US 12,233,590 B2
Dental appliances with folded material components
Jun Sato, San Jose, CA (US); Ryan Kimura, San Jose, CA (US); and Yaser Shanjani, San Jose, CA (US)
Assigned to Align Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed by Align Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed on Dec. 10, 2018, as Appl. No. 16/215,429.
Application 16/215,429 is a division of application No. 15/298,830, filed on Oct. 20, 2016, granted, now 10,150,244, issued on Dec. 11, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2019/0105829 A1, Apr. 11, 2019
Int. Cl. A61C 7/08 (2006.01); A61C 7/00 (2006.01); A61C 7/10 (2006.01); A61C 13/00 (2006.01); B29C 53/02 (2006.01); B29C 53/04 (2006.01); B29C 53/06 (2006.01); B29C 53/36 (2006.01); B29L 31/00 (2006.01); B65H 45/00 (2006.01)
CPC B29C 53/04 (2013.01) [A61C 7/002 (2013.01); A61C 7/08 (2013.01); B29C 53/02 (2013.01); B29C 53/043 (2013.01); B29C 53/06 (2013.01); B29C 53/063 (2013.01); B29C 53/36 (2013.01); A61C 7/10 (2013.01); A61C 13/0013 (2013.01); B29L 2031/753 (2013.01); B65H 45/00 (2013.01)] 14 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A dental appliance comprising: a shell having one or more tooth apertures configured to receive and reposition one or more teeth of a patient, and a specialized region configured to impart one or more specialized forces to one or more particular areas of the patient's dentition, the specialized region including a reinforcement structure comprising a rigid three-dimensional structure, wherein the rigid three-dimensional structure comprises a plurality of repeating geometric shapes defined by folds in a sheet of one or more polymeric materials; wherein the folds are folded along a pattern of lines according to the plurality of repeating geometric shapes, and, wherein the rigid three-dimensional structure has a greater thickness than the unfolded sheet so as to impart a greater rigidity to the specialized region compared to the unfolded sheet, thereby reinforcing the specialized region for imparting the one or more specialized forces to the one or more particular areas of the one or more teeth patient's dentition.