Dental

Dental Use Case

Key Terms

Ultrasound

At-home

Direct to Consumer

Orthodontics

Treatment Planning

Aligner Design

3D Printing

On-Demand Production

Treatment Progress

Low Cost, Distributed Sensors

Non-motorized

Ultrasound Computed Tomography

This dental company has pioneered the use of ultrasound for intra-oral imaging.  By placing low-cost ultrasound sensors in a mouthpiece, the sensors are distributed around each tooth in the full arch.

The ultrasound scan results in 2D slices of the entire arch.  The slices are combined using a variation of Computed Tomography that results in a digital 3D model of the patient's full arch.

The scan can be done at-home by the patient.  It would enable a direct-to-consumer orthodontic treatment plan.

Periodic scanning during the course of the orthodontic treatment will show treatment progress.

By using a Certified Database of the scans, models of successful treatments can power an AI system.

The AI system would then be able to quickly and inexpensively design the series of aligners needed to move the teeth into the positions determined by the orthodontist or dentist during the treatment plan.  The design would move to an on-demand 3D printer which would produce the first set of aligners for delivery to the patient at their home.

The ongoing monitoring would both report to the clinician and be used to improve the efficacy of the AI-powered aligner design system.

An important detail is that by continuing to acquire images during the treatment process, the AI can perform “mid-course corrections” and modify the aligner design sent to the 3D printer.  Every aligner delivered to the patient would then be custom fitted enabling a better outcome.

Summary

By moving conventional full arch impressions into digital impressions using low-cost distributed ultrasound sensors a consumer can perform the scan at home.  This scan would be Certified for use by AI and used to design a series of aligners meeting the treatment plan determined by the orthodontist or dentist.  When designed, the result would be a set of 3D printed aligners custom-fitted for each patient, within 24 hours of the initial scan.  When provided by a direct-to-consumer orthodontic practice, no office visit would be necessary.  The Certified AI Database© would continue to improve as new cases and results are incorporated into the AI body of knowledge

The patented linking of the patient information to each scan would fulfill the regulatory requirements of retention of the models and confirm the chain of evidence if there was a legal challenge as to the treatment plan or results.