US 12,263,050 B2
Unitary dental model
Michael Sabina, Campbell, CA (US); Avi Kopelman, Palo Alto, CA (US); and Yoram Sharabi, Kadima (IL)
Assigned to ALIGN TECHNOLOGY, INC., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed by Align Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed on Apr. 21, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/236,951.
Application 16/006,183 is a division of application No. 14/306,096, filed on Jun. 16, 2014, granted, now 10,016,262, issued on Jul. 10, 2018.
Application 17/236,951 is a continuation of application No. 16/006,183, filed on Jun. 12, 2018, granted, now 10,987,202, issued on Apr. 27, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2021/0338391 A1, Nov. 4, 2021
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. A61C 13/34 (2006.01); A61C 13/00 (2006.01); A61C 8/00 (2006.01); A61C 9/00 (2006.01); G16H 20/40 (2018.01)
CPC A61C 13/34 (2013.01) [A61C 13/0004 (2013.01); A61C 8/0001 (2013.01); A61C 9/0053 (2013.01); G16H 20/40 (2018.01)] 30 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A non-transitory computing device readable medium storing instructions executable by a processor configured to cause a computing device to perform a method for creating a unitary dental model, comprising:
receiving topographical data of an intraoral cavity of a patient having a dental implant;
determining a position and an orientation of the dental implant in an as-scanned virtual model that embodies the topographical data of the intraoral cavity;
positioning a virtual model of an implant analog relative to the as-scanned virtual model based on the determined position and orientation of the dental implant, wherein the virtual model comprises a virtual surface representative of a virtual channel having at least one virtual shoulder shaped and oriented to receive a virtual abutment model corresponding to the virtual model of the implant analog;
modifying the as-scanned virtual model by merging the implant analog virtual model with the as-scanned virtual model, thereby creating a modified as-scanned virtual model; and
generating instructions for fabricating the unitary dental model based on the modified as-scanned virtual model.