Granted Patent B2

US 12,708,490 · App. 18/360,125 · Granted Aug 18, 2026

Inventors: Rohit Tanugula (San Jose, CA); James Nishimuta (Durham, NC); Nilesh Joshi (Cary, NC); Thomas Jansen (Durham, NC); Anna Gorelova (Moscow, RU); Ekaterina Menshova (Moscow, RU); Artem Trotsko (Moscow Odintsovo, RU); Andrey Prokopenko (Nizhny Novgorod, RU); Arina Yakshibaeva (Moscow, RU)

Assignee: Align Technology, Inc.

A61C7/08A61C7/002

Abstract

Claims (33)

1 . A system for generating an orthodontic appliance with mandibular relocations structures, the system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the system to carry out a method comprising:

generating a treatment plan to move a patient's teeth from a first position toward a second position and including moving a jaw from a first position towards a second position, the treatment plan including a series of jaw movement stages to move the jaw from the first position towards the second position;

iteratively, for a first stage of a treatment plan:

placing, for a first stage of a treatment plan, a first mandibular relocation structure of a first pair of mandibular relocation structures on a lower jaw and a second mandibular relocation structure of the first pair of mandibular relocation structures on an upper jaw;

determining, for the first stage of a treatment plan, a location for the first pair of mandibular relocation structures based on a first set of constraints;

placing, for the first stage of a treatment plan, a first mandibular relocation structure of a second pair of mandibular relocation structures on a lower jaw and a second mandibular relocation structure of the second pair of mandibular relocation structures on an upper jaw;

determining, for the first stage of the treatment plan, a location for the second pair of mandibular relocation structures based on a second set of constraints; and

modifying the respective locations of the first and second pair of mandibular relocation structures for the first stage of the treatment plan based on a third set of constraints, wherein the third set of constraints includes a symmetry constraint based on a difference between a first distance and a second distance, the first distance being between a first mandibular relocation structure and opposing teeth on a first side of a jaw and the second distance between a second mandibular relocation structure and opposing teeth on a second side of the jaw; and

providing the modified location of the first and second pair of mandibular relocation structures for the first stage of the treatment plan to implement the series of jaw movement stages.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprising:

generating a digital model of an aligner; and

fabricating a physical aligner based on the digital model of the aligner.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein determining a location of the first pair of mandibular relocation structures based on a first set of constraints includes optimizing the location based on the first set of constraints.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein determining a location of the first pair of mandibular relocation structures based on a first set of constraints includes using a non-linear optimization algorithm.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the first set of constraints and the second set of constraints include one-sided constraints for a respective one of the first pair of mandibular relocation structures and the second pair of mandibular relocation structures.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the third set of constraints include one-sided and symmetry constraints.

7 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the one-sided constraints include a collision constraint that tests for a collision between a first mandibular relocation structure on a first side of a first jaw and a second mandibular relocation feature on the first side of a second jaw.

8 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the one-sided constraints include rotational constraints that constrain the rotation of the mandibular relocation structures relative to an arch of the patient.

9 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the one-sided constraints include rotational alignment constraints between a first mandibular relocation structure on a first side of a first jaw and a second mandibular relocation feature on the first side of a second jaw.

10 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the one-sided constraints include contact plane constraints including a constraint on an angle between a normal angle of a centroid of an engagement surface of a first mandibular relocation structure on a first side of a first jaw and a normal angle of a centroid of an engagement surface of a second mandibular relocation feature on the first side of a second jaw.

11 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the one-sided constraints include a later constraint on the distance between a center of a first mandibular relocation structure and a line extending between centers of two adjacent tooth over which the first mandibular relocation structure is located.

12 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the one-sided constraints include a constraint on a gap between an occlusal block and the teeth over which the first mandibular relocation structure is located, the gap being the shortest distance an occlusal bock of the first mandibular relocation structure and an occlusal surface of the teeth over which the first mandibular relocation structure is located.

13 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the one-sided constraints include a constraint on a distal arch location of the first mandibular relocation structure, the distal arch location being greater than a threshold distance from a distal most point of a distal most tooth on the same side of the arch on which the first mandibular relocation structure is located.

14 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the one-sided constraints include a constraint on arch location of the first mandibular relocation structure, the arch location being greater than a threshold distance from a distal most point of a distal most tooth on the same side of the arch on which the first mandibular relocation structure is located and greater than 5 mm from a mesial most point of a mesial most tooth on the same side of the arch on which the first mandibular relocation structure is located.

15 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the one-sided constraints include a constraint on vertical engagement, the constraint being a distance between a vertically occlusal location on an engagement surface of a first mandibular relocation structure and a vertically occlusal location on an engagement surface of a second mandibular relocation structure.

16 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the one-sided constraints include a constraint on lateral engagement including a constraint on a distance from a lingual side of a first block to buccal side of second block.

17 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the symmetry constraints include a horizontal asymmetry constraint between a center of a first pair of mandibular relocation structures on a first side of an arch and a center of a second pair of mandibular relocation structures on a second side of the arch.

18 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the one-sided constraints include a bridging constraint, the bridging constraint being a constraint on a distance a mandibular relocation structure extends over a supporting tooth adjacent a gap formed by an erupting or missing tooth.

19 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprising adjusting a jaw opening distance between the upper jaw and the lower jaw.

20 . The system of claim 1 , wherein:

placing a first mandibular relocation structure of a first pair of mandibular relocation structures on a lower jaw and a second mandibular relocation structure of the first pair of mandibular relocation structures on an upper jaw occur before determining the location of the first pair of mandibular relocation structures based on a first set of constraints, determining a location of the second pair of mandibular relocation structures based on a second set of constraints, and determining the location of the first and second pair of mandibular relocation structures based on a third set of constraints.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (161)