Patent ID: 11931223
Assignee: ALIGN TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A  B  G | IPC A  B  G

Claim 30:
31. A method for positioning teeth of a subject, the method comprising:
applying a three-dimensionally (3D) printed aligner to the teeth of the subject, the 3D printed aligner comprising:
a plurality of additively manufactured layers; and
a 3D printed body composed of the plurality of additively manufactured layers, wherein the 3D printed body comprises a plurality of tooth-receiving cavities shaped to receive and to reposition a corresponding plurality of the teeth of the subject from a first arrangement toward a second arrangement, wherein all of the tooth-receiving cavities are formed only from the plurality of additively manufactured layers, and wherein the 3D printed body comprises 100 to 10,000 additively manufactured layers of the plurality of additively manufactured layers forming an adaptive cellular structure comprising a network of interconnected unit cells having a heterogeneous cell distribution providing a selected spatially nonhomogeneous distribution of at least one mechanical property along one or more physical dimensions of the 3D printed aligner,
wherein the adaptive cellular structure is characterized by a porosity selected from a range from 25% to 75%, wherein the porosity is the volume of void space of the adaptive cellular structure divided by the volume of the adaptive cellular structure, and
wherein the adaptive cellular structure comprises a material having an apparent Young's modulus within a range from 100 MPa to 5000 MPa; and

providing a selected distribution of forces to the teeth of the subject using the 3D printed aligner, thereby positioning the teeth of the subject, wherein the 3D printed aligner comprises a non-linear force-strain profile comprising a force within a range from 5 N to 12.5 N over a strain within a range from 0.02 to 0.12 when worn on the teeth of the subject.