Patent ID: 6015289
Filing Date: 2000-01-18
Classification: A61C,B33Y,G16H

Abstract:
A method of fabricating a custom orthodontic appliance to position teeth of a patient to preferred finish positions in the mouth of the patient, the method comprising the steps of:measuring anatomical shapes from the mouth of the patient, and producing thereby digitized anatomical shape data;deriving an archform from the digitized data with a specially programmed digital computer;deriving with the computer tooth finish positions from the digitized data and the derived archform;establishing an appliance connection point on each of a plurality of the teeth;designing an appliance configuration with the computer from the digitized data, the established appliance connection points and the derived tooth finish positions, and producing machine code in accordance with the designed appliance configuration; andautomatically fabricating a custom orthodontic appliance with a machine in response to the machine code to conform to the designed appliance configuration.