Patent ID: 8469706

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for fabricating a dental appliance for repositioning at least one tooth, the method comprising: creating a computer-generated model of a patient's teeth; creating a plurality of intermediate digital data sets representing a plurality of successive incremental tooth arrangements of the patient's teeth wherein each of the plurality of successive incremental tooth arrangements comprise at least one tooth repositioned from another of the plurality of successive incremental tooth arrangements; merging at least two sequential of the plurality of intermediate digital data sets to create a merged digital data set; using the merged digital data set to create a three-dimensional digital model of the dental appliance; and using the three-dimensional digital model of the dental appliance to fabricate the appliance, the appliance comprising a shell having teeth receiving cavities shaped to receive and apply a resilient force to the patient's teeth, at least one tooth receiving cavity of the shell comprising a passive bump formed at a predetermined location in the cavity and configured to deliver one or more predetermined forces to a tooth received in the at least one cavity, the bump comprising a non-activated first state where the bump extends outward and away from the at least one cavity, and an activated second state where the bump extends inward toward the at least one cavity so as to contact and apply a predetermined tooth movement force to a received tooth, the bump transitionable between the first state and second state in response to a user-applied pressure.