Methods for use in dental articulation

摘要

A computer implemented method includes providing a first set of digital data corresponding to an upper arch image of at least a portion of an upper dental arch of a patient, providing a second set of digital data corresponding to a lower arch image of at least a portion of a lower dental arch of the patient, providing bite alignment data representative of the spatial relationship between the upper dental arch and the lower dental arch of the patient, and aligning the upper and lower arch images relative to one another based on the bite alignment data until an aligned upper and lower arch image is attained. The aligned upper and lower arch images are moved towards each other until a first contact point is detected and at least one of the upper and lower arch images is moved relative to the other in one or more directions to a plurality of positions for determining optimal occlusion position of the lower and upper dental arches.

主权项

1. A computerized method of creating a dental model for use in dental articulation, the method being implemented by a computer system and comprising:
providing a first set of digital data corresponding to an upper arch image of at least a portion of an upper dental arch of a patient; providing a second set of digital data corresponding to a lower arch image of at least a portion of a lower dental arch of the patient; providing hinge axis data representative of the spatial orientation of at least one of the upper and lower dental arches relative to a hinge axis of the patient; providing bite alignment data representative of the spatial relationship between the upper dental arch and the lower dental arch of the patient; aligning the upper arch image and the lower arch image based on the bite alignment data and creating a reference hinge axis relative to the aligned upper and lower arch images based on the hinge axis data, wherein aligning the upper arch image and the lower arch image and creating the reference hinge axis comprises manipulating the first and second set of digital data until an aligned upper and lower arch image is attained; storing a third set of digital data representative of the aligned upper and lower arch images; determining a location of the reference hinge axis relative to the aligned upper and lower arch images in the same coordinate system as the aligned upper and lower arch images; storing a fourth set of digital data representative of the location of the reference hinge axis, wherein the third set of digital data is linked to the fourth set of digital data; and outputting the dental model from the computer system.