Method and system for braces removal from dentition mesh

1. A method for generating a digital model of a patient's dentition, the method executed at least in part by a computer and comprising:

acquiring a 3-D digital mesh that is representative of the patient's dentition along a dental arch, wherein the 3-D digital mesh includes braces, teeth, and gingival tissue;

modifying the 3-D digital mesh to generate a digital mesh dentition model by:

(i) processing the 3-D digital mesh and automatically detecting one or more initial bracket positions from the acquired 3-D digital mesh;

(ii) processing the one or more initial bracket positions to identify bracket areas for braces that lie against tooth surfaces;

(iii) identifying one or more brace wires extending between brackets;

(iv) removing one or more brackets and one or more wires from the 3-D digital mesh;

(v) forming a reconstructed tooth surface within the 3-D digital mesh where the one or more brackets have been removed; and

displaying, storing, or transmitting over a network to another computer, the modified 3-D digital mesh as the digital mesh dentition model.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein removing the one or more brackets further comprises detecting the one or more brackets using a fast march algorithm.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

automatically distinguishing the teeth from gingival tissue; and

automatically distinguishing individual teeth from each other.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein acquiring the 3-D digital mesh comprises using an intraoral scanner that employs structured light.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises a step of performing segmentation of the teeth.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein removing the one or more brackets further comprises detecting the one or more brackets using a curvature detection algorithm.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising identifying a gap in the tooth surface caused by bracket removal.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein modifying the 3-D digital mesh comprises removing one or more brackets and one or more wires separates the braces in the 3-D digital mesh into a plurality of bracket sections.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein forming the reconstructed tooth surface uses data from a previous 3-D digital mesh of the patient acquired before the braces were attached.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein forming the reconstructed tooth surface uses a hole filing algorithm comprising:

filling each of a plurality of holes in the modified 3-D digital mesh using a polygon filing process to generate a patched surface; and

smoothing the patched surfaces in the 3-D digital mesh to generate the reconstructed 3-D digital mesh.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein processing the 3-D digital mesh and automatically detecting the one or more initial bracket positions from the acquired mesh for modifying the 3-D digital mesh to generate the digital mesh dentition model comprises coarse bracket detection by:

(i) computing a parabola along a dental arch according to the 3-D digital mesh;

(ii) detecting a tooth surface on a buccal side or a lingual side of the dental arch;

(iii) detecting a length of a normal extended toward the mesh surface from the arch on the buccal or lingual side; and

(iv) selecting points on the 3-D digital mesh that lie near the detected normal.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein removing the one or more brackets and the one or more wires from the 3-D digital mesh for modifying the 3-D digital mesh to generate the digital mesh dentition model comprises refining separated detected coarse brackets by:

(i) generating an initial mask according to the detected at least one bracket;

(ii) processing the initial mask to correct mask shape according to the detected at least one bracket;

(iii) executing a fast march algorithm to detect bracket regions bounded within the corrected mask; and

(iv) refining the bracket region detection using morphological processing.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises a step of performing automatic tooth component segmentation on the acquired 3-D digital mesh and displaying automated segmentation results, where the automated segmentation results distinguish one or more teeth from gum tissue, and where the automated segmentation results distinguish individual teeth from each other in the 3-D digital mesh.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising performing interactive segmentation of the automated segmentation results according to an operator instruction, where the automated segmentation results distinguish said individual teeth from each other.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein removing the one or more brackets comprises:

performing interactive segmentation of the one or more brackets on the 3-D digital mesh according to an operator instruction; and

removing, using a control logic processor, segmented bracket portions to form the digital mesh dentition model, wherein the operator instruction comprises a traced line segment.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein modifying the 3-D digital mesh further comprises computing a convex hull.

17. An apparatus configured to generate a digital model of dentition, said apparatus comprising:

imaging apparatus for obtaining a 3-D digital mesh of dentition including braces, teeth, and gingival tissue;

processing logic for modifying the 3-D digital mesh by removing wire portions of the braces therefrom;

processing logic for modifying the 3-D digital mesh by removing bracket portions of the braces therefrom, wherein the processing logic uses normals extended from a curve generated according to a dental arch;

means for reconstructing teeth surfaces of the modified 3-D digital mesh previously covered by the wire portions and the bracket portions of the braces; and

a control logic processor programmed with instructions for displaying, storing, or transmitting over a network to another computer, the reconstructed 3-D digital mesh as the digital mesh dentition model.

18. A method for generating a digital model of a patient's dentition, the method executed at least in part by a computer and comprising:

acquiring a 3-D digital mesh that is representative of the patient's dentition and that includes braces, teeth, and gingival tissue;

modifying the 3-D digital mesh to generate a digital mesh dentition model by:

(i) detecting at least one bracket extending from the 3-D digital mesh;

(ii) generating an initial mask according to the detected at least one bracket;

(iii) processing the initial mask to correct mask shape according to the detected at least one bracket;

(iv) executing a fast march algorithm to detect bracket regions bounded within the corrected mask;

(v) refining the bracket region detection using morphological processing;

(vi) removing the bracket from the bracket region and reconstructing a tooth surface; and

displaying the reconstructed tooth surface.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein processing the initial mask comprises computing a dot product for one or more mask vertices, wherein refining the bracket region comprises applying dilation and fill, and wherein refining the bracket region comprises computing a convex hull.