Patent ID: 7373286

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for generating a computer model of one or more teeth, comprising: receiving as input a digital data set of meshes representing the teeth at a first resolution; generating a parametric representation of the teeth from the digital data set, the parametric representation comprising exposed tooth surface image data and unexposed tooth surface image data and further providing compression of the digital data set, generating the parametric representation comprising selecting a curved coordinate system with mappings to and from a 3D space; and generating a function in the curved coordinate system to represent each tooth; communicating the parametric representation from a first system to a second system over a network, and rendering at the second system a graphical representation of the teeth using the parametric representation, the rendered graphical representation having a resolution substantially equivalent to the first resolution, and wherein the rendering comprises rendering the teeth at a selected one of multiple orthodontic-specific viewing angles.