Method and system for providing dynamic orthodontic assessment and treatment profiles

• US 7,970,628 B2
• Filed: 10/13/2006
• Issued: 06/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Align Technology Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Align Technology Incorporated
• Inventors: Swaminathan, Chandra, Bukaty, Douglas C., Derakhshan, Mitra, Kuo, Eric, Kimball, Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Gilligan; Luke
• Assistant Examiner(s): SEREBOFF, NEAL
• Application Number:
  US11/580,536
• Publication Number:
  US 20070128574A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,719 Days
• Field of Search: 705/2, 705/3, 433/24, 433/26
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: A61C 7/00 Orthodontics, i.e. obtaining or maintaining the desired position of teeth, e.g. by straightening, evening, regulating, separating, or by correcting malocclusions
• CPC Class Codes: A61C 7/002 Orthodontic computer assisted systems
• CPC Class Codes: A61C 7/08 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 Class Codes: B33Y 80/00 Products made by additive manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/00 ICT specially adapted for therapies or health-improving plans, e.g. for handling prescriptions, for steering therapy or for monitoring patient compliance
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients

Abstract

Method and system for receiving one or more dentition conditions of a patient, associating a first set of one or more treatment goals based on the one or more dentition conditions, generating a case difficulty assessment based on the one or more treatment goals, detecting a modification to the case difficulty assessment, retrieving a second set of one or more treatment goals associated with the modified case difficulty assessment, and displaying the second set of one or more treatment goals are provided.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a first set of one or more dentition conditions of a patient;

retrieving a second set of one or more dentition conditions from a database wherein each of the second set of conditions has a predetermined level of difficulty based on at least one of expert opinion, computational algorithm, and historical case content and is associated with a corresponding treatment goal;

comparing the first set of conditions with the second set of conditions;

estimating a case difficulty assessment level for each of the first set of conditions based on the comparison and associating a respective minimum recommended certification or experience level of a treatment provider with each assessment level;

generating with the computer a first treatment goal of the patient based on the first set of conditions;

generating with the computer, at a particular stage in a treatment of the patient, a first treatment plan based on the first set of conditions and the first treatment goal of the patient;

calculating and displaying a case difficulty assessment level and associated minimum recommended certification or experience level for the first treatment plan;

receiving a request for at least one of a modified case difficulty assessment level and an associated minimum recommended certification or experience level; and

generating with the computer, at the particular stage in treatment, a second treatment plan based on at least one of the first set of conditions and the received request, the second treatment plan having the modified case difficulty assessment level, and the associated minimum recommended certification or experience.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising retrieving a second treatment goal of the patient based on the modified case difficulty assessment level.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the first treatment goal of the patient includes a first set of one or more treatment goals of the patient, and the second treatment goal of the patient includes a second set of one or more treatment goals of the patient.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 wherein the first treatment goal set and the second treatment goal set include at least one common treatment goal.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 wherein the at least one common treatment goal is associated with a lowest case difficulty assessment level.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving the request for the modified case difficulty assessment level includes detecting one of a higher or lower case difficulty assessment level associated with the first set of one or more dentition conditions of the patient.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising selecting a first dentition condition from the second set of the one or more dentition conditions stored in the database that is similar to a second dentition condition in the first set of the one or more of the dentition conditions of the patient.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the first set of one or more dentition conditions of the patient includes one or more of a sagittal discrepancy, a vertical discrepancy, a transverse discrepancy, or an arch length discrepancy.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising determining whether a user is capable of performing the first treatment goal of the patient based on the case difficulty assessment level for each of the one or more dentition conditions of the patient.

10. An apparatus, comprising:

a data storage unit; and

a data processing unit operatively coupled to the data storage unit, the data processing unit configured to;

receive a first set of one or more dentition conditions of a patient;

retrieve a second set of one or more dentition conditions from the data storage unit wherein each of the second set of conditions has a predetermined level of difficulty based on at least one of expert opinion, computational algorithm, and historical case content and is associated with a corresponding treatment goal;

compare the first set of conditions with the second set of conditions;

estimate a case difficulty assessment level for each of the first set of conditions of the patient in the first set based on the comparison and associating a respective minimum recommended certification or experience level of a treatment provider with each case difficulty assessment level;

generate a treatment goal of the patient based on the first set of conditions;

generate, at a particular stage in a treatment of the patient, a first treatment plan based on the first set of conditions and the treatment goal of the patient;

calculate and display one of the case difficulty assessment level and associated minimum recommended certification or experience level for the first treatment plan;

receive a request for at least one of a modified case difficulty assessment level and an associated minimum recommended certification or experience level; and

generate, at the particular stage in treatment, a second treatment plan based on at least one of the first set of conditions and the received request, the second treatment plan having the modified case difficulty assessment level, and the associated minimum recommended certification or experience level.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the data processing unit is further configured to retrieve a second treatment goal of the patient based on the modified case difficulty assessment level.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the first treatment goal of the patient includes a first set of one or more treatment goals of the patient, and the second treatment goal of the patient includes a second set of one or more treatment goals of the patient.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the first set of treatment goals of the patient and the second set of treatment goals of the patient include at least one common treatment goal.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the at least one common treatment goal is associated with a lowest case difficulty assessment level.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the data processing unit is further configured to detect one of a higher or lower case difficulty assessment level associated with the first set of one or more dentition conditions of the patient.

16. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the data processing unit is further configured to select a first dentition condition from the second set of the one or more dentition conditions stored in the data storage unit that is similar to a second dentition condition in the first set of the one or more of the dentition conditions of the patient.

17. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the first set of the one or more dentition conditions of the patient includes one or more of a sagittal discrepancy, a vertical discrepancy, a transverse discrepancy, or an arch length discrepancy.

18. A non-transitory computing device readable medium having executable instructions which can be executed by a processor to cause a computing device to perform a method, comprising:

receiving a first set of one or more dentition conditions of a patient;

retrieving a second set of one or more dentition conditions from a database wherein each of the second set of conditions has a predetermined level of difficulty based on at least one of expert opinion, computational algorithm, and historical case content and is associated with a corresponding treatment goal;

comparing the first set of conditions with the second set;

estimating a case difficulty assessment level for each of the first set of conditions based on the comparison and associating a respective minimum recommended certification or experience level of a treatment provider with each case difficulty assessment level;

generating with the computer a treatment goal of the patient based on the first set of conditions;

generating with the computer, at a particular stage in a treatment of the patient, a first treatment plan based on the first set of conditions and the treatment goal of the patient;

calculating and displaying a case difficulty assessment level and associated minimum recommended certification or experience level for the first treatment plan;

receiving a request for at least one of a modified case difficulty assessment level and an associated minimum recommended certification or experience level; and

generating with the computer, at the particular stage in treatment, a second treatment plan based on at least one of the first set of conditions and the received request, the second treatment plan having the modified case difficulty assessment level, and the associated minimum recommended certification or experience level.

19. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 18 wherein the method includes retrieving a second treatment goal of the patient based on the modified case difficulty assessment level.

20. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 18 wherein the first treatment goal of the patient includes a first set of one or more treatment goals of the patient, and the second treatment goal of the patient includes a second set of one or more treatment goals of the patient.

21. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 20 wherein the first treatment goal set and the second treatment goal set include at least one common treatment goal.

22. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 21 wherein the at least one common treatment goal is associated with a lowest case difficulty assessment.

23. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 18 wherein the method includes receiving the request for the case difficulty assessment level includes detecting one of a higher or lower case difficulty assessment level associated with the first set of one or more dentition conditions of the patient.

24. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 18 wherein the first set of one or more dentition conditions of the patient includes one or more of a sagittal discrepancy, a vertical discrepancy, a transverse discrepancy, or an arch length discrepancy.

25. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 18 wherein the method includes determining whether a user is capable of performing the first treatment goal of the patient based on the case difficulty assessment level for each of the one or more dentition conditions of the patient.

26. The non-transitory computing device readable medium of claim 18 wherein the method includes selecting a first dentition condition from the second set of the one or more of the plurality of dentition conditions stored in the database that is similar to a second dentition condition in the first set of the one or more of the dentition conditions of the patient.