Detection of placement of dental aligners in patient mouth on teeth for indication of wearing compliance. Described herein are apparatuses and methods for detecting wearing, including compliance, and for reliably transferring data, by wired or wireless direct or indirect communication of electronic compliance information to a smartphone. Also described herein are dental appliances that can detect physiological parameters related to respiration and sleep. Also described herein are aligner cases that enable NFC communication with electronic compliance indicator (ECI) devices and Bluetooth communication with smartphones.

Intraoral appliances with sensing

The present disclosure provides method, systems, and devices for expanding arch of teeth. A device for expanding an arch of teeth of a patient can include a removable shell formed of a first material having a number of cavities formed therein. The number of cavities are shaped to receive teeth of a patient. A device for expanding an arch of teeth of a patient can include an arch element extending from the removable shell in a lingual direction and across an arch width of the removable shell. The arch element can be formed of the first material and a second material that is a different material than the first material, can be designed to expand an arch of the teeth of the patient, and can have a width specific to a stage of a treatment plan.

Arch expanding appliance

Methods and apparatuses for generating a model of a subject's teeth. Described herein are intraoral scanning methods and apparatuses for generating a three-dimensional model of a subject's intraoral region (e.g., teeth) including both surface features and internal features. These methods and apparatuses may be used for identifying and evaluating lesions, caries and cracks in the teeth. Any of these methods and apparatuses may use minimum scattering coefficients and/or segmentation to form a volumetric model of the teeth.

Intraoral scanner with dental diagnostics capabilities

The present disclosure provides computing device implemented methods, computing device readable media, and systems for adjustment of tooth position in a virtual dental model. Virtual dental modeling can include detecting space and/or collision between posterior teeth of an upper jaw and posterior teeth of a lower jaw in a virtual dental model that has been set in a preliminary target position. An energy function can be defined including the space and/or collision, tooth root movement, and align points. Weights can be assigned for each variable in the energy function. A position of the posterior teeth of the upper jaw and the posterior teeth of the lower jaw can be adjusted in six degrees of freedom to minimize the energy function. The detection, definition, assignment, and adjustment can be repeated until the energy function converges. The weights can be adjusted to reduce the space and/or collision.

Adjustment of tooth position in a virtual dental model

An apparatus is described for determining surface topography of a three-dimensional structure. The apparatus can include a probe and an illumination unit configured to output a plurality of light beams. In many embodiments, the apparatus includes a light focusing assembly. The light focusing assembly can receive and focus each of a plurality of light beams to a respective external focal point. The light focusing assembly can be configured to overlap the plurality of light beams within a focus changing assembly in order to move the external focal points along a direction of propagation of the light beams. The apparatus can include a detector having an array of sensing elements configured to measure a characteristic of each of a plurality of light beams returning from the illuminated spots and a processor coupled to the detector and configured to generate data representative of topography of the structure based on the measured characteristic.

Apparatus and method for measuring surface topography optically

The present invention aims to provide an intra-oral measurement device and an intra-oral measurement system capable of measuring an inside of an oral cavity at high accuracy without increasing a size of the device, and includes a light projecting unit for irradiating a measuring object including at least a tooth within an oral cavity with light, a lens system unit for collecting light reflected by the measuring object, a focal position varying mechanism for changing a focal position of the light collected by the lens system unit, and an imaging unit for imaging light passed through the lens system unit.

Intra-oral measurement device and intra-oral measurement system

In an optical interference measuring method according to the present invention, light emitted from a light source unit is split into measuring light and reference light, coherent light is detected that is obtained by interference of the reference light and the measuring light reflected from or scattered rearward from a measuring object, an optical-path length adjustment mechanism provided in the optical path of the reference light is driven to change the optical path length of the reference light, it is decided whether an image based on the detected coherent light is a normal image or a folded image based on the coherent light having varied with the change of the optical path length of the reference light, and the measuring object is measured from the detected coherent light based on a result of the decision about whether the image is a normal image or a folded image.

Optical interference measuring method and optical interference measuring apparatus

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method and device for measuring the inside of the oral cavity, which allows precise shape measurement of the inside of the oral cavity. SOLUTION: The method for measuring the inside of the oral cavity includes a light projecting process, an imaging process, an exposure time control process, an image composition process, and a three-dimensional arithmetic process. In the light projecting process, an encoded stripe pattern is projected. In the imaging process, an area where the stripe pattern is projected, is picked up as a two-dimensional static image. In the exposure time control process, an exposure time is controlled so as to be able to optimally pick up the two dimensional static image in the imaging process. In the image composition process, two-dimensional static images picked up by at least two different exposure times are combined to generate a composite two-dimensional static image. In the three-dimensional arithmetic process, three-dimensional coordinates of the inside of the oral cavity is calculated on the basis of the composite two-dimensional static image. COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Method and device for measuring inside of oral cavity

A grinding apparatus (100) includes: a rotating grinding tool (102) for grinding a workpiece (101) immersed in a cooling liquid (106); vibration generating mechanisms (107a) to (107f) for applying vibrations to the cooling liquid (106) and generating cavitation; and a controller (108) for causing the vibration generating mechanisms (107a) to (107f) to generate the cavitation when the rotating grinding tool (102) is operated. The controller (108) turns on/off the vibration generating mechanisms (107a) to (107f) and adjusts amplitudes of the vibrations of the cooling liquid (106) generated by the vibration generating mechanisms (107a) to (107f) depending on a region in the workpiece (101) to be machined and one out of a plurality of machining steps to be performed.

Grinding apparatus and grinding method

An intraoral measurement apparatus, in order to precisely measure the shape of the inside of the oral cavity without spraying metal powder within the oral cavity, is provided with a floodlight part which coaxially emits light of two or more different wavelengths toward an object to be measured including at least teeth within the oral cavity and an imaging part which images light reflected by the object to be measured.

Fumio Sugata

Papers

Intra-oral measurement device and intra-oral measurement system

Optical interference measuring method and optical interference measuring apparatus

Method and device for measuring inside of oral cavity

Grinding apparatus and grinding method

Intraoral measurement apparatus and intraoral measurement system