| CPC A61C 7/002 (2013.01) [A61C 7/08 (2013.01); A61C 9/0046 (2013.01); A61C 7/02 (2013.01)] | 22 Claims |
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1. A method comprising:
scanning a patient's teeth with a dental scanner to generate a virtual model of the patient's teeth;
in a dental planning system having one or more computing devices, receiving the virtual model of the patient's teeth;
in the dental planning system, providing a treatment plan based on the virtual model and including a plurality of treatment stages to move a patient's teeth from an initial arrangement toward a target arrangement through a plurality of intermediate arrangements;
depicting on a display of the dental planning system the virtual model of the patient's teeth, the virtual model representing the patient's teeth in accordance with the plurality of treatment stages;
in the dental planning system, identifying a hook structure configured to receive and react force from one or more elastics in accordance with one or more of the plurality of treatment stages;
in the dental planning system, identifying a region of interest of the patient's teeth corresponding to the hook structure;
in the dental planning system, identifying manufacturing constraints and clinical constraints constraining placement of the hook structure within the region of interest of the patient's teeth;
in the dental planning system, determining that there are not any hook locations in the region of interest for the hook structure that can accommodate both the manufacturing constraints and clinical constraints for a target stage of the treatment plan over a target stage duration;
in the dental planning system, dividing the target stage into at least two new stages over the target stage duration;
in the dental planning system, identifying in the region of interest one or more constrained hook locations for the hook structure that can accommodate both the manufacturing constraints and clinical constraints for the at least two new stages;
displaying on the display of the dental planning system one or more virtual representations of the hook structure at the one or more constrained hook locations on the virtual model of the patient's teeth; and
providing instructions to manufacture one or more dental appliances with the hook structure at the one or more constrained hook locations, further comprising manufacturing the one or more dental appliances with a fabrication machine, the one or more dental appliance having the hook structure at the one or more constrained hook locations.
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