In a system of manufacturing an orthodontic wire, a method for manufacturing the orthodontic wire using the system, and an orthodontic wire bending machine for performing the system, the system includes a teeth data obtaining part, a simulating part, a calculating part and a wire manufacturing part. The teeth data obtaining part obtains present teeth data of a patient. The simulating part generates final teeth data. The calculating part compares a predetermined threshold to a compared value between the present teeth data of the patient and the final teeth data. The wire manufacturing part selectively manufactures a wire for an orthodontic process or a wire for a dentition maintenance process based on a compared result of the calculating part.

Provided herein are systems and methods for determining hook and or positioning feature placements during dental treatment planning. A patient's dentition may be scanned and/or segmented. A target tooth may be identified. Hook and or positioning feature placement may be determined based on satisfying manufacturing and clinical constraints. The hook or positioning features can be input into a dental treatment planning system.

A distractor for palatal expansion is disclosed. A high degree of treatment safety can be insured if anchoring parts each have at least two tooth supports and each subsection has at least one of the tooth supports and at least one of the palate rests to which this tooth support is connected in order to thus fix the support surfaces in their position against the palate.

A method, executable by a processor, of generating an augmented tooth 3D digital model of a given tooth is disclosed. The method includes obtaining a preliminary tooth 3D digital model of the given tooth, and then generating the augmented tooth 3D digital model therefrom by obtaining data of a longitudinal axis of the given tooth, and data indicative of a tooth gingiva segmentation contour between the crown and root portions; determining for each root vertex, a respective new position relative to the longitudinal axis in which the respective new position is defined by a shift distance value and a shift direction vector; moving each of the root vertices to their respective new position by applying their respective shift distance values along their respective shift direction vector to generate the augmented tooth 3D digital model; and storing the augmented tooth 3D digital model for determining an orthodontic treatment for the subject.

A dental appliance having an integrally formed reservoir and/or an ornamental design integrated thereon. The ornamental design can be selected or customized by a patient. The design can be created by directing energy to the dental appliance to alter a material property of at least a portion of the appliance to create the design. Alternatively, a groove or recess can be formed on a surface of the appliance to either mechanically retain an ornamental design or the groove or recess can be filled with ink to form the design. The appliance, including the integrally formed reservoir, can be formed using direct fabrication techniques.

Systems and methods for automating the production of dental aligners is disclosed. In some embodiments the systems and methods include a three-dimensional printer in communication with one or more computer and one or more computer programs. The system and method configured to permit persons to automatically scan and upload a pre-existing digital scan, x-ray, physical mold or other impression of a person's teeth to the three-dimensional printer for direct real-time printing of custom dental aligners. In some embodiments, the system and method also includes an intraoral scanner configured to permit persons to take and receive a real-time digital scan of their teeth and receive a real-time custom dental aligner, on the same day and from the same integrated system, method, machine, kiosk and location.

A method for correcting a geometric distortion in a diagnostic image, said method comprising the steps of: receiving a segmented volumetric image and a surface scan image, corresponding to a maxillofacial anatomy of a patient; aligning the surface scan mesh to a volumetric image; and applying a transformation to the surface scan image mesh in which the geometry of a HV-LD is altered yielding the surface scan image mesh with tooth crowns closely corresponding to the volumetric image teeth image resulting in a correction for the geometric distortion.

Disclosed herein are methods of manufacturing an oral appliance, the method comprising the steps of: a) importing into a computer aided design (CAD) computer program a digitized data set obtained from a three-dimensional scan of a patient's dentition; b) preparing a three-dimensional electronic model of the patient's dentition; c) subtracting the three-dimensional electronic model of the patient's dentition from an image of a solid block to obtain an appliance data set; and d) manufacturing a dental appliance in accordance with the appliance data set. Also disclosed are devices made by the above method, and methods of treating a condition, for example a sleep breathing disorder, by using a device made by the above method.

Methods for generating multiple orthodontic treatment options for a digital 3D model of teeth in malocclusion. The method generates a plurality of different orthodontic treatment plans for the teeth and displays in a user interface the digital 3D model of teeth in malocclusion with a visual indication of each of the plurality of different orthodontic treatment plans. The visual indication of the treatment plans can be overlaid on the digital 3D model of teeth in malocclusion and possibly include aligners, brackets, or a combination of aligners and brackets. A doctor, technician, or other user can then select one of the treatment plans for a particular patient.

Methods and systems for digitally designing a plurality of aligners are provided. In some embodiments, a method includes receiving an intraoral scan of the patient's teeth, and generating 3D dental model of the patient's teeth using the intraoral scan. The method can include identifying a movement path to move the patient's teeth from an initial arrangement toward a target arrangement through a plurality of intermediate arrangements in accordance with a treatment plan. The method can also include identifying one or more appliance features of at least one aligner, the one or more appliance features including one or more feature regions having one or more feature thicknesses. The method can further include instructing an additive manufacturing machine to directly fabricate the at least one aligner in a layer-by-layer fashion.