Treatment analysis systems and methods

• US 9,922,170 B2
• Filed: 10/09/2014
• Issued: 03/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Align Technology Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Align Technology Incorporated
• Inventors: Trosien, Andrew, Kuo, Eric, Miller, Ross
• Primary Examiner(s): Ng, Jonathan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tiedeman, Jason S
• Application Number:
  US14/511,119
• Publication Number:
  US 20150025907A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,258 Days
• Field of Search: 705 2, 705 3, 433 2, 433 3, 433 6, 433 18, 433 24, 433215, 433229
• CPC Class Codes: A61C 7/002 Orthodontic computer assisted systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients

Abstract

A dental treatment planning system includes an input form to receive one or more dental patient inputs; and an engine adapted to receive the dental patient data from the input form and validating the dental patient data in a predetermined sequence.

Claims

1. A method for dental treatment planning, comprising:

receiving, by one or more computers, a set of diagnostic data comprising one or more malocclusions and a current arrangement of a patient'"'"'s teeth;

prior to determining an initial desired arrangement of the patient'"'"'s teeth, executing, by the one or more computers, a first evaluation routine for the set of diagnostic data comprising validating the set of diagnostic data at least against one or more case selection criteria for a desired treatment system, wherein successful validation indicates that the patient'"'"'s teeth are acceptable for treatment using the desired treatment system;

determining the initial desired arrangement of the patient'"'"'s teeth;

after successful validation by the first evaluation routine and determination of the initial desired arrangement, executing, by the one or more computers, a second evaluation routine that evaluates the distance the teeth move between the current arrangement and the initial desired arrangement against a magnitude of movement included in the one or more case selection criteria, wherein the magnitude of movement being less than a maximum permitted for treatment using the desired treatment system indicates that the second evaluation routine is successful and the treatment system may be utilized for treatment of the patient;

after successful evaluation by the second evaluation routine, generating, by the one or more computers, a treatment plan for moving the patient'"'"'s teeth from the current arrangement toward the initial desired arrangement of the patient'"'"'s teeth using the desired treatment system, the treatment plan formulated using the set of diagnostic data according to parameters of the desired treatment system, wherein the treatment plan includes data sets corresponding to the shape of a plurality of appliances;

outputting the data sets corresponding to the shape of the plurality of appliances for treating the patients to a fabrication machine; and

controlling, by the one or more computers, the fabrication machine to produce the plurality of appliances for treating the patient according to the outputted data sets.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of diagnostic data is indicative of at least one of:

(a) which teeth are present, (b) condition of the teeth, (c) position of the teeth in a respective dental arch, (d) relationship of at least one tooth to other teeth, (e) size of the teeth, or (f) alignment of the teeth.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first evaluation routine further comprises detecting whether there is conflicting data in the set of diagnostic data.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the set of diagnostic data comprises data of the patient'"'"'s teeth from a plurality of views, and wherein the first evaluation routine comprises matching data of the patient'"'"'s teeth from a first view of the plurality of views to data of the patient'"'"'s teeth from a second view of the plurality of views.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising generating feedback information if conflicting data is detected in the set of diagnostic data.

6. A computer system for dental treatment planning, comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory, including instructions executable by the one or more processors to cause the computer system to at least;

receive a set of diagnostic data comprising one or more malocclusions and a current arrangement of a patient'"'"'s teeth;

prior to determining an initial desired arrangement of the patient'"'"'s teeth, execute a first evaluation routine for the set of diagnostic data comprising validating the set of diagnostic data against at least against one or more case selection criteria for a desired treatment system, wherein successful validation indicates that the patient'"'"'s teeth are acceptable for treatment using the desired treatment system;

determining the initial desired arrangement of the patient'"'"'s teeth;

after successful validation by the first evaluation routine and determination of the initial desired arrangement, executing, by the one or more processors, a second evaluation routine that evaluates the distance the teeth move between the current arrangement and the initial desired arrangement against a maximum magnitude of movement included in the one or more case selection criteria, thereby validating that a magnitude of the movement is less than a maximum permitted for treatment using the desired treatment system;

after successful evaluation by the second evaluation routine, generate a treatment plan for moving the patient'"'"'s teeth from the current arrangement toward the initial desired arrangement of the patient'"'"'s teeth using the desired treatment system, the treatment plan formulated using the set of diagnostic data according to parameters of the desired treatment system, wherein the treatment plan includes data sets corresponding to the shape of a plurality of appliances; and

output the data sets corresponding to the shape of the plurality of appliances for treating the patients to a fabrication machine; and

controlling, by the one or more computers, the fabrication machine to produce the plurality of appliances for treating the patient according to the outputted data sets.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the instructions further cause the computer system to:

generate a first set of questions relating to a treatment goal for the patient'"'"'s teeth;

receive, in response to the first set of questions, a set of treatment goal data relating to a desired arrangement of the patient'"'"'s teeth; and

execute a third evaluation routine for the set of treatment goal data comprising validating the set of treatment goal data against at least one of the set of diagnostic data or one or more case selection criteria for the desired treatment system, thereby determining feasibility of the treatment goal.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the first set of questions are generated based on the set of diagnostic input data.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the instructions further cause the computer system to:

generate a second set of questions relating to a desired treatment path for the patient'"'"'s teeth;

receive, in response to the second set of questions, a set of treatment path data relating to a desired treatment path for moving the patient'"'"'s teeth toward the desired arrangement; and

execute a fourth evaluation routine for the set of treatment path data comprising validating the set of treatment path data against at least one of the set of diagnostic data, the set of treatment goal data, or the one or more case selection criteria for the desired treatment system, thereby determining feasibility of the desired treatment path.

10. A computer system for dental treatment planning, comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory, including instructions executable by the one or more processors to cause the computer system to at least;

receive a set of diagnostic data comprising one or more malocclusions and a current arrangement of a patient'"'"'s teeth;

prior to determining an initial desired arrangement of the patient'"'"'s teeth, execute a first evaluation routine for the set of diagnostic data comprising validating the set of diagnostic data so as to detect whether there is any conflicting data in the set of the diagnostic data and wherein successful validation indicates the patient'"'"'s teeth are acceptable for treatment using a desired treatment system;

determine an initial desired arrangement of the patient'"'"'s teeth;

after successful validation by the first evaluation routine and determination of the initial desired arrangement, execute a second evaluation routine that evaluates the distance the teeth move between the current arrangement and the initial desired arrangement, thereby validating that a magnitude of the movement is less than a maximum permitted for treatment using the desired treatment system;

after successful validation by the second evaluation routine generate a treatment plan for moving the patient'"'"'s teeth from the current arrangement toward the initial desired arrangement of the patient'"'"'s teeth using the desired treatment system, the treatment plan formulated using the set of diagnostic data according to parameters of the desired treatment system, wherein the treatment plan includes data sets corresponding to the shape of a plurality of appliances;

the data sets corresponding to the shape of the plurality of appliances for treating the patients to a fabrication machine; and

controlling, by the one or more computers, the fabrication machine to produce the plurality of appliances for treating the patient according to the outputted data sets.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the treatment plan comprises a plurality of treatment stages.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the computer system to generate data for fabricating one or more dental appliances to move the patient'"'"'s teeth from at least one treatment stage of the plurality of treatment stages to another treatment stage of the plurality of treatment stages.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the instructions further cause the computer to:

generate one or more questions regarding timing of delivery of the one or more dental appliances; and

receive one or more responses to the one or more questions.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the instructions further cause the computer to:

execute a third evaluation routine for the treatment plan comprising validating the treatment plan against one or more properties of the one or more dental appliances.