Patent ID: 11896455
Assignee: DENTAL IMAGING TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A  G | IPC A  G

Claim 17:
18. A method for generating a digital model of a patient's dentition, the method executed at least in part by a computer and comprising:
acquiring a 3-D digital mesh that is representative of the patient's dentition and that includes braces, teeth, and gingival tissue;
modifying the 3-D digital mesh to generate a digital mesh dentition model by:
(i) detecting at least one bracket extending from the 3-D digital mesh;
(ii) generating an initial mask according to the detected at least one bracket;
(iii) processing the initial mask to correct mask shape according to the detected at least one bracket;
(iv) executing a fast march algorithm to detect bracket regions bounded within the corrected mask;
(v) refining the bracket region detection using morphological processing;
(vi) removing the bracket from the bracket region and reconstructing a tooth surface; and

displaying the reconstructed tooth surface.