Inventions herein include at least mostly optically clear orthodontic braces and feet orthotics (collectively referred to as “appliances”) with backscatter based sensors. These two categories of appliances share a common property requiring that the given appliance must be correctly custom manufactured to fit a patient's own particular geometry and dimensions of their teeth and/or feet in order to perform as intended. Incorporating such appliances with backscatter based sensors enables simple, easy, fast, efficient, and cost effective measurements, in real-time or near real-time, of stresses, forces, structural changes, and/or the like in the given appliance; which in turn can aid in determining if adjustments or re-manufacture of the appliance may be needed or desired; and/or wherein such measurements may aid in evaluating performance of the given appliance. In some embodiments, such measurements may also be taken remotely away from a practitioner; and then communicated to a remotely located practitioner.

A method for obtaining images for assessing oral health using a mobile device (103) having a screen (205) on one side of a housing of the mobile device (103) and a camera (207) on the opposite side of the housing (103), comprising: —on the mobile device (103) performing a dialogue with a user (101) of the mobile device (103), —determining an area of the user's oral cavity with symptoms based on the dialogue, —instructing the user (101) to position him-/herself in front of a minor (102) for capturing an image of the area of the user's oral cavity with symptoms, —capturing at least one image of the area of the user's oral cavity with symptoms with the camera (207) as instructed, and—either processing the at least one image locally on the mobile device (103), or—transmitting the at least one image or a representation thereof to a remote server (409).

According to some embodiments there is provided a method for structured light scanning of an intra-oral scene, comprising: projecting onto the intra-oral scene a color-coded pattern comprising an arrangement of entities having edges between them; each entity comprising a different narrow band of wavelengths; and detecting the projected pattern as a plurality of pixels in an acquired image of the scene using at least two narrowband filters, wherein for each pixel of at least 95% of the pixels of an entity of interest comprising a first band of wavelengths, a contribution of light from a second band of wavelengths of an adjacent entity is less than 10%. Some embodiments relate to a scanner system for structured light scanning of an intra-oral scene.

A method of automated tooth segmentation of a three dimensional scan data using a deep learning, includes determining a U-shape of teeth in input scan data and operating a U-shape normalization operation to the input scan data to generate first scan data, operating a teeth and gum normalization operation, in which the first scan data are received and a region of interest (ROI) of the teeth and gum is set based on a landmark formed on the tooth, to generate second scan data, inputting the second scan data to a convolutional neural network to label the teeth and the gum and extracting a boundary between the teeth and the gum using labeled information of the teeth and the gum.

The instant disclosure describes a novel dental appliance and methods of use thereof for taking orofacial photos.

A scanner for scanning a dental site comprises a base, a detector mounted to the base, and an optical element to redirect light reflected off of the dental site towards the detector along a detection axis in a first direction. Two or more flexures couple the optical element to the base, wherein thermal expansion or contraction of the optical element with respect to at least one of the detector or the base bends each flexure of the two or more flexures in a respective second direction without bending the flexure in a respective third direction approximately perpendicular to the first direction and the respective second direction, wherein the two or more flexures maintain an alignment of the optical element to the detector with changes in temperature.

An oral care device comprises a head portion and a handle portion. The head portion comprises at least one supporting arm and a base. The supporting arm extends from the base. A sensor is exposed from the supporting arm. The handle portion is configured to move relative to the head portion. The handle portion comprises a processor, wherein the processor is configured to receive signals from the sensor and analyze the signals received from the sensor.

Provided is a data processing method according to the present disclosure including: a scan data acquiring operation of acquiring scan data expressing an object, a reliability determining operation of determining a reliability of at least one evaluation area including at least one unit area for evaluating the scan data, and an indicating operation of indicating the evaluation area as a predetermined mark depending on the reliability of the evaluation area.

A scanner includes a camera, a light source for generating a probe light incorporating a spatial pattern, an optical system for transmitting the probe light towards the object and for transmitting at least a part of the light returned from the object to the camera, a focus element within the optical system for varying a position of a focus plane of the spatial pattern on the object, unit for obtaining at least one image from said array of sensor elements, unit for evaluating a correlation measure at each focus plane position between at least one image pixel and a weight function, a processor for determining the in-focus position(s) of each of a plurality of image pixels for a range of focus plane positions, or each of a plurality of groups of image pixels for a range of focus plane positions, and transforming in-focus data into 3D real world coordinates.

Systems and techniques are described for determining at least one of a translational force or a rotational force applied by a dental appliance to a tooth or teeth of a patient. A system includes model teeth configured to represent a portion of a dental arch and receive a dental appliance, a post extending from a first end coupled to a respective tooth to a second end coupled to a base, at least one strain gauge integrally formed on a surface of the post between the first end and the second end, and processor communicatively coupled to the at least one strain gauge and configured to determine at least one of a translational force or a rotational force applied by the dental appliance to the respective tooth.