Automated dental drill

Abstract

An automated dental drill includes a dental drill housing that includes a mouthpiece housing section and a one or more degrees of freedom drive housing section; an end effector drive support having a shaft section that is at least partially positioned in the mouth piece housing section, and an end effector for the cutting of a native tooth or dental appliance to a desired tolerance. The end effector is positioned on the end effector drive support. The automated dental drill also includes a power source that drives the end effector and is coupled to the end effector and a one or more degrees of freedom drive assembly to direct the end effector along one or more degrees of freedom relative to the mouth piece housing section.

1 . A multi-degree of freedom dental positioning system comprising:
 (a) a power source connector to a power source;   (b) a dental end-effector;   (c) an end-effector coupling connected to the power source connector and the dental end-effector, wherein the end-effector coupling is configured to transfer power from the power source connector to the dental end-effector; and   (d) a drive assembly configured to translate the dental end-effector in two or more directions.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the dental end effector comprises a drill, a laser, a probe, a nozzle, a pick, an x-ray, or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the laser comprises a picosecond laser, a femtosecond laser, a microsecond CO2 laser, or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the laser emits a beam having a wavelength of about 0.5  82  m to about 18 μm. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the laser emits a beam having a pulse energy of about 0.5 μJ to about 50,000 μJ. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the laser emits a beam having a pulse duration of about 10 ns to about 500,000 ns. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the laser emits a beam having a pulse repetition rate of about 5 Hz to about 5,000,000 Hz. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the laser emits 1 to 10 billion pulses. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the end-effector coupling comprises a gear, a shaft, a pulley, an optical fiber, a light guide, a free-space optic, a worm drive, a linear slide, a linear drive mechanism, a rotary mechanism, a mirror, a lens, a prism, or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the drive assembly comprises a stepper drive, piezoelectric drive, a servomotor drive, or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the drive assembly is configured to translate or rotate the dental end effector about two or more degrees of freedom. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the power source comprises one or more of a motor, a laser emitter, a battery, a wall outlet, a generator, or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the power source is mounted to the drive assembly. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the power source is not mounted to the drive assembly. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a housing, and wherein at least a portion of one or more of the power source connector, the dental end-effector, the end-effector coupling, and the drive assembly resides within the housing. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a tooth clamp and a tooth clamp connector, wherein the tooth clamp is configured to be rigidly and removably affixed to a tooth of a patient. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the tooth clamp connector is rigidly attached to the drive assembly, the tooth clamp, or both. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the tooth clamp connector is affixed to the drive assembly, the tooth clamp, or both and free to move in one or more directions with respect to the drive assembly, the tooth clamp, or both. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the drive assembly translates the end effector in at least two degrees of freedom with respect to the tooth clamp. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a gimbal arm attached to the housing, the drive assembly, or both, wherein the gimbal arm is configured to manually position the housing, the drive assembly, or both with respect to a fixed surface. 
     
     
         21 . The system of  claim 20  further comprising a three-dimensional (3D) vision system comprising one or more cameras attached to the automated dental drill, wherein each camera provides a two dimensional image, a live video feed, or both of a subject's teeth. 
     
     
         22 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein at least one of the two dimensional image, a live video feed are mapped to a predetermined 3D surface scan of a surgical site to establish a world coordinate system to which the automated dental drill is registered and/or the material removal rate is tracked. 
     
     
         23 . The system of  claim 21  wherein the one or more of cameras includes a millimeter scale camera.