Patent ID: 8843381

Claim:
A method for characterizing a dentition of a patient, comprising: receiving an initial dentition of a patient using a computing device; generating an initial profile representing the initial dentition of the patient using the computing device; comparing at least a portion of the initial profile with a plurality of reference profiles of reference dentitions from a database using the computing device, wherein said plurality of reference profiles each include a treatment outcome reference dentition; calculating a value of closeness of the initial profile and each of the plurality of reference profiles using the computing device based on differences in one or more dentition parameters for the initial profile and each of the plurality of reference profiles wherein the value of closeness is calculated using a distance function wherein the distance function includes: the initial profile; one of the plurality of reference profiles; the one or more dentition parameters; a predetermined weight of the one or more dentition parameters; a distance definition of the one or more dentition parameters; and a summation function extended to the set of all of the dentition parameters; selecting at least one of the plurality of reference profiles as a best match for the initial profile based on the calculated value of closeness using the computing device; and providing a target dentition for a treatment outcome of the patient based on the treatment outcome reference dentition of the selected at least one reference profile using the computing device.