US 12,082,986 B2
Methods for direct fabrication of dental appliances with varying feature thicknesses and associated systems
Avi Kopelman, Palo Alto, CA (US); Allen Boronkay, San Jose, CA (US); Peter Webber, Lafayette, CA (US); Vadim Matov, San Jose, CA (US); Srinivas Kaza, San Francisco, CA (US); Ryan Kimura, San Jose, CA (US); and Yaser Shanjani, Sunnyvale, CA (US)
Assigned to Align Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed by Align Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed on Mar. 3, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/178,380.
Application 18/178,380 is a continuation of application No. 18/146,153, filed on Dec. 23, 2022, granted, now 11,944,514.
Application 18/146,153 is a continuation of application No. 15/202,254, filed on Jul. 5, 2016, granted, now 11,571,278, issued on Feb. 7, 2023.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/189,312, filed on Jul. 7, 2015.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/189,317, filed on Jul. 7, 2015.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/189,291, filed on Jul. 7, 2015.
Prior Publication US 2023/0218372 A1, Jul. 13, 2023
Int. Cl. B33Y 10/00 (2015.01); A61C 7/00 (2006.01); A61C 7/08 (2006.01); A61C 7/10 (2006.01); A61C 7/14 (2006.01); A61C 7/36 (2006.01); B33Y 50/02 (2015.01); B33Y 80/00 (2015.01); G05B 15/02 (2006.01); G05B 19/042 (2006.01); G05B 19/4097 (2006.01); B29L 31/00 (2006.01)
CPC A61C 7/002 (2013.01) [A61C 7/08 (2013.01); A61C 7/10 (2013.01); A61C 7/14 (2013.01); A61C 7/146 (2013.01); A61C 7/36 (2013.01); B33Y 50/02 (2014.12); B33Y 80/00 (2014.12); G05B 15/02 (2013.01); G05B 19/042 (2013.01); G05B 19/4097 (2013.01); B29L 2031/753 (2013.01); B29L 2031/7532 (2013.01); G05B 2219/2647 (2013.01); G05B 2219/35134 (2013.01); G05B 2219/49007 (2013.01)] 28 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer-implemented method for digitally designing a plurality of aligners, the computer-implemented method comprising:
generating a three-dimensional (3D) dental model of an initial arrangement of a patient's teeth;
identifying a target arrangement for the patient's teeth using a treatment plan applied to the 3D dental model;
identifying a movement path to move the patient's teeth from the initial arrangement toward the target arrangement through a plurality of intermediate arrangements in accordance with the treatment plan;
identifying appliance geometries for a plurality of aligners to implement the movement path, wherein at least one aligner of the plurality of aligners comprises an appliance shell having a plurality of cavities that receive a patient's teeth and apply forces to reposition the patient's teeth along the movement path,
wherein identifying the appliance geometries comprises identifying one or more protrusions of the at least one aligner to control application of the forces to the patient's teeth, and wherein the one or more protrusions are integrally formed in the appliance shell and extend inward from an interior surface of the appliance shell toward at least one tooth received by the appliance shell to define a contact point for application of force to the at least one tooth; and
instructing an additive manufacturing machine to directly fabricate the at least one aligner in a layer-by-layer fashion.