US 11,998,418 B2
Reinforced aligner hooks
Eric Kuo, San Jose, CA (US); Artem Borovinskih, Union City, CA (US); and Shiva Sambu, Santa Clara, CA (US)
Assigned to ALIGN TECHNOLOGY, INC., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed by Align Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed on Jan. 29, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/163,144.
Application 14/951,245 is a division of application No. 12/772,130, filed on Apr. 30, 2010, abandoned.
Application 17/163,144 is a continuation of application No. 16/285,004, filed on Feb. 25, 2019, granted, now 10,912,627, issued on Feb. 9, 2021.
Application 16/285,004 is a continuation of application No. 14/951,245, filed on Nov. 24, 2015, granted, now 10,271,923, issued on Apr. 30, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2021/0145545 A1, May 20, 2021
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. A61C 7/08 (2006.01); A61C 7/00 (2006.01); B33Y 50/02 (2015.01); G06F 30/20 (2020.01); A61C 9/00 (2006.01)
CPC A61C 7/002 (2013.01) [A61C 7/08 (2013.01); B33Y 50/02 (2014.12); G06F 30/20 (2020.01); A61C 9/0046 (2013.01)] 29 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system for providing a plurality of orthodontic positioning appliances, the system comprising:
a processor configured to:
receive a digital representation of a patient's teeth in an initial arrangement;
determine a plurality of orthodontic positioning stages including a series of successive tooth arrangements for repositioning the patient's teeth from the initial arrangement to a target arrangement;
determine shapes of a plurality of orthodontic positioning appliances, wherein each of the plurality of orthodontic positioning appliances corresponds with one of the plurality of orthodontic positioning stages;
determine, for each successive tooth arrangement, an orientation of an elastic member between an upper jaw appliance of the plurality of orthodontic positioning appliances and a lower jaw appliance of the plurality of orthodontic positioning appliances;
determine, for each successive tooth arrangement, an orientation of a hook relative to each of the plurality of orthodontic positioning appliances, based on the orientation of the elastic member in the plurality of orthodontic positioning stages; and
generate instructions for fabrication of the plurality of orthodontic positioning appliances; and
a fabrication machine, wherein the fabrication machine is in communication with the processor and configured to receive the instructions therefrom; and
wherein the fabrication machine is configured to fabricate the plurality of orthodontic positioning appliances.