Granted Patent B2

US 12,734,019 · App. 18/157,067 · Granted Sep 15, 2026

Inventors: Christopher E. Cramer (Durham, NC); Chad Clayton Brown (Cary, NC); Guotu Li (Apex, NC)

Assignee: Align Technology, Inc.

A61C7/002A61C7/08A61C7/146G06T7/0012G06T7/12G06T7/62G16H10/60G16H20/40G06T2207/30036

Abstract

Claims (48)

1 . A system for dental treatment comprising one or more processors and a memory operably coupled to the one or more processors and storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to perform operations comprising:

receiving a plurality of images of a patient's dentition;

identifying, in each of the plurality of images, individual teeth of the patient's dentition;

detecting, in each of the plurality of images, one or more attachments on the patient's dentition;

assigning, based on the plurality of images, each of the one or more attachments to one of the individual teeth depicted in the plurality of images;

identifying a first plurality of the plurality of images in which a first tooth of the individual teeth is visible;

combining the assignments of each of the plurality of images for attachment detection results; and

determining that an expected attachment is missing from the first tooth, when, based on the combination of assignments, an attachment is not depicted on the first tooth in a majority of the first plurality of the plurality of images.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein identifying, from the plurality of images, individual teeth of the patient's dentition includes segmenting the individual teeth of the patient's dentition contained in the image.

3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein segmenting the individual teeth includes determining which teeth are located in the image and which pixels of the image are a part of each tooth.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the identifying the individual teeth includes assigning each identified tooth to a corresponding tooth in a patient's treatment plan.

5 . The system of claim 4 , wherein the identifying the individual teeth includes removing a tooth that is not present in the patient's treatment plan.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the memory storing the instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to perform further operations comprising:

forming a bounding box around each detected attachment.

7 . The system of claim 6 , wherein assigning each of the one or more attachments to one of the individual teeth includes:

determining a center point of the attachment bounding box; and

assigning the attachment to a tooth of the individual teeth based on where the center point is located.

8 . The system of claim 6 , wherein assigning each of the one or more attachments to one of the individual teeth includes:

determining a center point of the attachment bounding box; and

assigning the attachment to a tooth of the individual teeth based on a nearest tooth to where the center point is located.

9 . The system of claim 6 , wherein assigning each of the one or more attachments to one of the individual teeth includes:

determining an area of each tooth within the bounding box; and

assigning the attachment to the tooth based on which tooth has a greatest area within the bounding box.

10 . The system of claim 9 wherein assigning the attachment to the tooth is constrained to teeth likely to be in a photo based on a particular view from which the photo is taken.

11 . The system of claim 10 , wherein in an anterior view the teeth likely to be in the photo are central and lateral incisors and canines.

12 . The system of claim 10 , wherein in a left lateral view the teeth likely to be in the photo are central incisors, left lateral incisors, left canines, first and second left bicuspids, and first left molars.

13 . The system of claim 10 , wherein in a right lateral view the teeth likely to be in the photo are central incisors, right lateral incisors, right canines, first and second right bicuspids, and first right molars.

14 . The system of claim 6 , wherein assigning each of the one or more attachments to one of the individual teeth includes:

determining an amount of overlap of one or more teeth and a vertical mesial edge of the bounding box; and

assigning the attachment to a tooth of the one or more teeth with the greatest amount of overlap.

15 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the memory storing the instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to perform further operations comprising:

determining a number of attachments that should be on each tooth based on the number of attachments placed on each tooth in the patient's treatment plan.

16 . The system of claim 1 , wherein combining the assignments of each of the plurality of images for attachment detection results includes:

for each image, identifying which teeth can be seen in the image; and

determining for each respective tooth, whether or not a single image of the plurality of images depicts an expected number of attachments on the respective tooth.

17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the memory storing the instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to perform further operations comprising:

determining that an attachment is missing if a single image depicts less than the expected number of attachments.

18 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the memory storing the instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to perform further operations comprising:

determining that an attachment is missing if the plurality of images depicts less than the expected number of attachments.

19 . The system of claim 1 , wherein combining the assignments of each of the plurality of images for attachment detection results includes:

for each image, identifying which teeth can be seen in the image; and

determining that an attachment is missing when less than a majority of the plurality of images that depict the tooth also depict an expected number of attachments.

20 . The system of claim 1 , wherein combining the assignments of each of the plurality of images for attachment detection results includes:

for each image, identifying which teeth can be seen in the image; and

determining that an attachment is missing when a majority of the plurality of images that depict the tooth also depict less than an expected number of attachments.

21 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of images include images with arches in an open-bite.

22 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of images include images with arches in a closed-bite.

23 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of images include an anterior image with arches in an open-bite, a left lateral image with the arches in the open-bite, a right lateral image with the arches in the open-bite, an anterior image with the arches in a closed-bite, a left lateral image with the arches in the closed-bite, and a right lateral image with the arches in the closed-bite.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (168)