement and the height of contour.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A non-transitory computing device readable medium having executable instructions that can be executed by a processor to cause a computing device to perform a method, comprising:
calculating an undercut area of a tooth relative to an axis of placement of a part of a dental appliance over a number of teeth and a height of contour that is defined based on the axis of placement; and
filling in a part of the undercut area with a virtual filler wherein the undercut area is filled to within a threshold distance from the tooth that is defined relative to the axis of placement and the height of contour.

2. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the axis of placement of the dental appliance defines an estimated path of placement of at least a part of the dental appliance over the number of teeth.

3. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 1 , wherein calculating the undercut area of the tooth further includes instructions that can be executed to perform the method including:
filling in the part of the undercut area with a virtual filler wherein the undercut area is filled to within a threshold distance from the tooth that is defined by a line parallel to the axis of placement and tangential to the height of contour.

4. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions can further be executed to perform the method including calculating multiple undercut areas of the number of teeth relative to axes of placement of different parts of the dental appliance over the number of teeth.

5. The non-transitory computing device readable medium claim 1 , wherein the instructions can further be executed to perform the method including identifying that a part of the calculated undercut area of the tooth is not within the threshold distance.

6. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions can further be executed to perform the method including calculating the axis of placement of the dental appliance over the number of teeth based upon data of previous placements of dental appliances.

7. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 6 , wherein calculating the axis of placement further includes instructions that can be executed to perform the method including:
defining the axis of placement using an undercut draft, including minimizing a number of geometric shapes perpendicular to the axis of placement; and
comparing the minimized number of geometric shapes to a threshold number of geometric shapes.

8. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions can further be executed to perform the method including creating a smooth edge of the virtual filler including:
defining an edge of the dental appliance proximal to a gingival line of a patient; and
creating a smooth transition of the virtual filler to the defined edge.

9. A method of making a dental mold, comprising:
receiving, from a scanner, a digital model of a number of teeth from a scan of a dentition of a patient;
creating a set of molded teeth from the digital model of the number of teeth of the patient; and
adding a physical filler material to a first number of the molded teeth among the set of molded teeth, wherein the physical filler material is located in an undercut area of the first number of molded teeth and filled to within a threshold distance from the first number of molded teeth defined relative to an axis of placement of a dental appliance and a height of contour of each of the number of teeth.

10. The method of claim 9 , including adding an artificial undercut to a second number of the molded teeth among the set of molded teeth, wherein the artificial undercut is located in an undercut area of the second number of molded teeth relative to the axis of placement of the dental appliance over the number of teeth.

11. The method of 9 , further including adding filler to a region of the dental mold to reduce retention of the dental appliance in the region.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the region of the dental appliance can include at least one of an anterior region, posterior left region, and posterior right region.

13. The method of claim 9 , further including creating a smooth transition from the filler material to the number of teeth.

14. A computing device implemented method, comprising:
calculating multiple undercut areas of a number of teeth relative to axes of placement of different parts of a dental appliance over a number of teeth; and
filling in a part of the undercut area with a virtual filler wherein the undercut area of each tooth is filled to within a threshold distance that is defined relative to the one or more axes of placement and the height of contours nearest to the tooth.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein calculating multiple undercut areas includes calculating undercut areas relative to: a first axis of placement of a first part of the dental appliance over a number of teeth and a height of contour that is defined based on the first axis of placement, and a second axis of placement of a second part of the dental appliance over a number of teeth and a height of contour that is defined based on the second axis of placement.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the first axis of placement corresponds to an anterior part of the dental appliance and the second axis of placement corresponds to a posterior part of the dental appliance.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the first axis of placement corresponds to an anterior part of the dental appliance and the second axis of placement corresponds to one of a posterior left part of the dental appliance and a posterior right part of the dental appliance.

18. The method of claim 14 , wherein calculating multiple undercut areas includes calculating undercut areas relative to: a first axis of placement of a first part of the dental appliance over a number of teeth and a height of contour that is defined based on the first axis of placement, a second axis of placement of a second part of the dental appliance over a number of teeth and a height of contour that is defined based on the second axis of placement, and a third axis of placement of a third part of the dental appliance over a number of teeth and a height of contour that is defined based on the third axis of placement.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the first axis of placement corresponds to an anterior part of the dental appliance, the second axis of placement corresponds to a posterior left part of the dental appliance, and the third axis of placement corresponds to a posterior right part of the dental appliance.

20. The method of claim 14 , the method including calculating the axes of placement of different parts of the dental appliance, wherein calculating the axes of placements includes factoring for dental appliance flexion when placed over the number of teeth based on a material property of the dental appliance.

Assignees

• Align Technology Inc

Inventors

• Kuo Eric E

Classifications

• G06F30/00

  Computer-aided design [CAD] · CPC title

• A61C9/0046

  Data acquisition means or methods · CPC title

• A61C7/08

  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

• A61C7/002 Primary

  Orthodontic computer assisted systems · CPC title

• G16H50/50

  for simulation or modelling of medical disorders · CPC title