US 11,957,532 B2
Creating a digital dental model of a patient's teeth using interproximal information
Bob Grove, San Jose, CA (US); and Eric Kuo, San Jose, CA (US)
Assigned to ALIGN TECHNOLOGY, INC., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed by Align Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed on Oct. 31, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/977,852.
Application 17/977,852 is a continuation of application No. 16/846,118, filed on Apr. 10, 2020, granted, now 11,534,266.
Application 16/846,118 is a continuation of application No. 13/786,300, filed on Mar. 5, 2013, granted, now 10,617,489, issued on Apr. 14, 2020.
Claims priority of provisional application 61/739,600, filed on Dec. 19, 2012.
Prior Publication US 2023/0190410 A1, Jun. 22, 2023
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. A61C 7/00 (2006.01); A61C 9/00 (2006.01)
CPC A61C 7/002 (2013.01) [A61C 9/0053 (2013.01)] 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of generating a digital dental model of a patient's teeth, the method comprising:
receiving, by a digital-teeth-model-receiving-component, a first digital scan of the patient's teeth, wherein the first digital scan comprises a first three-dimensional digital teeth model;
receiving, by the digital-teeth-model-receiving-component, a second digital scan of the patient's teeth, wherein the second digital scan comprises a scannable object inserted in an interproximal space between a first tooth and a second tooth of the patient's teeth;
determining, by an interproximal-information-obtaining-component, interproximal information of the patient's teeth, wherein the interproximal information is based at least in part on the second digital scan; and
generating, by a digital-teeth-model-creation-component, a modified three-dimensional digital teeth model based at least in part on the interproximal information, thereby providing a depiction of the interproximal space between the first tooth and the second tooth of the patient's teeth;
wherein the modified three-dimensional digital teeth model is generated by digitally removing, from the first three-dimensional digital teeth model, three-dimensional model portions corresponding to the interproximal space between the first tooth and the second tooth of the patient.