Claims
- 1. A method of fabricating a plurality of dental incremental position adjustment appliances, said method comprising:
providing a plurality of positive models of successive tooth arrangements, wherein each successive arrangement represents a stage progressing from an initial tooth arrangement to an intermediate or a final tooth arrangement; and fabricating the plurality of dental appliances as negatives of the positive models.
- 2. A method as in claim 1, wherein providing said positive models comprises:
providing digital data representing said plurality of successive tooth arrangements; and controlling a fabrication machine to produce said plurality of positive models of successive tooth arrangements.
- 3. A method as in claim 2, wherein providing digital data comprises producing a plurality of digital data sets, wherein each set represents one of the successive tooth arrangements.
- 4. A method as in claim 2, wherein controlling the fabrication machine comprises:
providing a volume of non-hardened polymeric resin; and scanning a laser to selectively harden the resin in a shape corresponding to each of the positive models.
- 5. A method as in claim 3, wherein controlling the fabrication machine comprises:
providing a volume of non-hardened polymeric resin; and scanning a laser to selectively harden the resin in a shape corresponding to each of the positive models.
- 6. A method as in claim 1, wherein producing the dental appliances comprises molding a thin polymeric sheet over each of the positive models to produce a plurality of thin polymeric shells.
- 7. A method of fabricating one or more dental incremental position adjustment appliances, comprising:
providing a computer generated positive model of at least one tooth arrangement selected from an initial tooth arrangement, an intermediate tooth arrangement, and final tooth arrangement; and fabricating at least one dental appliance as a negative of the computer generated positive model.
- 8. A method as in claim 7, wherein providing said at least one positive model comprises:
providing digital data representing at least one tooth arrangement; and controlling a fabrication machine to produce said at least one positive model of a tooth arrangement.
- 9. A method as in claim 8, wherein providing digital data comprises producing a plurality of digital data sets, wherein each set represents one of a plurality of successive tooth arrangements.
- 10. A method as in claim 8, wherein controlling the fabrication machine comprises:
providing a volume of non-hardened polymeric resin; and scanning a laser to selectively harden the resin in a shape corresponding to each of the positive models.
- 11. A method as in claim 9, wherein controlling the fabrication machine comprises:
providing a volume of non-hardened polymeric resin; and scanning a laser to selectively harden the resin in a shape corresponding to each of the positive models.
- 12. A method as in claim 7, wherein fabricating the at least one dental appliance comprises molding a thin polymeric sheet over said at least one positive model to produce at least one thin polymeric shells.
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/298,268, filed Apr. 23, 1999, which was a division of application Ser. No. 08/947,080, filed Oct. 8, 1997, which was claims benefit of provisional application Ser. No. 60/050,342, filed on Jun. 20, 1997, the full disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Provisional Applications (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60050342 |
Jun 1997 |
US |
Divisions (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
08947080 |
Oct 1997 |
US |
Child |
09298268 |
Apr 1999 |
US |
Continuations (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09298268 |
Apr 1999 |
US |
Child |
09792082 |
Feb 2001 |
US |