A method for acquiring at least one two-dimensional image of a part of arches of a patient includes steps carried out by the patient or other person who is not a dental health professional, for example, including placing a dental separator in the mouth of the patient in order to separate the lips of the patient and improve the visibility of the teeth during the acquisition of said at least one two-dimensional image, and acquiring, in a mouth closed position and with a personal image acquisition apparatus, said at least one two-dimensional image.

A method for forming a virtual 3D mathematical model of a dental system, including receiving DICOM files representing the dental system; identifying number and location of voxels of tissues of the dental system; combining the voxels of the tissues into voxels of organs of the dental system; combining the organs into the virtual 3D mathematical model of the dental system, wherein the virtual 3D mathematical models supports linear, non-linear and volumetric measurements of the dental system; and presenting the virtual 3D mathematical model to a user. The DICOM files can be cone beam or multispiral computed tomography, MRT, PET and/or ultrasonography. The tissues include enamel, dentin, pulp, cartilage, periodontium, and/or jaw bone. The organs include teeth, gums, temporomandibular joint and/or jaw. A size of the voxels is typically between 40 μm and 200 μm.

Methods for designing and fabrication of a series of apparatuses for expanding a patient's palate (“palatal expanders”). In particular, described herein are methods and apparatuses for forming palatal expanders, including rapid palatal expanders, as well as series of palatal expanders formed as described herein and apparatuses for designing and fabricating them.

Methods and apparatus for producing controlled tooth-moving forces are provided. An orthodontic appliance includes one or more occlusal surface features that modify bite forces between opposing teeth during intercuspation to aid in realignment of the teeth. The interception bite forces can be applied between appliance shells on opposing arches, or between an appliance shell and an opposing tooth. These modified bite forces can be used to supply or augment tooth-moving forces, and the tooth moving forces can produce moments to urge rotational movement of a tooth. Also described herein are orthodontic appliances having an occlusal outer surface contours that are distinct from the occlusal inner surface contour within the dental appliance and may be configured to selectively intercuspate.

Systems, methods, and devices for producing appliances for expansion of the arch of a patient are provided. An arch expanding appliance comprises a force generating portion to apply an arch expansion force and a retention portion to hold the force generating portion on the teeth. The retention portion comprises a flexible portion and a stiff portion. The force generating portion applies a force to move teeth associated with the flexible portion, while the stiff portion resists movement of its associated teeth. The orthodontic appliances can be designed according to the specifications provided herein and manufactured using direct fabrication methods.

A dental appliance for positioning a patient's teeth includes a removable orthodontic tooth positioning appliance having teeth receiving cavities shaped to directly receive at least some of the patient's teeth and apply a resilient positioning force to the patient's teeth. The appliance includes a hard polymer layer having a hard polymer layer elastic modulus disposed between a first soft polymer layer having a first soft polymer layer elastic modulus and a second soft polymer layer having a second soft polymer layer elastic modulus. The hard polymer layer elastic modulus is greater than each of the first soft polymer layer elastic modulus and the second soft polymer layer elastic modulus. At least one of the first soft polymer layer and the second soft polymer layer has a flexural modulus of greater than about 35,000 psi.

The present invention concerns a surgical device made by computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) and its use as a surgical guide.

Systems and methods are disclosed for treating teeth to correct for malocclusions. This may be accomplished by applying a series of labels to a digital dental model and applying a rolling ball process to identify tooth boundaries separating one tooth from a neighboring tooth and to also determine the crown/gum margin. The user may further assign regions to the dental model to indicate hard regions and soft regions. With the dental model labeled and defined, the user may then generate a treatment plan for moving the labeled and defined tooth or teeth relative to one another to correct for any malocclusions. Upon approval of the treatment plan, a series of 3D printed dental appliances or aligners to be worn in series by the patient may be fabricated to ultimately move the tooth or teeth to a desired position.

The present disclosure provides methods, computing device readable medium, devices, and systems having a dental attachment formation structure. One dental attachment formation apparatus includes a body having a first surface shaped to conform to the contours of an exterior surface of a tooth and including a portion of the first surface shaped to accommodate an attachment that is to be attached to the exterior surface of the tooth and a light source attachment structure for attachment of a light source to the body.

A computer-implemented method for generating a virtual depiction of an orthodontic treatment of a patient is disclosed herein. The computer-implemented method may involve gathering a three-dimensional (3D) model modeling the patient's dentition at a specific treatment stage of an orthodontic treatment plan. An image of the patient's face and dentition may be gathered. A first set of reference points modeled on the 3D model of the patient's dentition and a second set of reference points represented on the dentition of the image of the patient may be received. The image of the patient's dentition may be projected into a 3D space to create a projected 3D model of the image of the patient's dentition. Based on a comparison of the first reference points and projections of the second set of reference points, a plurality of modified images of the patient may be constructed to depict progressive stages of a treatment plan.