Patent ID: 11944514
Assignee: ALIGN TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A  B  G | IPC A  B  G

Claim 0:
1. A method comprising:
determining an appliance geometry for a dental appliance, wherein the appliance geometry comprises:
a first region representing a shell comprising a plurality of teeth receiving cavities shaped to receive and reposition a patient's teeth from a first arrangement toward a second arrangement, and
a second region representing at least one integrally formed component to be integrally joined to the shell to facilitate repositioning of the patient's teeth from the first arrangement toward the second arrangement, wherein the integrally formed component comprises an integrally formed arch expander configured to exert forces to increase a width of the patient's arch, the integrally formed arch expander comprising:
a first end coupled to a first side of the shell,
a second end coupled to a second side of the shell, and
an intermediate portion extending between the first and second ends, wherein the intermediate portion is spaced apart from the shell;
generating, using the appliance geometry, instructions for additive manufacturing of the dental appliance, wherein the instructions include a plurality of build steps to form, with a sequential plurality of polymer layers, a first digital representation of the shell based on the first region, and a second digital representation of the at least one integrally formed component based on the second region; and
using the instructions to instruct a fabrication system to implement the plurality of build steps to additively manufacture the sequential plurality of polymer layers to form the dental appliance by fabricating the shell based on the first digital representation, concurrently with fabricating the at least one integrally formed component joined to the shell based on the second digital representation.