Custom orthodontic appliance forming method and apparatus

Abstract

A system and method by which an orthodontic appliance is automatically designed and manufactured from digital lower jaw and tooth shape data of a patient provides for preferably scanning a model of the patient's mouth to produce two or three dimensional images and digitizing contours and selected points. A computer may be programmed to construct archforms and/or to calculate finish positions of the teeth, then to design an appliance to move the teeth to the calculated positions. The appliance may include archwires and brackets. Machine code is generated and appliances are automatically produced that will straighten the teeth of the patient. Custom placement jigs may also be automatically designed and fabricated and are provided with the custom appliance to position the appliance on the patient's teeth.

1 . A method of making a custom orthodontic appliance to move teeth of a patient from malocclused positions toward finish positions, the method comprising the steps of: 
 sensing the shapes of a plurality of the teeth of a patient;    from the sensed shapes, producing three-dimensional digital tooth-shape data representing shapes of individual teeth of the patient;    from the digital tooth shape data, producing in a digital computer, tooth finish position defining data that locate and orient the teeth in finish positions relative to each other;    processing the three dimensional digital tooth shape data and the tooth finish position defining data to derive appliance design data of an orthodontic appliance for urging the teeth of the patient from the malocclused positions toward the finish positions,    the design data including data of tooth interconnecting appliance geometry and data of three-dimensional tooth conforming surface geometry, the data of appliance geometry and of tooth-conforming surface geometry being related such that, when the orthodontic appliance having the appliance geometry is positioned on the teeth of the patient by fitting surfaces having the tooth conforming surface geometry to a plurality of the patient's teeth, the appliance geometry is deformed so as to apply forces to the teeth to urge the teeth toward the finish positions;    producing machine readable control signals containing geometric information correlated to the results of the appliance design data deriving step; and    manufacturing, by controlling one or more fabricating machines in response to the machine readable control signals, the orthodontic appliance having the tooth-interconnecting appliance geometry and the three-dimensional tooth-conforming surface geometry.    
     
     
         2 . A method of treating malocclused teeth comprising: 
 mounting an orthodontic appliance manufactured according to  claim 1  on the teeth of the patient by fitting surfaces thereof having the three-dimensional tooth conforming geometry against the crowns of a plurality of the patients teeth and thereby locating the appliance on the teeth and deforming the tooth-interconnecting appliance geometry to apply forces to the teeth; and    with the appliance on the teeth of the patient, moving the teeth away from the malocclused positions toward the finish positions with the force applied by the appliance having the deformed appliance geometry.    
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein: 
 the producing of the tooth finish position defining data includes processing the three-dimensional digital tooth-shape data in the computer to derive the tooth finish position data.  
 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein: 
 the producing of the tooth finish position defining data includes processing the three-dimensional digital tooth-shape data in the computer to derive a mathematical representation of an ideal dental archform for the patient, the tooth finish position data being defined in relation to the derived mathematical representation of the ideal dental archform.  
 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  wherein: 
 the producing of the tooth finish position defining data includes processing the three-dimensional digital tooth-shape data in the computer to define the tooth finish position data that includes relative positions of the teeth arranged in a dental archform.  
 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  wherein: 
 the manufacturing includes controlling one or more fabricating machines in response to the machine readable control signals to produce an orthodontic archwire having the tooth-interconnecting appliance geometry.  
 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  wherein: 
 the manufacturing includes controlling one or more fabricating machines in response to the machine readable control signals to produce orthodontic brackets having the three-dimensional tooth-conforming surface geometry.  
 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  wherein: 
 the manufacturing includes controlling one or more fabricating machines in response to the machine readable control signals to produce orthodontic bracket placement jigs having the three-dimensional tooth-conforming surface geometry.  
 
     
     
         9 . A method of making a custom orthodontic appliance for moving teeth that are initially in positions of malocclusion in the mouth of a patient toward treatment positions tending to correct the malocclusion, the method comprising: 
 scanning the shapes of the teeth while in their positions of malocclusion to generate 3-D data of the shapes of the teeth;    determining treatment positions of the teeth that will tend to correct the malocclusion and storing data of the determined treatment positions;    processing in a computer the stored data of treatment positions and designing thereby an orthodontic appliance for moving the teeth of the patient toward post appliance positions that are correlated to the determined treatment positions;    the designing of the appliance including defining 3-D data correlated to three dimensional areas on the teeth, at least some of said areas to be contacted by surfaces of the appliance to apply forces to the teeth to move the teeth to the post-appliance positions;    manufacturing one or more components of an orthodontic appliance having three dimensional surfaces thereon that conform to three dimensional areas of a patient's teeth by processing the defined 3-D data to operate a manufacturing apparatus to create structural shapes correlated to the three dimensional areas of the teeth.    
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9  wherein: 
 the manufacturing includes manufacturing a series of arch shaped appliances configured to progressively move the teeth toward treatment positions.  
 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10  wherein: 
 the series of arch shaped components is a series of archwires.  
 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11  wherein: 
 the series of archwires include archwires of increasing stiffness.  
 
     
     
         13 . A method of making a custom orthodontic appliance for moving teeth that are initially in positions of malocclusion in the mouth of a patient toward treatment positions tending to correct the malocclusion, the method comprising: 
 scanning the shapes of the teeth while in their positions of malocclusion to generate 3-D data of the shapes of each of a plurality of the teeth;    relating the 3-D data of the shapes of each of the plurality of the teeth in a computer in positions toward which they are to be moved by an orthodontic appliance;    processing in a computer the generated data and thereby designing geometry of the orthodontic appliance, the designing including: 
 defining, from the 3-D data, three dimensional areas, on each of the plurality of the teeth, to be contacted to locate the appliance on the teeth and to apply forces to the teeth for urging the teeth toward the positions toward which they are to be moved, and  
 defining an appliance configuration that includes surfaces conforming to a plurality of the defined three dimensional areas and elastically deformable three dimensional structure interconnecting at least some of said surfaces to apply forces to the plurality of teeth; and  
   operating manufacturing equipment to produce a tangible form of the designed geometry and therefrom producing an orthodontic appliance having the defined appliance configuration.    
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13  wherein: 
 the operating of manufacturing equipment includes producing an appliance in which the surfaces thereon that are for contacting three dimensional areas on each of the plurality of the teeth to locate the appliance on the teeth are located on positioning jigs that are a removable part of the appliance.  
 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 13  wherein: 
 the operating of manufacturing equipment includes producing the orthodontic appliance in which the surfaces thereon that are for contacting three dimensional areas on each of the plurality of the teeth to apply forces thereto for urging the teeth toward the positions toward which they are to be moved are the bases of orthodontic brackets.  
 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 13  wherein: 
 the operating of manufacturing equipment includes producing the orthodontic appliance in which the appliance configuration that includes elastically deformable three dimensional structure interconnecting surfaces to apply forces to the plurality of teeth includes an archwire having individualized geometry for customizing the appliance for the patient.  
 
     
     
         17 . A method of providing a custom orthodontic appliance for the treatment of an orthodontic patient by moving teeth that are in initial positions in the mouth of the patient toward treatment positions, the method comprising: 
 providing a three-dimensional scanner at a dental facility operable for scanning three-dimensional information of the mouth of a patient defining shapes of the teeth of the patient while the teeth are in initial positions;    providing an appliance facility having a computer and appliance fabrication machinery located thereat;    receiving, at the appliance facility from the dental facility, three-dimensional digital information defining the shapes of the teeth scanned by the scanner at dental facility; and    from information received at the appliance facility, fabricating, with the appliance fabrication machinery, an orthodontic appliance configured for treating the patient by moving teeth from their initial positions toward the treatment positions.    
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17  wherein: 
 the three-dimensional digital information is received at the appliance facility over an electronic communications network.  
 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 17  wherein: 
 the three dimensional information is scanned by the scanner directly from the mouth of a patient at the dental facility.  
 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 17  further comprising: 
 from the received data, determining at the appliance facility optimum bracket placement locations on each of the teeth.  
 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 17  further comprising: 
 based on the received data, selecting at the appliance facility an optimum set of brackets from sets of different bracket configurations stored in an electronic file.  
 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 17  further comprising: 
 based on the received data, selecting, at the appliance facility, an optimum set of brackets from sets of different bracket profiles stored in an electronic file.  
 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 17  further comprising: 
 determining the treatment positions of the teeth of the patient; and  
 based on the determined treatment positions, selecting one or more archwire parameters selected from the group of parameters consisting essentially of appliance archforms, archwire materials and archwire cross-sections.  
 
     
     
         24 . A method of fabricating a custom orthodontic appliance to position teeth of a patient to preferred finish positions in the mouth of the patient, the method comprising: 
 scanning anatomical shapes of the mouth of the patient and producing thereby anatomical tooth-shape data;    deriving an arrangement of the teeth of the patient using the anatomical tooth-shape data with a specially programmed computer;    determining bracket mounting locations on each of a plurality of the teeth of the patient;    based on the anatomical tooth-shape data, the determined bracket mounting locations and the derived arrangement of the teeth, designing an orthodontic archwire which, when engaged to brackets mounted at the bracket mounting locations, will move the teeth to the derived arrangement;    producing machine code to implement the designed orthodontic archwire; and    fabricating an orthodontic archwire in response to the machine code.    
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 24  wherein: 
 the fabricating includes the forming of a series of bends along the length of an archwire in response to the machine code.  
 
     
     
         26 . An apparatus for manufacturing a custom orthodontic appliance, the apparatus comprising: 
 a scanner located at a patient examination facility for generating data signals containing information of anatomical shapes directly from the mouth of an individual patient at the facility;    at least one computer programmed to calculate finish positions of the teeth of the patient, to calculate a design of an orthodontic appliance for placement on the teeth of the patient to move the teeth of the patient to the calculated finish positions, and to produce machine readable records of the calculated design; and    a fabricating machine at an appliance manufacturing facility, the machine being responsive to the machine readable records to fabricate an orthodontic appliance for the individual patient having the calculated design.    
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 26  wherein: 
 at least one computer is programmed to calculate finish positions of the teeth of the patient, including deriving at least one dental archform for the individual patient and to calculate the finish positions in relation to the archform.  
 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 26  wherein: 
 at least one computer is programmed to derive at least one dental archform for the individual patient and to calculate the finish positions of the teeth of the patient in relation to the archform and is located at the patient examination facility; and  
 at least one computer is programmed to calculate the design of an orthodontic appliance for placement on the teeth of the patient to move the teeth of the patient to the calculated finish positions on the derived dental archform and to produce machine readable records of the calculated appliance design and is located either at the patient examination facility or at an appliance manufacturing facility.  
 
     
     
         29 . A custom orthodontic archwire manufacturing apparatus comprising: 
 an archwire former operable in response to a wire shape control signal communicated thereto to form a length of orthodontic archwire material into an archwire shape;    a scanner operable to produce a digital record of anatomical shapes of the mouth of an individual patient; and    a programmed computer operative to generate a wire shape control signal responsive to the digital record so as to cause the archwire former to produce an orthodontic archwire having a shape that takes into account the anatomical shapes of the mouth of the individual patient.    
     
     
         30 . The apparatus of  claim 29  wherein: 
 the wire shape control signal includes wire length data that is correlated to a length component of the archwire and wire curvature data that respectively correspond to the wire length data; and  
 the archwire former includes a wire feeder operable in response to the wire length data of the control signal to longitudinally feed the orthodontic archwire material and wire bending elements operable in response to the wire curvature data of the control signal to bend the archwire material to the shape that takes into account the anatomical shapes of the mouth of the individual patient.  
 
     
     
         31 . The apparatus of  claim 29  wherein: 
 the wire length data is a digital representation of a connected series of wire segments and the wire curvature data are digital representations of the curvatures of the respective wire segments; and  
 the archwire former is operative to longitudinally feed the series of wire segments of the orthodontic archwire material according to the respective wire length components and to bend segments of the orthodontic archwire material to curvatures corresponding to the respective curvatures.  
 
     
     
         32 . The apparatus of  claim 29  further comprising: 
 a computer programmed to calculate preferred finish positions of the teeth of the patient from the digital record, the archwire shape control signal being generated in response to the calculated finish positions; and  
 the wire shape control signal being effective to cause the archwire former to produce an orthodontic archwire that will urge the teeth of the individual patient toward the calculated finish positions.  
 
     
     
         33 . A method of forming an orthodontic appliance based on individual anatomy of a patient for applying mutual forces between or among a plurality of teeth of the patient to move teeth to desired positions in the mouth of the patient, the method comprising the steps of: 
 sensing tooth shapes of a plurality of teeth of a patient;    from the sensed tooth shapes, producing tooth shape signals containing digital three-dimensional tooth shape data of the shapes of each of a plurality of the teeth of the patient;    producing desired tooth position signals containing digital tooth position data of the desired positions;    based on the tooth shape data and the desired tooth position data, displaying images of the teeth of the patient in the desired positions;    calculating, from the digital tooth shape data and digital tooth position data, geometry for configuring an orthodontic appliance to apply mutual forces between or among a plurality of the teeth of the patient to move the teeth toward the desired positions;    based on the results of the calculating step, generating a machine control signal carrying machine control instructions for producing the calculated geometry and communicating the generated control signal to a forming machine; and    imparting an orthodontic appliance with the calculated geometry by operating the machine in response to the control signal to produce structure having the calculated geometry.    
     
     
         34 . A method of fabricating a custom orthodontic archwire comprising: 
 sensing anatomical shapes of an individual patient's mouth;    producing anatomical shape data corresponding to the sensed anatomical shapes;    processing the anatomical shape data to derive data of preferred positions to which the teeth of the patients are to be moved by the appliance;    deriving digital data of an archwire shape based on the anatomical shape data and the derived data of the preferred positions;    generating a wire shape control signal containing information from the digital data of the archwire shape, such that, when the control signal is communicated to an archwire former, the archwire former produces an orthodontic archwire that is based on the anatomical shapes of the individual patient's mouth, and such that when the appliance is placed on the patient's teeth, the appliance urges the teeth toward the preferred positions; and    forming, in response to the wire shape control signal and from a length of orthodontic archwire material, an orthodontic archwire having the archwire shape.    
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 34  wherein: 
 the derived digital data of archwire shape includes wire length data and wire curvature data, the length data and the curvature data being based on the anatomical shapes and the curvature data being correlated to the length data;  
 the wire shape control signal includes a wire feed control signal carrying the wire length data and a wire bending control signal carrying the wire curvature data;  
 the wire shape control signal generating step includes the step of generating the wire feed control signal and the step of generating the wire bending control signal; and  
 the archwire forming step includes the step of longitudinally feeding the orthodontic archwire material in response to the wire feed control signal and bending the archwire material so fed in response to the wire bending control signal and in synchronism with the feeding of the archwire material to thereby form the archwire having the archwire shape.  
 
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 35  wherein: 
 the derived digital data the archwire shape is a digital representation of a connected series of wire segments, each having a length component and a curvature component, the components being based on the anatomical shape data and the preferred position data; and  
 the feeding step includes longitudinally feeding a series of lengths of the orthodontic archwire material corresponding to the respective wire length components in accordance with the wire length data and the step of bending each length of archwire material so fed into a curvature corresponding to the respective wire curvature component in accordance with the wire curvature data.  
 
     
     
         37 . A method of forming an individualized archwire for use with individualized brackets based on the anatomy of the mouth of a patient including anatomy of the individual patient's teeth, the method comprising the steps of: 
 sensing anatomical shapes of the patient's mouth, including the shapes of the patient's teeth;    from the sensed anatomical shapes, producing signals containing digital anatomical shape data, including three-dimensional tooth shape data;    establishing a digital representation of an ideal arrangement of the patient's teeth in the mouth of the patient;    establishing bracket mounting locations on each of a plurality of the teeth of the patient;    providing orthodontic brackets for mounting on the teeth at the established bracket mounting locations;    calculating, with a digital computer, the geometry of brackets and the shape of an archwire such that the brackets and archwire operate in conjunction with each other, when the brackets are mounted on the teeth at their respective bracket mounting locations and are interconnected by the archwire, to position the teeth in the ideal arrangement;    generating machine control signals correlated to the calculated shape of the archwire and communicating the generated control signals to an archwire forming machine; and    operating the archwire forming machine in response to the control signals to form an individualized archwire having the calculated shape.    
     
     
         38 . The method of  claim 37  wherein the establishing of the digital representation of an ideal arrangement of the patient's teeth in the mouth of the patient includes deriving the ideal arrangement by processing the anatomical shape data with a digital computer.  
     
     
         39 . A method of fabricating a custom orthodontic appliance to position teeth of a patient to preferred finish positions in the mouth of the patient, the method comprising the steps of: 
 sensing anatomical shapes of the mouth of a patient;    from the sensed anatomical shapes, producing signals containing anatomical shape data including three dimensional tooth shape data representing the shapes of individual teeth of the patient;    deriving an ideal arrangement of the teeth of the patient by processing the anatomical shape data contained in the signals on a digital computer, including positioning and orienting the teeth in the derived arrangement based at least in part upon the three dimensional tooth shape data for the individual teeth;    designing with the computer from the three dimensional tooth shape data, an orthodontic appliance configured to apply forces to urge the teeth toward the ideal arrangement;    producing machine readable control signals containing geometric information correlated to the results of the appliance designing step; and    operating a machine in response to the control signals and according to the geometric information to carry out at least one process selected from the group consisting of: 
 forming an orthodontic appliance configured to apply forces to the teeth to urge the teeth toward the ideal arrangement,  
 shaping three-dimensional surfaces corresponding to at least portions of the surfaces of the teeth of the patient and fabricating bracket positioning jigs having such surfaces thereon,  
 shaping three-dimensional surfaces corresponding to at least portions of the surfaces of the teeth of the patient and fabricating an appliance having three-dimensional tooth engaging surfaces derived therefrom, and  
 shaping three-dimensional surfaces corresponding to at least portions of the surfaces of the teeth of the patient and cutting slots in brackets positioning jigs having such surfaces thereon.  
   
     
     
         40 . A method of providing custom orthodontic treatment comprising: 
 providing a scanning device for producing three-dimensional digital data of the shapes of the teeth of a patient;    receiving, from a dental practitioner, instructions relating to prescribed orthodontic treatment of the patient;    displaying three-dimensional digital data from the scanner with a computer;    interactively selecting surface features of the patient's teeth from the data displayed with the computer;    manipulating the three-dimensional data with a computer to position the selected surface features of different teeth relative to each other so as to produce a digital arrangement of the teeth in accordance with the instructions from the dental practitioner;    designing an orthodontic appliance for moving the teeth of the patient in accordance with the digital arrangement and the instructions from the dental practitioner; and    fabricating an orthodontic appliance as so designed.    
     
     
         41 . The method of  claim 40  wherein: 
 the manipulating of the data to produce the digital arrangement of the teeth includes manually adjusting the digital arrangement on the computer.  
 
     
     
         42 . The method of  claim 40  wherein: 
 the fabricating of the orthodontic appliance includes forming an orthodontic archwire.  
 
     
     
         43 . The method of  claim 40  wherein: 
 the fabricating of the orthodontic appliance includes forming a series of bends along the length of an orthodontic archwire.  
 
     
     
         44 . The method of  claim 40  further comprising: 
 analyzing the anatomy of the teeth from the produced three dimensional data; and  
 fabricating the appliance based in part on the analyzing of the anatomy.  
 
     
     
         45 . The method of  claim 40  wherein: 
 the fabricating of the custom orthodontic appliance is based in part on identified placement positions on the teeth of the patient and specified bracket geometry.  
 
     
     
         46 . The method of  claim 40  further comprising: 
 providing bracket placement jigs based the three-dimensional data for the positioning the orthodontic appliance for bonding to the teeth of the patient.  
 
     
     
         47 . A method of making a custom orthodontic appliance comprising: 
 capturing three-dimensional anatomical data of the teeth of a patient while in initial positions;    based on the anatomical data, determining treatment positions of the teeth and storing data of the determined treatment positions;    processing in a computer the stored data of treatment positions and designing thereby an orthodontic appliance for moving the teeth of the patient toward the determined treatment positions; and    manufacturing a series of custom orthodontic appliances for applying forces to the teeth of the patient to move them progressively toward the determined treatment positions.    
     
     
         48 . The method of  claim 47  wherein: 
 the series of appliances includes a series of archwires.  
 
     
     
         49 . The method of  claim 47  wherein: 
 the series of appliances includes a series of archwires of increasing stiffness.  
 
     
     
         50 . The method of  claim 47  wherein: 
 the treatment position determining step includes manipulating the digitized three-dimensional data to produce a three-dimensional digital model of the teeth in the treatment positions.  
 
     
     
         51 . A method of making a custom orthodontic appliance comprising: 
 producing digital three-dimensional data of the shapes of the teeth of a patient, the data including relatively simple data sets of tooth representations and relatively high resolution data sets of tooth representations;    determining treatment positions of the teeth and storing data in a computer the determined treatment positions by manipulating the relatively low simple data sets of tooth representations;    processing in a computer the stored data of treatment positions and designing thereby an orthodontic appliance for urging the teeth of the patient toward the determined treatment positions; and    fabricating surfaces of material in accordance with the relatively high resolution data sets of tooth representations to conform surfaces of the material to the surfaces of the teeth for locating the appliance on the teeth.    
     
     
         52 . The method of  claim 51  wherein: 
 the relatively high resolution sets of tooth representations are produced by scanning a model of the teeth; and  
 the relatively simple data sets of tooth representations are produced by simplifying the data of the relatively high resolution data sets of tooth representations.  
 
     
     
         53 . The method of  claim 51  wherein: 
 the relatively high resolution data sets of tooth representations are produced by scanning a model of the teeth; and  
 the surfaces fabricated in accordance with the relatively high resolution data sets of tooth representations include surfaces of bracket positioning jigs that conform to the surfaces of the teeth for locating brackets on the teeth of the patient.  
 
     
     
         54 . A method of providing for the accurate placement of orthodontic appliances on the teeth of patients comprising: 
 providing a scanner for producing three-dimensional data of the shapes of the teeth of patients;    defining in a computer placement positions of orthodontic brackets on teeth;    generating control signals with the computer for controlling a fabricating machine;    producing with the fabricating machine in response to the control signals bracket placement jigs having tooth conforming surfaces thereon defined by three-dimensional data from the scanner for locating the orthodontic brackets at the defined placement positions on the teeth of patients.