Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US8057226?dq=6,757,710
Timestamp: 2014-07-12 12:42:11
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Patent US8057226 - Customized orthodontic bracket system - Google PatentsSearch Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »Sign in<nobr>Advanced Patent Search</nobr>PatentsA customized orthodontic bracket system is provided. The system can include a bracket having a customized bracket bonding pad for bonding the bracket to a tooth of a patient and a bracket slot adapted to receive a customized archwire. The customized archwire is adapted to be positioned in the bracket...http://www.google.com/patents/US8057226?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US8057226 - Customized orthodontic bracket systemAdvanced Patent SearchPublication numberUS8057226 B2Publication typeGrantApplication numberUS 11/522,674Publication dateNov 15, 2011Filing dateSep 18, 2006Priority dateFeb 13, 2002Also published asCA2476264A1, CA2476264C, DE60324770D1, DE60334746D1, EP1474064A2, EP1474064B1, EP1702582A2, EP1702582A3, EP1702582B1, EP1844730A1, EP1844730B1, EP1941842A2, EP1941842A3, US6776614, US7811087, US7850451, US20030152884, US20050003321, US20050158686, US20070015104, US20120015315, WO2003068099A2, WO2003068099A3Publication number11522674, 522674, US 8057226 B2, US 8057226B2, US-B2-8057226, US8057226 B2, US8057226B2InventorsDirk Wiechmann, Ralf Paehl, R�dger Rubbert, Thomas WeiseOriginal Assignee3M Innovative Properties CompanyExport CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefManPatent Citations (92), Non-Patent Citations (44), Referenced by (5), Classifications (18), Legal Events (3) External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, EspacenetCustomized orthodontic bracket systemUS 8057226 B2Abstract A customized orthodontic bracket system is provided. The system can include a bracket having a customized bracket bonding pad for bonding the bracket to a tooth of a patient and a bracket slot adapted to receive a customized archwire. The customized archwire is adapted to be positioned in the bracket slot to form a precise bracket slot-archwire interface. The bracket slot and the archwire when positioned in the bracket slot can be positioned substantially adjacent the tooth surface to reduce induced vertical error when the tooth is in a finished position and substantially parallel to the directly adjacent portion of the tooth surface to reduce bracket thickness. The bracket slot can also be configured to have a bracket slot width substantially matching a dimension of a cross-section of the archwire to reduce torque rotation around an axis of the archwire when positioned therein to further enhance end-of-treatment tooth positioning and reduce overall treatment time.
RELATED APPLICATIONS This patent application is a continuation application which claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/897,149, by Wiechmann et al, �titled Modular System for Customized Orthodontic Appliances,� filed on Jul. 22, 2004 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,850,451, which claims the benefit of and priority to application Ser. No. 10/075,676, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,776,614, which are both incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
A widely used method to straighten or align teeth of a patient is to bond brackets onto the teeth and run elastic wires of rectangular cross-sectional shape through the bracket slots. Typically, the brackets are off-the-shelf products. In most cases, they are adapted to a certain tooth (for instance an upper canine), but not to the individual tooth of a specific patient. The adaptation of the bracket to the individual tooth is performed by filling the gap between tooth surface and bracket surface with adhesive to thereby bond the bracket to the tooth such that the bracket slot, when the teeth are moved to a finish position, lies in flat horizontal plane. The driving force for moving the teeth to the desired finish position is provided by the archwire. For lingual brackets, a system has been developed by Thomas Creekmore that has vertical bracket slots. This allows an easier insertion of the wire. The longer side of the wire is therefore oriented vertically. Unitek has marketed this bracket system under the trade name CONSEAL.�
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The customized orthodontic brackets described herein include several independent inventive features providing substantial improvements to the prior art. The greatest benefits will be achieved for lingual treatments, but labial treatments will also benefit. While the following summary describes some of the highlights of various aspects of the invention, the true scope of the invention is reflected in the appended claims.
One reason why the basic design of orthodontic wires remains one in which the wires have a flat, planar shape is the ease of industrial manufacturing. To decrease the thickness of an orthodontic bracket, it is much preferable to run the wire parallel to the surface of each individual tooth as provided by this aspect of the invention. The lingual surfaces of front teeth are significantly inclined relative to a vertical axis for most patients. A wire that runs parallel from tooth to tooth in accordance with this aspect of the invention has a �canted� shape in order to take advantage of the parallel nature of the bracket slots. Using standard mass-production procedures, such a wire could not be fabricated, as every patient has a very individual tooth anatomy. Shaping a wire manually to provide the canted shape is extremely challenging. Usage of modern materials for the archwire like shape memory alloys makes this task even more challenging or even impossible by hand. However, in an embodiment of the present invention the required wire geometry is available in electronic format. This wire geometry can be dictated by the three-dimensional location of the bracket slots and/or the brackets, as placed on the teeth in the desired occlusion. This format can be exported to new wire bending robots that have been recently developed that are capable of bending wires in virtually any shape (including canted shapes). For example, it is possible to export digital data reflecting wire geometry to flexible wire bending production devices like the 6-axis-robot described in WO 01/80761, and have the robot bend and twist wires of the canted configuration as described herein. Thus, wires having the canted shape as dictated by the bracket invention are now able to be mass-produced. A wire-bending robot is also described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/834,967, filed Apr. 13, 2001, the content of which is also incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
decreased articulation problems; decreased tongue irritation; decreased risk of bracket loss (the flatter the bracket is, the shorter the moment arm is when a patient bites onto the bracket, and the smaller the stress at the adhesive connection); increased positioning control for finishing (the smaller the distance between wire and tooth is, the better the tooth �follows� the wire); increased patient comfort; and increased hygiene conditions. The orientation of the archwire 10 at the molars may be vertical, as shown in FIG. 1, which results in minimal overall thickness at the molars, or alternatively it could be horizontal. The horizontal orientation would add more thickness (for instance 0.025 inches per side instead of 0.017 inches for a typical wire cross section of 17�25), but the addition is so small that this would certainly be acceptable, if manufacturing or clinical considerations would call for such an orientation. Since a horizontal slot orientation is acceptable for molars and premolars, it would also make sense to mix conventional brackets with brackets according to this invention. For example, the premolars and molar brackets could be conventional brackets, while a set of brackets according to this invention would be supplied for the anterior and canine teeth.
The pad 18 geometry can be derived directly from digital representations of the patient's teeth so as to produce a bracket bonding pad that conforms substantially exactly to the shape of the surface of the teeth. To achieve this, the shape and size of the bracket pad for each tooth is determined. This may be done manually by using a computer program that allows indicating the desired areas on each tooth model, for instance by drawing virtual lines onto the tooth models or coloring the respective areas. A 3D graphics software program like Magics� that is widely used to manipulate 3D models that are defined as a set of interconnected triangles (STL-format), allows marking triangles by simply clicking at them with the mouse.
In one possible technique, it is possible to use a so-called �wax printer� to fabricate wax models of the brackets. These wax models will then be used as a core in a casting process. They are embedded in cement and then melted. The brackets would be cast in gold or another applicable alloy as known to those skilled in the art. It would also be possible to create SLA models and use these as cores in a mold. Other processes, like high-speed milling, could also be used to directly mill the brackets. Processes like laser sintering, where a powdery substance is hardened by a digitally controlled laser beam, are applicable. The powdery substance could be plastic, thus creating cores for a mold, or it could be metal, thus directly fabricating the brackets.
Once the digital representation of the ideal finishing tooth position has been created, the size and shape of the bracket pad is determined for every tooth. This step, and subsequent steps, have been performed using an off-the-shelf 3D graphics software program known as Magics ,� developed by Materialise. Other software programs are of course possible.
Another possible embodiment is to use bracket bodies that are designed and stored in the computer which are as short as possible. Basically, these virtual bracket bodies would include the slot feature and little or nothing else. The user would position the virtual bracket body adjacent to the virtual bracket bonding pad with a small gap formed between the bracket body and the bracket bonding pad. The bracket designing software includes a feature to generate a surface with a smooth transition between the bonding pad and the bracket body. Software that provides functions to generate a smooth transition between two virtual objects of arbitrary cross-section already exists, one example being a 3D design program sold under the trademark Rhino3D.�
Now, the portion 60 (FIG. 18) needs to be removed from the bracket. FIG. 20 shows the screen of a computer workstation performing a subtraction process to subtract the tooth object 16 represented in red on the workstation from the bracket bonding pad/bracket body 18/20 object, rendered in green on the workstation. This step is needed to remove the portion of the bracket body 60 that would otherwise project inside the tooth. The user activates the icon 66 indicating subtraction of the red (tooth) from the green (bracket pad/body) and clicks �OK.�
The archwires to be used with this invention can be of any suitable archwire material known in the art or later developed. It has been found that relatively soft, heat treatable alloys are particularly suitable. It has been discovered that such wires are also ideal for bending with a wire bending robot. One such alloy is a cobalt chromium alloy sold under the trademark BLUE ELGILOY�, available from Rocky Mountain Orthodontics. This particular wire material has a composition of 40% cobalt, 20% chromium, 15% nickel, 7% molybdenum, 2% manganese, 0.15% carbon, balance iron. A similar alloy is available from Ormco, sold under the trademark AZURLOY.� These materials, along with others known to those skilled in the art including nickel titanium, are particularly well suited for the six-axis wire bending robot with heated gripper fingers described in WO 01/80761. Such soft alloys are particularly desirable for lingual treatment. Also, significantly, such alloys require very little overbending to achieve the desired bend in the wire, which is particularly advantageous from a wire bending point of view since overbending of wires to achieve the desired shape of the wire after bending is complete is a difficult process to control exactly.
While presently preferred embodiments have been described with particularity, variation from the preferred and alternative embodiments is of course possible without departure from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, the designing of the brackets with the aid of a computer has been described using the Magics� software program in which surface elements of the bracket bonding pad, tooth and bracket body are represented as triangles. However, there are other acceptable mathematical techniques for representing arbitrary three-dimensional shapes in a computer, including volumetric descriptions (IGES format), and Nonuniform Rational B Splines (NURB), that could be used. While representation of surface elements using triangles (SLA format) works well in this invention, software using NURBs such as QuickDraw3D� could be used. NURB software offers a way of representing arbitrary shapes while maintaining a high degree of mathematical exactness and resolution independence, and it can represent complex shapes with remarkably little data. The methods and software used in the preferred embodiment for designing the brackets in accordance with the invention represent one of several possible techniques and the scope of the invention is not limited to the disclosed methods.
Note, this invention is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/897,149, by Wiechmann et al, �titled Modular System for Customized Orthodontic Appliances,� filed on Jul. 22, 2004, which claims the benefit of and priority to application Ser. No. 10/075,676, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,776,614, all incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
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Part 1: Laboratory Procedure;" J Orofac OrthopjFortschr Kieferorthop; vol. 60, pp. 371-379, (1999).42Wiechmann, Dirk, A New Bracket System for Lingual Orthodontic Treatment, J Orfac Orthop 2003; 64: 372-88.43Wiechmann, Dirk, A New Bracket System for Lingual Orthodontic Treatment; J Orofac Orthop 2002; 63: 234-45.44Wiechmann, Dirk, Customized Brackets and Archwires for Lingual Orthodontic Treatment; AM J Ortho Dentofacial Orthop 2003; 124: 593-99.Referenced byCiting PatentFiling datePublication dateApplicantTitleUS8371847 *Apr 3, 2009Feb 12, 2013Pascal BaronMethod for designing orthodontic apparatusUS8550814Aug 16, 2012Oct 8, 2013Monte CollinsMulti-component orthodontic bracket assemblyUS20110086322 *Apr 3, 2009Apr 14, 2011Pascal BaronMethod for designing orthodontic apparatusUS20110097682 *Oct 31, 2008Apr 28, 2011H 32Method for producing a customised orthodontic device, and device produced in this mannerUSRE44668Oct 7, 2011Dec 24, 20133M Innovative Properties CompanyMethod and system for customizing an orthodontic archwire* Cited by examinerClassifications U.S. Classification433/16, 433/18, 433/20International ClassificationA61C7/20, A61C7/16, A61C7/12, A61C7/00, G06F17/50, A61C7/14, A61C13/00, A61C7/28, A61B19/00Cooperative ClassificationA61C7/002, A61C13/0004, A61C7/148, A61C7/145European ClassificationA61C13/00C1, A61C7/14LLegal EventsDateCodeEventDescriptionAug 14, 2012CCCertificate of correctionJun 25, 2008ASAssignmentOwner name: 3M INNOVATIVE PROPERTIES COMPANY, MINNESOTAFree format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:LINGUALCARE, INC., A CORPORATION OF THE STATE OF TEXAS;REEL/FRAME:021152/0478Effective date: 20080213Jul 3, 2007ASAssignmentOwner name: LINGUALCARE, INC., TEXASFree format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:T.O.P. SERVICE FUR LINGUALTECHNIK GMBH;REEL/FRAME:019515/0522Effective date: 20060116Owner name: T.O.P. SERVICE FUR LINGUALTECHNIK GMBH, GERMANYFree format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:WIECHMANN, DIRK;PAEHL, RALF;RUBBERT, RUEDGER;AND OTHERS;REEL/FRAME:019515/0497;SIGNING DATES FROM 20020212 TO 20020213Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:WIECHMANN, DIRK;PAEHL, RALF;RUBBERT, RUEDGER;AND OTHERS;SIGNING DATES FROM 20020212 TO 20020213;REEL/FRAME:019515/0497RotateOriginal ImageGoogle Home - Sitemap - USPTO Bulk Downloads - Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - About Google Patents - Send FeedbackData provided by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services©2012 Google