US 12,109,090 B2
Palatal expanders for controlling crown tipping
Fuming Wu, Pleasanton, CA (US); Ryan Kimura, San Jose, CA (US); Jeremy Riley, Mountain View, CA (US); Yaser Shanjani, Milpitas, CA (US); Norman Su, San Jose, CA (US); Jun Sato, San Jose, CA (US); Bastien Pesenti, San Jose, CA (US); John Y. Morton, Palo Alto, CA (US); and Jihua Cheng, San Jose, CA (US)
Assigned to Align Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed by Align Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed on Jan. 23, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/158,451.
Application 17/100,784 is a division of application No. 15/831,262, filed on Dec. 4, 2017, granted, now 10,993,783, issued on May 4, 2021.
Application 18/158,451 is a continuation of application No. 17/100,784, filed on Nov. 20, 2020, granted, now 11,576,754.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/429,696, filed on Dec. 2, 2016.
Prior Publication US 2023/0157791 A1, May 25, 2023
Int. Cl. A61C 7/10 (2006.01); A61C 7/00 (2006.01); A61C 9/00 (2006.01); A61C 13/00 (2006.01); G16H 40/63 (2018.01); G16H 40/67 (2018.01); G16H 50/50 (2018.01); G06T 17/00 (2006.01)
CPC A61C 7/10 (2013.01) [A61C 7/002 (2013.01); A61C 9/004 (2013.01); A61C 13/0004 (2013.01); G16H 40/63 (2018.01); G16H 40/67 (2018.01); G16H 50/50 (2018.01); G06T 17/00 (2013.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A series of palatal expanders having a sequence and configured to be sequentially worn by a patient to expand the patient's palate in the sequence while controlling crown tipping, the series of palatal expanders comprising:
for one or more palatal expanders in the series:
a left tooth engagement region configured to be removably worn over the patient's teeth in a left maxillary portion of the patient's upper jaw,
a right tooth engagement region configured to be removably worn over the patient's teeth in a right maxillary portion of the patient's upper jaw, and
a palatal region between the left tooth engagement region and the right tooth engagement region,
wherein the left tooth engagement region and the right tooth engagement region are configured to add anti-tipping torque to at least one tooth to control tipping of a crown of the at least one tooth during palatal expansion, wherein the left tooth engagement region and the right tooth engagement region are configured to add the anti-tipping torque by having lingual surfaces with at least one lingual protrusion shaped to engage corresponding lingual surfaces of a plurality of the patient's teeth, wherein the lingual surfaces of each of the left and right tooth engagement regions have a gingival portion and a coronal portion, the coronal portion being closer to crowns of the patient's teeth than the gingival portion when worn, and wherein the at least one lingual protrusion is on the gingival portion;
wherein, for each successive palatal expander in the series of palatal expanders after a first palatal expander in the sequence, the palatal region is progressively expanded relative to a mid-sagittal plane through the first palatal expander.