Custom orthodontic appliance forming method and apparatus

• US 6,616,444 B2
• Filed: 06/11/2001
• Issued: 09/09/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/1992
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ormco Corporation (Envista Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Ormco Corporation (Envista Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Payne, Mark A., Andreiko, Craig A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lewis, Ralph A.
• Application Number:
  US09/878,801
• Publication Number:
  US 20020006597A1
• Time in Patent Office: 820 Days
• Field of Search: 433/2, 433/3, 433/24
• US Class Current: 433/3
• CPC Class Codes: A61C 13/097 characterised by occlusal profiles , i.e. chewing contact surfaces
• CPC Class Codes: A61C 2007/004 Automatic construction of a set of axes for a tooth or a plurality of teeth
• CPC Class Codes: A61C 3/00 Dental tools or instruments implanting tools A61C8/00; tools for fastening artificial teeth A61C13/12; visual inspection devices, e.g. dental mirrors, A61B1/24
• 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 7/12 Brackets; Arch wires; Combinations thereof; Accessories therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A61C 7/145 Lingual brackets
• CPC Class Codes: A61C 7/146 Positioning or placement of brackets; Tools therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A61C 7/16 specially adapted to be cemented to teeth
• CPC Class Codes: A61C 7/20 Arch wires A61C7/28 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61C 9/0046 Data acquisition means or methods
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 80/00 Products made by additive manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/40 relating to mechanical, radiation or invasive therapies, e.g. surgery, laser therapy, dialysis or acupuncture

Abstract

A system and method by which an orthodontic appliance is automatically designed and manufactured from digital lower jaw and tooth shape data of a patient provides for preferably scanning a model of the patient'"'"'s mouth to produce two or three dimensional images and digitizing contours and selected points. A computer may be programmed to construct archforms and/or to calculate finish positions of the teeth, then to design an appliance to move the teeth to the calculated positions. The appliance may include archwires and brackets. Machine code is generated and appliances are automatically produced that will straighten the teeth of the patient. Custom placement jigs may also be automatically designed and fabricated and are provided with the custom appliance to position the appliance on the patient'"'"'s teeth.

Claims

1. A method for use in the orthodontic correction of malocclused teeth of a patient in accordance with the individual anatomy of the patient and a prescription of an orthodontic practitioner for treatment of the patient, the method comprising:

generating data by scanning shapes of the teeth of a patient;

displaying a graphic representation of the teeth of the patient with a computer from the generated data; and

through an operator interacting with a computer located remote from the orthodontic practitioner, altering the graphic representation to arrange a plurality of the teeth in relation to each other in accordance with the prescription, to produce a digital model of a desired arrangement of the teeth of the patient that includes data of the shapes of a plurality of the teeth positioned relative to each other.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

the interacting being by an operator other than the orthodontic practitioner and is at the location remote from that of the orthodontic practitioner; and

transmitting the generated data to the operator at the remote location for display at the remote location.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

designing geometry with a computer, based on the relatively positioned shapes of the plurality of teeth, for use in the manufacture of an orthodontic appliance for treatment of the patient to move the teeth of the patient to the desired arrangement.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

generating machine code in response to the designed geometry; and

transmitting the machine code to a manufacturing machine to substantially automatically operate the machine in accordance the shapes of the plurality of teeth.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

operating the manufacturing machine in accordance with the machine code to shape surfaces that conform to at least a portions of the shapes of the teeth of the patient.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein:

the operating of the machine includes manufacturing cavities each bounded by at least one of the shapes for fitting on the crown of at least one of the teeth of the patient.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein:

the manufacturing includes manufacturing an orthodontic archwire and a plurality of orthodontic brackets having geometries that cooperate to move the teeth of the patient to the desired arrangement; and

the method further comprises providing a plurality of bracket positioning jigs, each having one of the cavities formed therein that is bounded one of the shapes, for locating a bracket on the crown of one of the teeth of the patient.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the generating of the data by scanning shapes of the teeth of a patient includes scanning the shapes directly from the teeth in the mouth of the patient.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the generating of the data by scanning shapes of the teeth of a patient includes scanning the shapes indirectly from a model of the teeth of the patient.

10. A method for use in the orthodontic correction of malocclused teeth in accordance with the individual anatomy of the patient and an orthodontic prescription for treatment of the patient, the method comprising:

scanning shapes of the teeth of the patient and digitizing data of the scanned shapes;

communicating the digitized data to a computer programmed to apply at least some automated tooth position criteria to produce a digital model of the teeth of the scanned shapes in desired positions, and generating a 3-D digital model of the patient'"'"'s teeth in the desired positions based on the digitized data and in accordance with the prescription; and

generating machine code to operate a machine to form tooth shapes in accordance with the digital model.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

manufacturing a custom orthodontic appliance having at least one 3-D surface conforming to the formed tooth shapes.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

generating the 3-D digital model of the patient'"'"'s teeth, in response to the digitized data, representing a plurality of the teeth of the patient in desired post-treatment positions.

13. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

producing the digital model of the teeth in desired positions by the interaction of an operator with the computer, and generating, through operator interaction with the computer, the 3-D digital model of the patient'"'"'s teeth in the desired positions based on the digitized data and in accordance with the prescription.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein:

the communicating of the digitized data to the computer includes communicating the information to a computer that is configured to respond to operator-selected geometric parameters on the patient'"'"'s teeth and to produce the digital model of the teeth in desired positions based on the selected parameters.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein:

the communicating of the digitized data to the computer includes communicating the information to a computer programmed to accept operator selected geometric parameters on the patient'"'"'s teeth and to calculate a digital model of an occlusion of the teeth of the patient in desired positions based on the selected parameters.

16. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

selecting geometric parameters on the patient'"'"'s teeth by operator-interaction with the computer; and

calculating a digital model of the teeth in desired positions based on the selected parameters.

17. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

selecting geometric parameters on the patient'"'"'s teeth by operator-interaction with the computer; and

calculating a digital model of an occlusion of the teeth of the patient in desired positions based on the selected parameters.

18. A method for use in the orthodontic correction of malocclused teeth in accordance with individual anatomy of the patient and an orthodontic prescription for orthodontic treatment of the patient by a practitioner, the method comprising:

scanning shapes of the teeth of the patient;

digitizing data of the scanned shapes;

inputing tooth shape information into a computer that is remote from the practitioner and is programmed to select geometric parameters on the patient'"'"'s teeth from the digitized data by operator-interaction and to produce a digital model of the teeth in desired positions based on the selected parameters.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

providing to the patient a custom orthodontic appliance having surfaces conforming to the shapes of the teeth of the patient and formed in response to machine code in accordance with the digital model.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein:

the shapes of the teeth are scanned and the data is digitized at the site of the treating practitioner and the tooth shape information is transmitted in digital form to the computer remote from the treating practitioner.

21. The method of claim 18 wherein:

the shapes of the teeth are scanned and the data is digitized remote from the treating practitioner.

22. The method of claim 18 wherein:

the tooth shape information is communicated by transmitting a physical model of the teeth of the patient from the treating practitioner; and

the shapes of the teeth are scanned and the data is digitized from the physical model remote from the treating practitioner.

23. A method of providing a custom orthodontic appliance comprising:

generating digital information of 3-D tooth shape geometry of an orthodontic patient;

transmitting the digital information to a computer configured for defining geometry of a custom orthodontic appliance; and

receiving in digital form geometry defined with the computer at a manufacturing machine configured to operate in response to the defined geometry for use in the manufacture of the custom orthodontic appliance having surfaces conforming to the 3-D tooth shape geometry.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising:

manufacturing the custom orthodontic appliance having the derived geometry.

25. The method of claim 23 further comprising:

designing the custom orthodontic appliance with the computer.

26. The method of claim 23 further comprising:

designing the custom orthodontic appliance with the computer; and

manufacturing the custom orthodontic appliance as so designed.

27. The method of claim 23 further comprising:

designing the custom orthodontic appliance with the computer, the designing including deriving desired positions of the patient'"'"'s teeth from the digital information and basing the designing of the appliance on the derived desired positions.

28. The method of claim 23 wherein:

the digital information includes data of the shapes of the teeth of the patient.

29. The method of claim 23 wherein:

the digital information includes a prescription for the orthodontic treatment of the teeth of the patient.

30. A method of facilitating the custom orthodontic treatment of a patient comprising:

receiving digital information concerning the treatment of an orthodontic patient from an orthodontic practitioner via a computer at the site of the practitioner; and

deriving an occlusion for the patient based on the received digital information and the individual anatomy of the patient on a computer at a location remote from the office of the orthodontic practitioner.

31. The method of claim 30 further comprising:

communicating digital information to the orthodontic practitioner relating to the derived occlusion.

32. The method of claim 30 further comprising:

designing geometry of a custom orthodontic appliance on a computer at a location remote from the office of the orthodontic practitioner, that is based on the derived occlusion.

33. The method of claim 32 further comprising:

communicating digital information to the office of the orthodontic practitioner relating to the custom orthodontic appliance.

34. The method of claim 30 wherein:

the deriving of the occlusion is carried out with a computer interacting with a user on a computer interface.

35. The method of claim 30 wherein:

the digital information includes scanned three-dimensional data that includes the shapes of the teeth of the orthodontic patient, and

the deriving of the occlusion includes defining relative positions of the teeth of the patient from the shapes from the three-dimensional data.

36. The method of claim 30 wherein:

the digital information includes prescription data relating to the treatment of the orthodontic patient, and

the deriving of the occlusion is in accordance with the prescription data.

37. A method of processing digital data for use in facilitating the orthodontic treatment of a patient comprising:

scanning three-dimensional surfaces that have the shapes of a plurality of the teeth of a patient and generating data thereof;

from the generated data, producing separate digital representations of the shapes of each of a plurality of individual teeth of the patient.

38. The method of claim 37 wherein:

the producing of the separate digital representations from the generated data includes the operator-interactive selection on a computer display of landmark parameters of individual teeth.

39. The method of claim 37 wherein:

the producing of the separate digital representations from the generated data includes representing each of the plurality of teeth by a two-dimensional contour.

40. The method of claim 37 wherein:

the producing of the separate digital representations from the generated data includes separating an image of the plurality of teeth into individual data-sets each representing an individual tooth.

41. The method of claim 37 further comprising:

manipulating the separate digital representations of the generated data in a computer to rearrange the shapes of the individual teeth into desired relative positions.

42. The method of claim 37 further comprising:

manipulating the separate digital representations of the generated data in a computer to rearrange the shapes of the individual teeth into desired relative positions; and

designing geometry that defines custom orthodontic appliance surfaces based on the manipulated separate digital representations of the generated data.

43. The method of claim 37 further comprising:

manipulating the separate digital representations of the generated data in a computer to rearrange the shapes of individual teeth in relation to scanned skeletal data of the patient in desired relative positions.

44. The method of claim 37 further comprising:

manipulating the separate digital representations of the generated data in a computer to rearrange the shapes of the individual teeth in relation to scanned data of the jaw of the patient in desired relative positions.

45. A method of processing digital data for use in facilitating the orthodontic treatment of a patient comprising:

scanning the shapes of the teeth of a patient directly from the mouth of the patient and generating data thereof;

grouping the generated data into separate digital representations of the shapes of each of a plurality of individual teeth.

46. A method of processing digital data for use in facilitating the orthodontic treatment of a patient comprising:

configuring a local computer at the situs of an orthodontic practitioner for the entry of data relating to treatment for an orthodontic patient; and

enabling the local computer to communicate entered data from the practitioner to a remote computer at a location remote from the situs of the practitioner configured for deriving custom geometry of an appliance for carrying out treatment of the patient in response to data entered by the practitioner at the local computer.

47. The method of claim 46 further comprising:

providing the remote computer with operator-interactive software that is operative to design a custom orthodontic appliance at least in part in accordance with data entered by the practitioner on the local computer.

48. The method of claim 46 further comprising:

providing the remote computer with operator-interactive software that is operative to design a custom orthodontic appliance in part in accordance with data entered by the practitioner and in part in accordance with algorithms programmed therein.

49. The method of claim 46 further comprising:

providing the remote computer with operator-interactive software that is operative to calculate desired positions of the patient'"'"'s teeth at least in part in response to data entered by the practitioner.

50. The method of claim 46 further comprising:

providing the remote computer with operator-interactive software that is operative to calculate desired positions of the patient'"'"'s teeth in part in response to data entered by the practitioner and in part in accordance with algorithms programmed therein.

51. The method of claim 46 further comprising:

providing the remote computer with operator-interactive software that is operative to calculate desired positions of the patient'"'"'s teeth in part in response to data entered by the practitioner, in part by data entered by an operator at the location remote from the practitioner, and in part in accordance with algorithms programmed therein.

52. The method of claim 46 further comprising:

providing the remote computer with operator-interactive software that is operative to design a custom orthodontic appliance in part in response to data entered by an operator at the location remote from the situs of the practitioner.

53. The method of claim 46 further comprising:

transferring data from the local computer to the remote computer and operating the remote computer to derive geometry of a custom orthodontic appliance.

54. A method of providing digital data for use in facilitating the custom orthodontic treatment of a patient comprising:

transmitting a model of the teeth of a patient to be treated at an orthodontic practitioner'"'"'s facility to a facility remote therefrom having a computer thereat configured for digitally defining therewith positions to which to move the patient'"'"'s teeth by orthodontic treatment of the patient; and

facilitating treatment of the patient by the orthodontic practitioner to move the patient'"'"'s teeth to positions digitally defined with the computer from tooth shape information derived from the model.

55. The method of claim 54 wherein the model is a digital model.

56. The method of claim 54 wherein the model is a physical model.

57. The method of claim 54 wherein the model is a digital model made by scanning shapes of the patient'"'"'s teeth at the orthodontic practitioners facility.

58. The method of claim 54 wherein the model is a physical model made by forming an impression of the shapes of the patient'"'"'s teeth at the orthodontic practitioners facility.

59. The method of claim 54 further comprising:

digitally defining the positions to which to move the patient'"'"'s teeth by arranging on the computer at the remote facility individual tooth shape data derived from the model to generate a three-dimensional representation of the positions of the patient'"'"'s teeth in accordance with a prescription.

60. The method of claim 54 further comprising:

digitally defining the positions to which to move the patient'"'"'s teeth by arranging on the computer at the remote facility individual tooth shape data derived from the model to generate a three dimensional representation of the positions of the patient'"'"'s teeth; and

generating data of three-dimensional tooth-shape geometry for a custom orthodontic appliance to move the teeth of the patient to said positions.

61. The method of claim 54 further comprising:

digitally defining the positions to which to move the patient'"'"'s teeth by arranging individual tooth shape data derived from the model to generate a three dimensional representation of the positions of the patient'"'"'s teeth;

generating data of three-dimensional tooth-shape geometry for a custom orthodontic appliance to move the teeth of the patient to said positions; and

substantially automatically manufacturing the appliance having said geometry in accordance with the three-dimensional tooth shape geometry.

62. The method of claim 54 wherein the facilitating of the treatment of the patient includes providing an orthodontic appliance configured to move the teeth of the patient to the positions digitally defined with the computer at the remote facility.

63. The method of claim 54 wherein the facilitating of the treatment of the patient includes communicating instructions for treating the patient by moving the patient'"'"'s teeth to positions digitally defined with the use of the computer at the remote facility.

64. The method of claim 54 further comprising:

transmitting a prescription for the orthodontic treatment of the patient to the computer at the remote facility;

the facilitating of the treatment of the patient including the facilitating of the treatment of the patient for moving the teeth of the patient to tooth positions digitally defined with the computer at the remote facility in accordance with the prescription.

65. The method of claim 54 wherein the facilitating of the treatment of the patient includes facilitating treatment for moving the teeth of the patient to tooth positions digitally defined with the use of the computer at the remote facility at least in part by interaction of an operator with the computer.

66. The method of claim 54 wherein the facilitating of the treatment of the patient includes providing data for the fabrication of an orthodontic appliance for use in moving the teeth of the patient to the digitally defined positions.

67. The method of claim 54 wherein the facilitating of the treatment of the patient includes facilitating treatment for moving the teeth of the patient to tooth positions digitally calculated by the computer at the remote facility at least in part in accordance with a predetermined computer program.

68. The method of claim 54 wherein the facilitating of the treatment of the patient includes facilitating treatment for moving the teeth of the patient to tooth positions digitally determined with the computer at the remote facility at least in part in accordance with a calculated dental archform.

69. A computer-implemented method for use in generating digital models of a patient'"'"'s teeth, the method comprising:

receiving initial data that contains a 3D representation of a plurality of the patient'"'"'s teeth;

identifying multiple groups of data, each group containing a plurality of points from the initial data that separately digitally represent the shape of one of the teeth.

70. A method for defining an occlusion for upper and lower teeth of a patient, comprising:

from three dimensional data that contains a 3D representation of a plurality of the teeth of a patient, defining separate data of the surfaces of each of a plurality of different teeth of the patient;

generating a computer representation of the upper and lower teeth of the patient that includes the separate data of surfaces of a plurality of the teeth of the patient; and

determining with a computer an occlusion from the computer representation of the upper and lower teeth of the patient using one or more occlusion criteria of relationships between three dimensional surfaces of different teeth.

71. The method of claim 70 wherein at least one of the criteria is selected from the group consisting essentially of:

a relationship between cusps and ridges of molars,

tooth crown angulation,

lower jaw archform,

cuspid rise,

tooth contact point alignment, and

an occlusal plane.

72. The method of claim 70 further comprising:

identifying one or more landmarks among each of the separate data associated with the respective teeth; and

determining the occlusion based on a relative arrangement of the identified landmarks of different teeth.

73. The method of claim 72 wherein at least one of the landmarks is identified substantially automatically by the computer.

74. The method of claim 72 wherein at least one of the landmarks is selected by a user interacting with a computer.

75. The method of claim 70 wherein the occlusion is an ideal arrangement of teeth.

76. The method of claim 70 wherein the computer representation is derived from a physical model of the patient'"'"'s teeth.

77. The method of claim 70 further comprising:

generating a digital model of the patient'"'"'s teeth; and

adjusting tooth positions in the model by following a prescription.

78. The method of claim 77 wherein the model is specified by one or more archforms.

79. The method of claim 77 wherein the model is customized to the patient'"'"'s teeth.