US 12,226,277 B2
Methods for orthodontic progress tracking
Fuming Wu, Pleasanton, CA (US); Vadim Matov, San Jose, CA (US); and Jihua Cheng, Cupertino, CA (US)
Assigned to ALIGN TECHNOLOGY, INC., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed by Align Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed on May 21, 2019, as Appl. No. 16/418,612.
Application 16/418,612 is a continuation of application No. 14/865,479, filed on Sep. 25, 2015, granted, now 10,368,960.
Application 14/865,479 is a continuation of application No. 14/089,658, filed on Nov. 25, 2013, granted, now 9,168,113, issued on Oct. 27, 2015.
Application 14/089,658 is a continuation of application No. 12/334,329, filed on Dec. 12, 2008, granted, now 8,591,225, issued on Nov. 26, 2013.
Prior Publication US 2019/0307531 A1, Oct. 10, 2019
Int. Cl. A61C 7/00 (2006.01); A61C 7/08 (2006.01); A61C 9/00 (2006.01); G06F 18/22 (2023.01); G06T 7/00 (2017.01); G06T 7/60 (2017.01); G06T 7/73 (2017.01)
CPC A61C 7/00 (2013.01) [A61C 7/002 (2013.01); A61C 7/08 (2013.01); A61C 9/00 (2013.01); A61C 9/0006 (2013.01); A61C 9/0053 (2013.01); G06F 18/22 (2023.01); G06T 7/0014 (2013.01); G06T 7/60 (2013.01); G06T 7/74 (2017.01); G06T 2207/30036 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method comprising:
identifying a treatment plan for a patient's teeth, the treatment plan providing an original treatment path towards a treatment outcome for a dental condition associated with the patient's teeth, wherein the treatment path comprises one or more intermediate stages and a final stage corresponding to the treatment outcome;
identifying a stage along the original treatment path of the treatment plan at which to assess the treatment plan for a corrective action;
obtaining a plan model of the patient's teeth, the plan model providing a planned arrangement of the patient's teeth at the identified stage of the treatment plan;
obtaining a tracking model of the patient's teeth, the tracking model representing an actual arrangement of the patient's teeth at the identified stage of the treatment plan, wherein obtaining the tracking model comprises processing a scan of the patient's teeth or a scan of impressions of the patient's teeth, the scan representing the actual arrangement of the patient's teeth at the identified stage of the treatment plan;
generating a comparison of one or more anatomical reference shapes and one or more surface features on the plan model with corresponding one or more anatomical reference shapes and one or more surface features on the tracking model using a coarse to fine volume 3D array to represent one or both of the plan model and the tracking model to minimize distances between teeth represented in the plan model and corresponding teeth represented in the tracking model, wherein the coarse to fine volume 3D array includes a plurality of coarse volumes, each coarse volume including a plurality of fine volumes, wherein each of the coarse and fine volumes includes a reference to a closest vertex of the tracking model;
detecting one or more positional differences between the anatomical reference shapes and surface features of the plan model and the corresponding anatomical reference shapes and surface features of the tracking model based on the comparison;
generating a modified treatment plan based on the one or more detected positional differences, wherein the modified treatment plan restages the treatment plan directly from the actual arrangement towards the treatment outcome without redirecting the treatment plan back to the identified one or more intermediate stages along the original treatment path;
generating a digital dental model of a dental appliance corresponding to a new intermediate stage of the modified treatment plan; and
fabricating the dental appliance according to the new intermediate stage of the modified treatment plan.