Treatment of teeth by aligners

Abstract

A method for treating a subject's teeth. A target configuration for the subject's teeth is determined. Receiving features are produced on a dental base in response to the target configuration, the receiving features being configured to receive physical tooth models. The physical tooth models are assembled on the dental base to form a physical arch model. A dental aligner is produced using the physical arch model to move the subject's teeth to the target configuration.

1 . A method for providing orthodontic treatment, the method comprising:
 receiving an initial representation of the patent's dentition in an initial arrangement;   generating a treatment plan comprising a plurality of successive treatment steps, wherein the plurality of successive treatment steps incrementally reposition at least one of the patient's teeth from the initial arrangement towards a target arrangement;   fabricating a first dental aligner based on the treatment plan, wherein the first dental aligner corresponds to one of the plurality of successive treatment steps;   monitoring treatment progress to determine whether the patient's dentition is progressing along the plurality of successive treatment steps;   generating a revised treatment plan based on a determination that treatment progress has progress off-track;   fabricating a second dental aligner based on the revised treatment plan, wherein the second dental aligner corresponds to one of a plurality of successive treatment steps in the revised treatment plan.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein fabricating the first dental aligner comprises thermoforming a polymer shell over a physical dental model. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising assembling the physical dental model by inserting a plurality of tooth models into a dental base. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the physical dental model corresponds with a patient's dentition at the one of the plurality of successive treatment steps. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein fabricating the first dental aligner comprises using stereolithography to build a geometry of the first dental aligner layer by layer. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the initial representation comprises a three-dimensional model collected from an intraoral scanner. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein monitoring treatment progress comprises receiving an intermediate representation of the patient's dentition; wherein the intermediate representation is collected subsequent to the initial representation. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein monitoring treatment progress comprises receiving feedback from a dental clinician. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein generating the revised treatment plan is based at least in part on the feedback from the dental clinician. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein monitoring treatment progress comprises taking a dental cast of the patient's dentition. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein monitoring treatment progress comprises assessing treatment progress at a plurality of points in time throughout treatment. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising providing the revised treatment plan to a dental clinician for approval prior to fabricating the second dental aligner. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein providing the revised treatment plan to a dental clinician comprises providing a three-dimensional representation of the patient's dentition for display on an electronic device. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the three-dimensional representation is configured to be rotatable via user input. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein generating the revised treatment plan is based at least in part on information regarding individual patient response to treatment. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein generating the treatment plan comprises accounting for tooth movement constraints. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the tooth movement constraints comprises no movement to a tooth of the patient's dentition. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the tooth movement constraints comprises limitations in a direction of one or more degrees of freedom to a tooth of the patient's dentition. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein generating the revised treatment plan comprises accounting for the tooth movement constraints. 
     
     
         20 . A non-transitory computing device readable medium storing instructions executable by a processor to cause a computing device to perform a method, the method comprising:
 receiving an initial representation of the patient's dentition in an initial arrangement;   generating a treatment plan comprising a plurality of successive treatment steps, wherein the plurality of successive treatment steps incrementally reposition at least one of the patient's teeth from the initial arrangement towards a target arrangement;   fabricating a first dental aligner based on the treatment plan, wherein the first dental aligner corresponds to one of the plurality of successive treatment steps;   monitoring treatment progress to determine whether the patient's dentition is progressing along the plurality of successive treatment steps;   generating a revised treatment plan based on a determination that treatment progress has progress off-track;   fabricating a second dental aligner based on the revised treatment plan, wherein the second dental aligner corresponds to one of a plurality of successive treatment steps in the revised treatment plan.