Patent ID: 7229282

Claim:
A method of selecting orthodontic appliances comprising: providing digital information that is a representation of individual dental anatomy of a patient; analyzing the digital information with a computer to derive geometric parameters of a custom orthodontic appliance; comparing the derived geometric parameters with corresponding parameters of a plurality of alternative pre-manufactured orthodontic appliances and selecting one of the plurality based on the comparison; wherein the providing of the digital information includes any one of the following: a) forming a physical impression of a patient's teeth at a situs of an orthodontic practitioner, transporting the impression to an orthodontic appliance facility, forming at the orthodontic appliance facility a solid model of the patient's teeth from the impression, scanning the model to produce three-dimensional digital information of the shape of the patient's teeth; b) digitizing skeletal information of the patient; c) digitizing soft tissue information of the patient; d) digitizing dental information of the patient other than as set forth in a); or e) digitizing x-rays of skeletal, soft tissue or dental information of the patient; and wherein the analyzing of the digital information includes designing with a computer the orthodontic appliance that includes a custom orthodontic archwire and a set of custom orthodontic brackets to be bonded to each of a plurality of the patient's teeth to support the archwire to achieve an arrangement of the patient's teeth by orthodontic treatment.