Patent ID: 7850451
Filing Date: 2010-12-14
Classification: A61C,B33Y

Abstract:
1. A method of designing and manufacturing a custom orthodontic lingual bracket including a tooth-facing surface and a bracket body, the method comprising the steps of: storing a digital representation of portions of a dentition of a specific patient in a computer memory; determining a shape of a tooth-facing surface of a custom shaped virtual bracket bonding object, the shape of the tooth-facing surface conforming substantially to corresponding three-dimensional surfaces of a lingual portion of a tooth of the specific patient; forming the custom shaped virtual bracket bonding object having tooth-facing surface conforming substantially to corresponding three-dimensional surfaces of the lingual portion of the tooth; graphically displaying the custom shaped virtual bracket bonding object; receiving a three-dimensional virtual description of a non-custom bracket feature from the computer memory, the non-custom bracket feature comprising a virtual bracket; graphically displaying the received three-dimensional virtual description of a non-custom bracket feature; graphically designing a custom orthodontic lingual bracket using a computer, the designing including the step of virtually incorporating the graphically displayed custom shaped virtual bracket bonding object and the graphically displayed three-dimensional virtual description of a non-custom bracket feature into a combined three-dimensional virtual object describing the custom orthodontic lingual bracket; exporting digital data representing the virtual description of the designed custom orthodontic lingual bracket from the computer to a manufacturing system for manufacturing the custom orthodontic lingual bracket; and manufacturing the custom orthodontic lingual bracket to include shaping the tooth-facing surface and the bracket body of the custom orthodontic lingual bracket responsive to the digital data.