Patent ID: 9554875
Date: 2017-01-31
CPC Classifications: A61C

Claim:
1. A method of producing a customized orthodontic appliance comprising: scanning a model of a dental arch using computer software to generate a 3D numerical representation of a dental arch; constructing, by a processing device, a numerical representation of a bracket for said dental arch, the operation of constructing comprising: positioning a numerical representation of an orthodontic archwire with respect to a dental arch final numerical representation, then for each relevant tooth of the dental arch final numerical representation, positioning a second volume of a bracket blank, comprising a numerical representation of a volume representative of an envelope volume of a bracket body, such that the second volume of a bracket blank interferes with the numerical representation of the orthodontic archwire and in close proximity to the relevant tooth, and for each relevant tooth of the dental arch final numerical representation, positioning a first volume of the bracket blank such that the first volume interferes with the second volume and with the volume of the relevant tooth, then determining, for each relevant tooth in the first volume and in the second volume, volumetric exclusion zones, said volumetric exclusion zones containing all of the volumes that interfere with the relevant tooth for the first volume and all of the volumes that interfere with the orthodontic archwire for the second volume, wherein the numerical representation of the bracket of one relevant tooth is determined by the volume of the bracket blank minus said volumetric exclusion zones, and the blank is chosen from a database comprising at least two models of a numerical representation blank; and wherein the numerical representation blank is chosen in relation to the shape of the relevant tooth so as to minimize the volume of the exclusion zones while at the same time keeping an aerial contact between a bearing surface of the bracket bonding pad and the surface of the relevant tooth.