Patent Application
20240033059
The following is a tabulation of some prior art that presently appears relevant:
None.
The present invention relates generally to the field of tooth preparation or reduction to receive a crown, and more particularly, to any apparatus and method for digitally recording motion of a handpiece-driven rotary cutting tool in a dental handpiece. The invention relates specifically to digital dental systems and methods for recording and monitoring tooth surface reduction as such reduction is accomplished with the handpiece-driven rotary cutting tool in realtime. According to some embodiments, the digital dental system provides signals alerting the dentist to change one of the line-of-draw surface tapers when the line-of-draw surface taper needs to be increased or decreased. According to some embodiments, the digital dental system provides other signals alerting the dentist to move on to other tooth surfaces when the tooth surface has been adequately reduced.
Dental handpieces and cutting tools are well known and used in both practice and laboratory settings. Handpieces are designed to attach various sizes and shapes of cutting tools that are used for reducing the surfaces of teeth and treatment devices. To use a handpiece, a dentist or a technician must acquire knowledge and skills related to dental anatomy, fitting, and functioning contours.
Dentists are said to “prepare” a tooth when they use handpieces with handpiece-driven rotary cutting tools to reduce tooth surfaces to receive a crown. Handpieces have chucks or collets for attaching or holding cutting tools. Handpieces are precision high-speed pneumatic instruments used at speeds of 400,000 rpm (revolutions per minute) or more and, on contact, operate at speeds of 180,000-350,000 rpm. Skills required for using a handpiece include line-of-draw reduction and amount of reduction considerations.
Handpieces and attached cutting tools in general use today, do not facilitate digitizing in realtime, and accordingly do not monitor the motion of the cutting tool as the tooth surfaces are being reduced. Furthermore, handpieces and attached cutting tools have not been related to intelligent digital dental systems, so the dentist does not get any assistance in contouring the tooth surfaces as the surfaces are being reduced. Furthermore, the resulting reduction tooth is not stored in a digital file, so some other copying means, such as an impressioning technique or an independent digitizing device, must be used to relate the reduction tooth to the fabricated custom crown.
Operation of state-of-the-art handpieces and cutting tools requires specialized knowledge and skills. Such handpieces and cutting tools are not capable of realtime motion-capture digitizing. Accordingly, handpieces and cutting tools in general use today, cannot produce a digital file having a polygon mesh model of the reduction tooth.
Accordingly, several advantages of one or more aspects are as follows: To provide a digital dental system comprising sensors and a handpiece attaching a digitizing cutting tool, the system having the capacity to facilitate preparing of a tooth to generate a digital file. To provide the digital dental system having the capacity to record tooth surface data as it is created in realtime. To provide the digital dental system having the capacity to produce signals, alerting the dentist to increase or decrease one of the line-of-draw surface tapers as needed to fit a crown. To provide the digital dental system having the capacity to produce signals, alerting the dentist to move on to other tooth surfaces as the present tooth surface has been adequately reduced to fit a crown. To provide the digital dental system having the capacity to produce a digital file having a polygon mesh model of the tooth as it has been reduced. To provide the digital dental system having the capacity to facilitate preparing of a tooth that fits a premanufactured crown. To provide the digital dental system having the capacity to produce a deliverable digital file of a reduction tooth for facilitating fabrication of a custom crown.
The foregoing disclosure will be best understood and advantages thereof made most clearly apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description in combination with the drawing figures presented. The detailed description makes reference to the following drawing figures:
Arch, according to dental definition, is a structure comprising the teeth and the alveolar ridge. The upper arch is known as the maxillary arch and the lower arch is known as the mandibular arch. The arch of the tooth being prepared or reduced is part of the stable data or motion-negating data recorded during the tooth surface reduction digitizing procedure. That is, although a patient may move their head or jaw during the reduction digitizing procedures, these motions are related by a computer, to the motions of the handpiece-driven rotary cutting tool so that only cutting tool motions are recorded.
Computerized system, according to some embodiments, comprises; technology-specific hardware and software; and a computer having a processor, memory, graphics adapter and software.
Crown, according to dental definition, is a conventional restorative treatment for replacing missing or decayed parts of a tooth. A patient's tooth must be reduced to receive the crown. That is, the tooth surfaces must be reduced to constitute line-of-draw surfaces for inserting and cementing the crown. The crown may be a premanufactured crown, or it may be a custom fabricated crown.
Cutting tool, according to some embodiments, is a surface reducing device that is part of a digital dental system. According to some embodiments, the cutting tool may be a round-tip diamond coated dental bur, having the capacity to facilitate reduction of a tooth surface as the digital dental system records the reduced surfaces in real-time. The cutting tool is a device having dimensions that are known in a software program, and accordingly, the cutting tool functions as a digitizing probe. In some embodiments, the cutting tool may be detached from a handpiece and a digitizing probe may be attached to the handpiece to generate a plurality of margins
Digital data is data that represents forms of information using specific machine language systems that can be interpreted by various technologies.
Digital dental system, according to some embodiments, comprises; a handpiece having at least one integrated sensor and an attached cutting tool; at least one of the sensors adhered to the arch on which the tooth to be reduced is located; and a computerized system. According to some embodiments, the digital dental system is capable of recording motion of the cutting tool via the digital data from the sensors. Cooperation or cooperating connection between components of the digital dental system has the capacity of providing a plurality of wired or wireless connections.
Digital file, at a high level of abstraction, is a stored segment or block of information that is available to a computer program. According to some embodiments, a computerized system may store the digital file having a polygon mesh model of the tooth as it is being reduced in realtime. According to some embodiments, the computerized system may store the digital file having a polygon mesh model of the tooth as it has been reduced.
Digitizing probe, according to some embodiments, is a tool that is part of a digital dental system. The digitizing probe may be moved circumferentially against unreduced tooth surfaces, the reduced surface and the unreduced surface intersections producing an edge representing at least one margin in the digital file. According to some embodiments, the digitizing probe may be attached to the handpiece. According to some embodiments, the digitizing probe may be a separate component integrating at least one of the sensors, the digitizing probe and the sensor being part of the digital dental system.
Handpiece, according to dental definition, is an instrument used to hold a rotary cutting tool. The handpiece may be a pneumatic contra-angle instrument commonly used intraorally, to prepare or reduce a tooth to receive a crown. The handpiece may be part of a digital dental system. According to some embodiments, the handpiece may have one integrated sensor and an attached cutting tool that functions as a digitizing probe as the handpiece facilitates reduction of the tooth surfaces. According to some embodiments, the handpiece may have more than one integrated sensor and an attached cutting tool that functions as a digitizing probe as the handpiece facilitates reduction of the tooth surfaces. According to some embodiments, the handpiece may be an integrated part of an articulated arm and an attached cutting tool that functions as a digitizing probe as the handpiece facilitates reduction of the tooth surfaces. According to some embodiments, the handpiece, the cutting tool, and the sensors have the capacity to cooperate with the computerized system to record motion of the cutting tool, said motion generating the digital file of a plurality of the reduced surfaces.
Line-of-draw, according to dental definition, is the direction of insertion and withdrawal of a fixable or cementable restoration. The line-of-draw incorporates sides of a tooth that are tapered to some degree, such as 2-degrees.
Margin, according to dental definition, is a boundary line formed by a reduced surface and an unreduced surface of a tooth. According to some embodiments, a digitizing probe is attached on the handpiece and may be moved circumferentially against the unreduced tooth surfaces to generate at least one margin in the digital file. According to some embodiments, the digitizing probe may be a separate component integrating at least one of the sensors, the digitizing probe and the sensor being part of the digital dental system.
Reduction tooth, according to some embodiments, may be a tooth that is to be reduced, that is being reduced, or that has been reduced.
Reduction tooth library, according to some embodiments, is a digital collection of various sizes of molar, bicuspid, cuspid, and incisal teeth that have been prepared or reduced to receive crowns. According to some embodiments, the reduction tooth library may represent fitting surfaces of premanufactured crowns.
Sensor is a motion-tracking device that detects and responds to some type of input from the physical environment. Sensor technologies include optoelectronic cone beam, confocal laser, electro-magnetic, and ultrasound motion tracking systems. Each sensor technology may require technology-specific hardware and software. According to some embodiments, the specific sensor input may be motion, pressure, or vibration, or some combination thereof. According to some embodiments, the sensors, the handpiece, and the cutting tool, are elements of a digital dental system which is capable of generating a digital file having a polygon mesh model of the tooth as it is being reduced in realtime. According to some other embodiments, the digital dental system is also capable of generating a digital file having polygon mesh models of a group of the teeth in one of the arches, as the tooth surfaces are being reduced. The sensors track motion and digitize tooth surfaces being reduced by a cutting tool in realtime. According to some embodiments, the sensors may be located intraorally, extraorally, or a combination thereof. The sensor may be adhered to at least one tooth on the arch of the tooth to be reduced. According to some embodiments, other sensors may be adhered or provisionally attached to other teeth in the same arch. According to some other embodiments, sensors may be an integrated part of an impression material adhered extender, reaching out extraorally. According to some embodiments, sensors may be an integrated part of the handpiece handle, or an extended handle, reaching out, extraorally.
Tooth, according to some embodiments, is each of a set of hard, bony enamel-coated structures in the jaws of humans, used for chewing.
Tooth surfaces, according to some embodiments, comprise the designated sides of a tooth known as the facial, lingual, mesial, distal, and occlusal surfaces.
In the following description of exemplary embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and in which it is shown by way of illustration, specific exemplary embodiments can be practiced. It is to be understood that other embodiments can be used and structural changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope.
Disclosed herein is a class of motion tracking apparatus which uses sensors and a cutting tool to record tooth surface reduction in realtime. At least one sensor on a dental handpiece tracks the motion of the cutting tool and at least one sensor adhered to teeth in the same arch tracks nonmotion of the arch. The embodiments have the benefits of a digital dental system for configuring a reduction tooth to generate a digital file.
Accordingly, the reader will see that the digital dental system comprising the sensors and the handpiece attaching the digitizing cutting tool has the capacity to facilitate configuring of the reduction tooth to generate the digital file; that the digital dental system has the capacity to record reduction tooth surface data as it is created in realtime; that the digital dental system has the capacity to produce signals, alerting the dentist to increase or decrease one of the line-of-draw surface tapers as needed to fit a crown; that the digital dental system has the capacity to produce signals, alerting the dentist to move on to other reduction tooth surfaces as the present reduction tooth surface has been adequately reduced to fit the crown; that the digital dental system has the capacity to produce the digital file having the polygon mesh model of the reduction tooth as it has been configured; that the digital dental system has the capacity to facilitate preparing of the reduction tooth that fits the premanufactured crown; that the digital dental system has the capacity to produce the deliverable digital file of the reduction tooth for facilitating fabrication of the custom crown.
Although the description above contains many specifications, these should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments but as merely providing illustrations of some of several embodiments. For example; the sensors may be located intraorally, extraorally, or a combination thereof; the sensors may be an integrated part of an impression material adhered extender, reaching out extraorally; the sensors may be an integrated part of the handpiece handle, or an extended handle, reaching out extraorally; the cutting tool, the handpiece, and the sensors may be elements of a digital dental system for generating a digital file of a group of the teeth as they are being reduced in realtime; the digitizing probe may be a separate component integrating at least one of the sensors, the digitizing probe and the sensor being part of the digital dental system; the dentist may choose to permanently cement a premanufactured crown; the dentist may choose to temporarily cement the premanufactured crown and subsequently, to permanently cement a custom crown, etc.
While various embodiments have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only, and not by way of limitation. Likewise, the various illustrations may depict an example design or other configuration for the disclosure, which illustrations are done to aid in understanding the features and functionality that can be included in the disclosure. The disclosure is not restricted to the illustrated examples, designs, or configurations, but can be implemented using a variety of alternative designs and configurations. Additionally, although the disclosure is described above in terms of various exemplary embodiments and implementations, it should be understood that the various features and functionality described in one or more of the individual embodiments are not limited in their applicability to the particular embodiment with which they are described. They instead can, be applied, alone or in some combination, to one or more of the other embodiments of the disclosure, whether or not such embodiments are described, and whether or not such features are presented as being a part of a described embodiment. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present disclosure should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments.
Terms and phrases used in this document, and variations thereof, unless otherwise expressly stated, should be construed as open ended as opposed to limiting. As examples of the foregoing: the term “including” should be read as meaning “including, without limitation” or the like; the term “example” is used to provide exemplary instances of the item in discussion, not an exhaustive or limiting list thereof; and adjectives such as “conventional,” “traditional,” “normal,” “standard,” “known,” and terms of similar meaning, should not be construed as limiting the item described to a given time period, or to an item available as of a given time. But instead, these terms should be read to encompass conventional, traditional, normal, or standard technologies that may be available, known now, or at any time in the future. Likewise, a group of items linked with the conjunction “and” should not be read as requiring that each and every one of those items be present in the grouping, but rather should be read as “and/or” unless expressly stated otherwise. Similarly, a group of items linked with the conjunction “or” should not be read as requiring mutual exclusivity among that group, but rather should also be read as “and/or” unless expressly stated otherwise. Furthermore, although items, elements or components of the disclosure may be described or claimed in the singular, the plural is contemplated to be within the scope thereof unless limitation to the singular is explicitly stated. The presence of broadening words and phrases such as “one or more,” “at least,” “but not limited to,” or other like phrases in some instances shall not be read to mean that the narrower case is intended or required in instances where such broadening phrases may be absent.
