Methods and apparatuses for dental images

• US 10,595,966 B2
• Filed: 11/03/2017
• Issued: 03/24/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Align Technology Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Align Technology Incorporated
• Inventors: Carrier, Jr., Maurice K., Harris, Phillip Thomas, Vinnichenko, Sergey, Blanco, Samuel, Karsakov, Aleksandr Sergeevich, Hareng, Sebastien, Rasovsky, Leon
• Primary Examiner(s): Liu, Gordon G
• Application Number:
  US15/803,718
• Publication Number:
  US 20180125610A1
• Time in Patent Office: 872 Days
• Field of Search: 345629
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/24 for the mouth, i.e. stomatoscopes, e.g. with tongue depressors tongue depressors per se A61B13/00; Instruments for opening or keeping open the mouth combined with saliva removers A61C17/00; mouth openers for animals A61D15/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6898 Portable consumer electronic devices, e.g. music players, telephones, tablet computers
• CPC Class Codes: A61C 19/04 Measuring instruments specially adapted for dentistry A61C5/44 takes precedence; testing vitality of teeth A61B5/0534; radiation diagnosis specially adapted for dentistry A61B6/51
• CPC Class Codes: A61C 7/002 Orthodontic computer assisted systems
• CPC Class Codes: A61C 9/0053 Optical means or methods, e.g. scanning the teeth by a laser or light beam
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30036 Dental; Teeth
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30168 Image quality inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/13 Edge detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/764 using classification, e.g. of video objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/50 Context or environment of the image
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/03 Recognition of patterns in medical or anatomical images
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/56 provided with illuminating means
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/74 by influencing the scene brightness using illuminating means
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/272 Means for inserting a foreground image in a background image, i.e. inlay, outlay

Abstract

Described herein are methods and apparatuses to obtain an image, or a set of images, of a patient'"'"'s teeth from one or more predetermined viewing angles. These methods and apparatuses may include the use an overlay comprising an outline of teeth for each predetermined viewing angle. The overlay may be used for automatically capturing, focusing and/or illuminating the teeth. Also described herein are methods and apparatuses for using a series of images of the patient'"'"'s teeth including a set of predetermined views to determine if a patient is a candidate for an orthopedic procedure.

Claims

1. A method for remotely and automatically pre-screening a patient for an orthodontic treatment prior to treatment by a dental professional, the method comprising:

guiding a user, with a mobile telecommunications device having a camera and a screen, to take a series of images of the patient'"'"'s teeth in a plurality of predetermined viewing angles by sequentially, for each predetermined viewing angle;

displaying, on the screen, an overlay comprising an outline of teeth in one of the plurality of predetermined viewing angles, wherein the overlay is displayed atop an image of the series of images of the patient'"'"'s teeth; and

capturing the image of the patient'"'"'s teeth when the overlay approximately matches the image of the patient'"'"'s teeth in the one of the predetermined viewing angles'"'"'s teeth;

transmitting the captured images to a remote location to automatically determine if the patient is a candidate for the orthodontic treatment based on the captured images; and

displaying, on the screen of the mobile telecommunications device, an indicator that the patient is, or is not, a candidate for the orthodontic treatment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein capturing comprises automatically capturing.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein capturing comprises triggering a visual, audible, or visual and audible indicator.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically determining when the image of the patient'"'"'s teeth approximately matches the overlay by detecting an edge of the patient'"'"'s teeth and comparing the detected edge to the overlay.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically determining when the image of the patient'"'"'s teeth approximately matches the overlay by estimating an indicator of the distance between an edge of the patient'"'"'s teeth in the image of the patient'"'"'s teeth and an edge of the overlay.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically adjusting the camera to focus the camera within a region of the screen that is within the overlay.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the overlay based on one or more images of the patient'"'"'s teeth.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising selecting a patient-specific overlay.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically adjusting a light emitted by the camera based on a level of light of within a region of the screen that is within the overlay.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein guiding the user comprises guiding the user to take the series of images comprises guiding the user to take at least one each of:

an anterior view, a buccal view, an upper jaw view, and a lower jaw view.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the series of images from the mobile telecommunications device to the remote location further comprises receiving, in the mobile telecommunications device, an indication that patient is, or is not, a candidate within 15 minutes of transmitting the series of images.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the series of images from the mobile telecommunications device to the remote location further comprises manually determining, using the series of images, if the patient is, or is not, a candidate for the orthodontic treatment.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the series of images from the mobile telecommunications device to the remote location further comprises automatically determining, using the series of images, if the patient is, or is not, a candidate for the orthodontic treatment.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically identifying each image of the series of images to indicate which view of the plurality of views each image includes.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically determining if one or more of the series of image was taken using a mirror.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, in the mobile telecommunications device, an indication of the patient'"'"'s chief dental concern, and aggregating the chief dental concern with the series of images, further wherein transmitting the series of images comprises transmitting the aggregated series of images and the patient'"'"'s chief dental concern.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising instructing the user to retract the patient'"'"'s cheek with a cheek retractor.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising detecting a marker on the cheek retractor and identifying the image to indicate which view of the plurality of views it includes based on the identified cheek retractor.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the user is the patient.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically capturing the image of the patient'"'"'s teeth comprises checking an image quality of the captured image and displaying on the screen if the image quality is below a threshold for image quality.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein each captured image corresponds to an image of a portion of the patient'"'"'s dental arch, the method further comprising linking the captured images with corresponding portions of the patient'"'"'s dental arch.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising improving an image quality by disabling a native autofocusing feature of the camera and restricting the autofocusing feature to a region that is limited to the overlay or a portion of the overlay.

23. A method for remotely and automatically pre-screening a patient for an orthodontic treatment prior to treatment by a dental professional, the method comprising:

guiding a user, with a mobile telecommunications device having a camera, to take a series of images of the patient'"'"'s teeth from a plurality of predetermined viewing angles by sequentially displaying, on a screen of the mobile telecommunications device, an overlay comprising an outline of teeth in one of the predetermined viewing angles, wherein an image of the series of images of the patient'"'"'s teeth is captured when the overlay approximately matches the image of the patient'"'"'s teeth in the one of the predetermined viewing angles;

receiving, in the mobile telecommunications device, an indication of the patient'"'"'s chief dental concern;

aggregating, in the mobile telecommunications device, the captured images and the chief dental concern;

transmitting the aggregated captured images and the chief dental concern to a remote location to automatically determine if the patient is a candidate for the orthodontic treatment based on the captured images and the chief dental concern; and

displaying, on the screen of the mobile telecommunications device, an indicator that the patient is, or is not, a candidate for the orthodontic treatment.