CN115177384A

CN115177384A - Dental instrument, shell-shaped appliance and manufacturing method thereof

Info

Publication number: CN115177384A
Application number: CN202110355135.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 赵晓磊; 姚峻峰
Original assignee: Shanghai Zhengya Dental Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Shanghai Zhengya Dental Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-04-01
Filing date: 2021-04-01
Publication date: 2022-10-14

Abstract

The invention relates to the technical field of orthodontic treatment, and discloses a dental appliance suitable for combination of fixed correction and invisible correction, a shell-shaped corrector and a manufacturing method of the shell-shaped corrector. The dental appliance comprises an orthodontic fixing appliance and a shell-shaped appliance to realize combined correction, the shell-shaped appliance is structurally arranged to comprise a sub-shell and a connecting part used for connecting the sub-shells on two adjacent sides of teeth provided with the orthodontic fixing appliance, the connecting part only realizes the connecting effect and does not contact with the orthodontic fixing appliance, and no force is generated on the teeth at corresponding positions, so that the teeth at the parts are corrected only by an orthodontic bracket and an arch wire, the correcting acting force is single, the design difficulty of a correction plan is reduced, the correction precision is improved, and the correction effect is ensured to be consistent with the correction plan. In addition, the shell-shaped appliance also has the characteristics of convenience in belt removal, easiness in manufacturing, long service life and the like.

Description

Dental instrument, shell-shaped appliance and manufacturing method thereof

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of orthodontic, in particular to a dental appliance for fixing and invisible correcting, a shell-shaped corrector suitable for fixing and invisible correcting and a manufacturing method thereof.

Background

Orthodontics generally reposition a patient's teeth to a desired alignment to correct for malposition and/or malocclusion, to ensure the physiological function of the teeth while enhancing aesthetics. The conventional orthodontic method is to install braces, which mainly include brackets and archwires, on all teeth of a patient, the bases of the brackets are attached to the surfaces of the teeth using adhesives and the archwires are installed in the grooves of the brackets at the time of treatment, a corrective force is provided by an elastic force generated by deformation of the archwires, and the archwires apply a continuous corrective force on the teeth and gradually move the teeth to desired tooth positions. After a period of time, the practitioner performs a series of clinical examinations and adjustments to the braces to remove the braces after the teeth have reached their final position.

In addition to the conventional braces correction (also referred to as fixed correction), the invisible correction technology using shell-shaped braces has been gradually developed in recent years, and the invisible correction has more beautiful and comfortable characteristics than the conventional orthodontic method using braces (brackets, archwires). However, in some cases, such as severe crowding of the dentition, twisting of the teeth, or closure of the extraction gap, the shell appliance may require a longer period of correction to achieve correction in complex cases due to the lower force provided by the shell appliance. Because the arch wire used for the fixed correction can provide enough correction force, the defects of the invisible correction in complex cases can be made up by introducing the fixed correction on the basis of the invisible correction, and the application range of the invisible correction is expanded.

When stealthy is corrected and is used with traditional braces cooperation among the prior art, shell-shaped unscrambler forms the parcel to the tooth that installs the support groove, make this tooth receive the correction power that support groove and shell-shaped unscrambler provided simultaneously, the superposition greatly increased the complexity of tooth atress of these two kinds of power of correcting, it is difficult to control to the effect of correcting that it brought, on the one hand can lead to correcting planned design degree of difficulty to increase, on the other hand corrects the unable assurance that obtains of precision, along with correcting going on, each step in correcting the plan all probably produces the deviation, the continuous accumulation of deviation finally can cause to correct the unable continuation of plan and the condition emergence of restarting, can even correct the appearance failure during serious.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention mainly aims to provide a dental appliance, a shell-shaped appliance and a manufacturing method thereof based on the technical problems in the prior art, so as to prevent the invisible correction and the fixed correction from applying correction force to teeth together, further reduce the design difficulty of a correction plan and ensure that the correction effect conforms to the correction plan.

The technical scheme provided by the invention is as follows:

the present invention provides a dental instrument comprising:

the orthodontic fixing appliance is used for repositioning teeth provided with the orthodontic fixing appliance and comprises more than two brackets fixed on different teeth and fasteners arranged on the brackets;

the shell-shaped corrector comprises a shell, wherein the shell comprises at least two sub-shells and a connecting part for connecting the sub-shells; each of said sub-housings including one or more cavities capable of receiving teeth, at least a portion of said cavities being designed to reposition teeth received thereby that are not fitted with orthodontic fixtures;

wherein the orthodontic fixture is mounted on at least a portion of the teeth between the adjacent sub-shells, and the connecting portion connects the adjacently disposed sub-shells; the connecting part is not in contact with the orthodontic fixing appliance during and after the shell-shaped appliance is worn to the jaw; during use of the dental appliance, the connection portion exerts no force on teeth located between the adjacent sub-housings.

Preferably, the dental appliance is such that, in use of the dental appliance, the connection portions do not contact the teeth located between the adjacent sub-housings.

Preferably, the dental device is such that, in use of the dental device, the connecting portion contacts the teeth between adjacent sub-housings without the application of force.

Preferably, the connecting part and the orthodontic fixing tool are arranged on the same side or different sides of the tooth in the bucco-lingual direction or the labial-lingual direction.

Preferably, when the connecting part and the orthodontic fixing appliance are arranged on the same side of the tooth, the connecting part is not provided with any solid structure below the orthodontic fixing appliance.

Preferably, the bracket is mounted on the labial side of the teeth in the anterior teeth area, and the connection part comprises a lingual part and is free of a labial part.

Preferably, the bracket is installed on the buccal side of the tooth in the posterior dental area, and the connection part includes a lingual side part and/or an occlusal side part and does not include a buccal side part.

Preferably, the bracket is mounted on the lingual side of the teeth in the anterior dental area, and the connecting portion includes labial side portions and is free of lingual side portions.

Preferably, the bracket is mounted on the lingual side of the teeth in the posterior dental area, and the connection portion includes a buccal side portion and/or an occlusal surface and is free of the lingual side portion.

In the dental device, the connecting portion preferably includes a lip/cheek side portion and a tongue side portion, and the connecting portion is provided only above the orthodontic fixture on a side to which the orthodontic fixture is attached.

In the dental device, the connecting portion preferably includes a labial/buccal side portion, an occlusal side portion, and a lingual side portion, and the connecting portion is preferably provided only above and/or on both sides of the orthodontic fixture on a side to which the orthodontic fixture is attached.

Preferably, the connecting portion of the dental instrument comprises one or more connecting bodies, and the connecting bodies are connected with the sub-housings which are adjacently arranged.

Preferably, the dental device includes a plurality of connecting members, and at least two of the connecting members are located on the same surface or different surfaces of the labial/buccal surface, lingual surface, and occlusal surface.

Preferably, the connecting body is positioned on the side of lip/cheek or the side of tongue, and the width of the part of the connecting body corresponding to the orthodontic fixing appliance in the gingival and jaw direction is less than or equal to the height of the crown of the corresponding tooth provided with the orthodontic fixing appliance.

Preferably, the dental device is provided with the connecting body on the side of the lip/cheek, and the minimum distance between the connecting body and the outer surface of the tooth for installing the orthodontic fixture is greater than or equal to 0.

Preferably, the dental appliance is provided with the connecting body on the side of the tongue, and the minimum distance between the connecting body and the inner surface of the tooth for installing the orthodontic fixing appliance is greater than or equal to 0.

In the dental device, the connecting body is preferably positioned on an occlusal surface, and a width of a portion of the connecting body corresponding to the orthodontic fixture in a buccal-lingual direction is preferably equal to or less than an occlusal surface width of a tooth to which the orthodontic fixture is attached.

Preferably, the shape of the connecting body is substantially identical to the occlusal surface of the tooth of the corresponding orthodontic fixture.

Preferably, the dental appliance is characterized in that the minimum distance between the connecting body and the highest point of the crown of the tooth provided with the orthodontic fixing appliance is more than or equal to 0.

The invention also provides a shell-shaped appliance for the dental appliance, which comprises a shell, a connecting part and a shell body, wherein the shell body comprises at least two sub-shell bodies and the connecting part is connected with the sub-shell bodies; each of said sub-housings including one or more cavities capable of receiving teeth, at least a portion of said cavities being designed to reposition teeth received thereby that are not fitted with orthodontic fixtures;

the connecting part is connected with the sub-shells which are adjacently arranged; the connecting part is not contacted with the orthodontic fixing appliance in the process of wearing the shell-shaped dental appliance to the jaw and after wearing the shell-shaped dental appliance; the connecting portion is free from forces acting on teeth located between the adjacent sub-shells during use of the shell appliance.

The invention also provides a manufacturing method of the shell-shaped appliance, which adopts a hot-pressing film forming process to manufacture the shell-shaped appliance and comprises the following steps:

s1, obtaining an initial dental model: acquiring a digital dental model of any correcting step in a correcting plan as an initial dental model;

any correction step in the correction plan is implemented by matching an orthodontic fixing appliance with the shell-shaped appliance, wherein the orthodontic fixing appliance is used for repositioning the teeth provided with the orthodontic fixing appliance and comprises more than two brackets fixed on different teeth and fasteners arranged on the brackets;

s2, designing a digital dental model: according to the design of the connecting part in the shell-shaped appliance, designing a preset connecting part model on the teeth, provided with orthodontic fixing appliances, in the initial dental model to obtain a digital dental model comprising the preset connecting part model;

s3, manufacturing a solid dental model: based on the digital dental model comprising the preset connecting part model, a solid dental model comprising the preset connecting part is manufactured by adopting an additive manufacturing process;

s4, hot pressing of the film: hot pressing a film on the solid dental model to obtain a shell-shaped corrector comprising a preset connecting part;

s5, cutting: cutting and removing an excess part on the shell-shaped appliance comprising a preset connecting part along a gum line or a position adjacent to the gum line, and cutting and removing a part corresponding to the tooth provided with the orthodontic fixing appliance, wherein the cut shell-shaped appliance comprises at least two sub shells, and the preset connecting part is cut and formed into a connecting part so that the connecting part is connected with the sub shells which are adjacently arranged; the connecting part is not in contact with the orthodontic fixing appliance during and after the shell-shaped dental appliance is worn to the jaw; the connecting portion is not forced against teeth located between the adjacent sub-shells during use of the shell appliance.

The manufacturing method of the shell-shaped appliance is preferable, and the step S5 adopts laser cutting or mechanical cutting.

The dental instrument, the shell-shaped appliance and the manufacturing method thereof provided by the invention can bring at least one of the following beneficial effects:

1. the shell-shaped appliance is provided with the connecting part at the position corresponding to the tooth of the mounting bracket, the connecting part is mainly used for realizing the connecting action and can not generate the action of force on the tooth at the corresponding position, so that the part of the tooth is only corrected by the orthodontic bracket and the arch wire, the correcting action force is single, and the design difficulty of the correcting plan is reduced; meanwhile, invisible correction and fixed correction are performed in a synergistic manner under the correction plan, so that the correction precision is improved, and the correction effect is ensured to be consistent with the correction plan.

2. The position design of connecting portion still makes it all not contact with holding in the palm the groove at the in-process of wearing state and excision and wearing, and it is more convenient to make to pluck and wear, and connecting portion are plucking and wear the in-process atress moreover, and is not fragile.

3. The connecting part is manufactured by designing a preset connecting part model on the dental model, then obtaining the shell-shaped corrector with the preset connecting part by adopting a hot pressing film, and obtaining the connecting part after cutting the preset connecting part.

Drawings

The foregoing features, technical features, advantages and embodiments are further described in the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, which is to be read in connection with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1a is a first schematic view of a dental implement according to the present invention mounted on a tooth; FIG. 1b is a schematic view of a shell appliance of the dental instrument provided in FIG. 1 a; fig. 1c and 1d are schematic structural views of the shell-shaped appliance with the connecting part located on the side of the tongue.

FIG. 2a is a second schematic view of another dental implement of the present invention mounted on a tooth; FIG. 2b is a schematic view of the shell appliance of the dental instrument provided in FIG. 2 a; fig. 2c is a schematic view of the shell appliance with the connection portions on the occlusal and lingual surfaces.

FIG. 3a is a schematic view of a third embodiment of a dental appliance according to the present invention mounted on a tooth; FIG. 3b is a schematic view of a shell appliance of the dental appliance of FIG. 3 a; fig. 3c and 3d are schematic structural views of the shell-shaped appliance with the connecting portions located on the buccal and lingual sides.

FIG. 4a is a fourth schematic view of a dental appliance according to the present invention mounted on a tooth; FIG. 4b is a schematic view of the shell appliance of the dental instrument provided in FIG. 4 a.

Fig. 5a is a schematic illustration showing a fifth embodiment of a dental appliance of the present invention installed on a tooth, wherein an orthodontic fixture is positioned on the lingual side of the tooth in the posterior dental area.

Fig. 5b is a schematic view showing a sixth embodiment of a dental appliance of the present invention mounted on a tooth, wherein an orthodontic fixture is disposed on the labial side of the tooth in the anterior teeth area.

Fig. 6 is a seventh schematic view of the present invention showing a dental appliance mounted on a tooth, wherein two sets of orthodontic fixtures are provided.

FIG. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a digital dental model designed in the method for manufacturing a shell-shaped appliance according to the present invention.

Figure 8 is a schematic view of a shell appliance of the present invention wherein the connecting portion has a shape that substantially conforms to the occlusal surface of the tooth to which the orthodontic appliance is attached.

Detailed Description

The invention provides a dental appliance which can realize the matching use of an orthodontic fixing appliance and a shell-shaped appliance, so that the force applied by the shell-shaped appliance and the orthodontic fixing appliance to teeth is not influenced mutually, the whole dentition can be coordinately corrected under a set corresponding correction plan, and the correction process, the correction period and the correction effect are more in line with the correction plan. In addition, the shell-shaped appliance can be conveniently worn and removed, the contact frequency of the shell-shaped appliance and an orthodontic fixing appliance is reduced, and the service life of the shell-shaped appliance is prolonged.

The shell-shaped appliance is suitable for being matched with an orthodontic fixing appliance, can keep consistent with the orthodontic progress of the orthodontic fixing appliance under a set corresponding orthodontic plan, is convenient to wear and is simple in manufacturing method.

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the following description will be made with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some examples of the invention, and that for a person skilled in the art, other drawings and embodiments can be derived from them without inventive effort.

The present invention provides a dental instrument comprising:

wherein the orthodontic fixture is mounted on at least a portion of the teeth between the adjacent sub-shells, and the connecting portion connects the adjacently disposed sub-shells; the connecting part is not in contact with the orthodontic fixing appliance during and after the shell-shaped appliance is worn to the jaw; during use of the dental appliance, the connecting portion exerts no force on the teeth between the adjacent sub-housings.

Generally, teeth are corrected by designing a correction plan for a patient by a doctor, namely, the teeth of the patient are moved from an initial position to a final position in a plurality of correction steps in a clinically and biologically reasonable mode, and the movement of a single tooth in each correction step is designed into a corresponding movement amount according to the plan, so that the movement of all teeth in the correction plan is coordinated. The dental appliance provided by the invention can be used in any correction step implemented by matching the orthodontic fixture and the shell-shaped appliance in a correction plan, and as the connecting part does not generate force on teeth provided with the orthodontic fixture, the fixing correction and the invisible correction can be respectively and independently carried out under the corresponding correction plan, so that higher correction precision is ensured.

In the above dental appliance of the present invention, the orthodontic fixing appliance may be provided in one or more groups, each group being used for performing the correction of one group of teeth, and in the same group of orthodontic fixing appliances, a plurality of brackets (a plurality of brackets may be two or more) are generally respectively provided on adjacent teeth in the group of teeth, but if some of the teeth therein are not suitable or require bracket attachment, a plurality of brackets may be respectively provided on non-adjacent teeth in the group of teeth. The fasteners usually adopt arch wires which are embedded into grooves of a plurality of brackets (the plurality of brackets can be two or more) of a group of orthodontic fixing appliances, generate deformation and tend to return to the original position, further generate correcting force, and the correcting force acts on teeth through the conduction of the brackets to realize the repositioning of the teeth.

In the above dental appliance of the invention, the shell of the shell appliance comprises a plurality of sub-shells, the number of which depends on the number of orthodontic fixtures, and if one set of orthodontic fixtures is provided, the shell will need to be provided with one connection, then typically comprising two sub-shells, whereas if two sets of orthodontic fixtures are provided, the shell appliance will need to be provided with two connections, then comprising three sub-shells, and so on. The present invention does not specifically limit the number of orthodontic fixtures and sub-housings, and may be configured according to the actual orthodontic needs.

In the dental apparatus according to the present invention, the connecting portion of the shell-shaped appliance serves to connect a plurality of sub-shells into a single body and is positioned to correspond to the teeth to which the orthodontic fixture is attached, so to speak, a group of teeth to which the orthodontic fixture is attached is positioned between the sub-shells adjacent to both sides thereof, the connecting portion is configured so as not to exert a force on the teeth to which the orthodontic fixture is attached, and the connecting portion does not contact the orthodontic fixture (generally, a bracket and an arch wire) during and after the shell-shaped appliance is worn on the jaw.

In the above dental appliance of the invention, each sub-shell of the shell-shaped appliance has one or more cavities capable of receiving teeth, and usually and preferably, each sub-shell has a plurality of cavities capable of receiving teeth, and due to different designs of different steps of the orthodontic plan, the cavity at a certain position may have only a receiving function in some orthodontic steps, and may have both a receiving and repositioning function in another orthodontic step, so that in a certain orthodontic step, all cavities may be used, and only a part of the cavities may have a tooth repositioning function. The cavity receives the teeth without brackets, and repositioning of the teeth is thus effected by the repositioning effect of the cavity.

In the dental appliance of the present invention, the orthodontic fixture is generally suitable for complicated and difficult tooth correction, for example, in the case of severely crowded dentition, if only using the shell-shaped appliance, the shell-shaped appliance is difficult to take off and carry on one hand, and on the other hand, the shell-shaped appliance is easy to break due to extremely complicated stress at the crowded tooth position, and the same situation may occur in the case of twisted teeth; for another example, in the case of tooth extraction, a larger gap is left after tooth extraction, the gap closing progress can be accelerated by using the orthodontic fixture, and the correction period is shortened, so that the shell-shaped appliance and the orthodontic fixture can be used together just for making up for the deficiency.

When considering the combined use of fixed bracket type correction and invisible correction, the first problem to be solved is that how to design the structure of the position corresponding to the tooth provided with the bracket in the shell-shaped corrector, and no matter the bracket is accommodated in the cavity of the shell-shaped corrector or the bracket is anchored with the shell-shaped corrector, the shell-shaped corrector wraps part of the tooth, so that the acting force is generated on the tooth together with the bracket, the stress condition of the tooth is complicated, on one hand, the design difficulty of the correction plan is increased, on the other hand, the correction effect is uncontrollable in the correction process, so that the deviation can be continuously accumulated along with the correction plan, and on the other hand, the correction reconstruction plan is needed in serious cases, so the correction period can be influenced, and even more, the correction failure can be caused; in addition, the shell-shaped appliance can be worn conveniently due to contact with the bracket in the wearing and removing processes, and even frequent contact causes deformation of the shell-shaped appliance, so that the shell-shaped appliance is more likely to be broken.

In the structural design of the dental appliance, the connecting part with the connecting function is only arranged at the position corresponding to the tooth corrected by the orthodontic fixing appliance, and the connecting part does not have the function of accommodating and wrapping the orthodontic fixing appliance or the tooth, so that the tooth provided with the orthodontic fixing appliance and the shell-shaped appliance have no interaction under the set corresponding correction plan, can move only under the force application of the orthodontic fixing appliance, is simple in stress and movement conditions, and is convenient for force application analysis and control and correction step design, meanwhile, the sub-shell of the shell-shaped appliance still keeps the correction force, can reposition the tooth without a bracket, is matched with the orthodontic fixing appliance to keep the coordination correction of the whole dentition, and the whole correction effect is closer to the correction plan, and the correction progress is more controllable.

In the dental apparatus according to the present invention, the connection portion does not contact the orthodontic fixture during and after the shell-shaped appliance is worn on the jaw. Wherein, the state of the shell-shaped appliance after being worn is the state of the shell-shaped appliance which is kept fixed on the teeth after being worn in place. By reducing the contact between the connecting part and the orthodontic fixing appliance, the invention ensures the convenience of taking off the shell-shaped appliance by a patient on one hand, avoids the situation that the shell-shaped appliance is deformed or even broken due to excessive contact on the other hand, and prolongs the service life of the shell-shaped appliance.

The connection part does not contact with the teeth between the adjacent sub-housings during the use of the dental appliance, so that the connection part and the teeth of the orthodontic fixture are lack of force action points in a completely non-contact manner, and further, the effect of the force is avoided; the other is that in the use process of the dental appliance, the connecting part is in contact with the teeth between the adjacent sub-shells but does not generate force action, in order to ensure that the connecting part does not cause discomfort of a wearer, the connecting part is probably slightly close to the teeth for installing the orthodontic fixing appliance in design, so that the connecting part is in contact with the teeth in the use process, but the connecting part is designed to ensure that the force action is not generated under the condition that the connecting part is not deformed due to the contact.

The shape of the connecting part is not particularly limited, and the basic principle is simple design and easy manufacture. Specifically, based on the principle that the connecting portion is preferably designed in such a way that "the connecting portion is not in contact with the orthodontic fixture during and after the shell-shaped dental appliance is worn on the jaw", and "the connecting portion does not exert a force on the teeth located between the adjacent sub-housings during use of the dental appliance", the connecting portion is preferably designed in such a way that: the connecting part and the orthodontic fixing appliance are arranged on the same side or different sides of the teeth in the bucco-lingual direction or the labial-lingual direction; when the connection portion and the orthodontic fixture are disposed on the same side of a tooth, the connection portion does not provide any physical structure beneath the orthodontic fixture. The specific structural arrangement is that, for example, if the bracket is arranged on the labial side of the teeth in the anterior dental area, the connecting part comprises a lingual side part and does not comprise a labial side part; alternatively, if the bracket is installed on the buccal side of a tooth in the posterior area, the connection portion includes a lingual portion and/or an occlusal portion and is free of a buccal portion; alternatively, the bracket may be mounted on the lingual side of the anterior teeth, the attachment portion may include labial side portions and may be devoid of lingual side portions; alternatively, if the bracket is mounted on the lingual side of the teeth in the posterior dental area, the connection portion includes a buccal side portion and/or an occlusal surface and is free of a lingual side portion; or, the connecting portion includes a lip/cheek side portion and a tongue side portion, wherein the connecting portion is disposed only above the orthodontic fixture on a side on which the orthodontic fixture is mounted; alternatively, the connection part includes a labial/buccal side part, an occlusal side part, and a lingual side part, wherein the connection part is provided only above and/or on both sides of the orthodontic fixture at a side where the orthodontic fixture is installed.

The terms "anterior tooth zone" and "posterior tooth zone" used in the present invention are defined according to the classification of teeth in the 2 nd edition "introduction to oral medicine" published by the university of Beijing medical Press, "anterior tooth zone" including incisors, lateral incisors and canine teeth, and "posterior tooth zone" including anterior molars and molars; the term "labial/buccal side" means the labial side or the buccal side, i.e. "/" means "or"; the terms "labial side portion", "buccal side portion", "lingual side portion", "occlusal surface portion" respectively represent the portions of the connection portions located on the labial side, buccal side, lingual side, and occlusal surface, and may correspond to the connection portions located on the respective surfaces shown therein in the following embodiments.

The technical solution of the present invention is explained in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein the drawings follow a numbering convention in which a first digit corresponds to the drawing number and the remaining digits represent an element or component in the drawing. Similar elements or components between different figures may be identified by the use of similar digits. For example, 102 may be referred to in fig. 1a as a shell appliance, and in fig. 3a as 302.

Referring to FIG. 1a, a dental implement 100 according to one embodiment of the present invention is shown in a schematic view mounted on a patient's tooth 900. The dental appliance 100 includes an orthodontic fixture 101 and a shell-shaped appliance 102, wherein the orthodontic fixture 101 includes three brackets 101a respectively fixed to different teeth of a posterior dental area of a patient and an archwire 101b attached to the three brackets 101a, and each bracket 101a is fitted to a buccal surface of a tooth. Referring now to fig. 1b, which shows an embodiment of the shell-shaped appliance 102 of fig. 1a, the shell-shaped appliance 102 comprises a shell body including a first sub-shell 103 and a second sub-shell 104, the first sub-shell 103 comprises a plurality of cavities, each of which is designed to receive a tooth, and all or a portion of the cavities are designed to reposition the tooth, and the second sub-shell 104 comprises a cavity. In fig. 1b, the first sub-shell 103 and the second sub-shell 104 are connected by a connecting portion, the connecting portion comprises a connecting body 105 located on the lingual side, the width of the connecting body 105 in the gingival-jaw direction corresponding to the orthodontic fixture is smaller than the crown height of the corresponding orthodontic fixture-mounted tooth, and the minimum distance between the connecting body 105 and the inner surface of the orthodontic fixture-mounted tooth is equal to or greater than 0. The gingival-jaw direction in the present invention means a vertical direction from a gingival line to an occlusal surface.

Fig. 1c and 1d show other embodiments of the shell-shaped orthotic with the connecting portion on the lingual side. The connecting portion of fig. 1c comprises a connecting body 106 on the lingual side near the gum line, the connecting body 106 having a width in the gingival-jaw direction corresponding to a portion of the orthodontic fixture that is less than the crown height of the corresponding orthodontic fixture-mounted tooth, and the minimum distance between the connecting body 106 and the inner surface of the orthodontic fixture-mounted tooth is greater than or equal to 0. The connecting portion in fig. 1d comprises a connecting body 107 on the lingual side near the occlusal surface, the connecting body 107 has a width in the gingival-jaw direction corresponding to the orthodontic fixture smaller than the crown height of the corresponding orthodontic fixture-mounted tooth, and the minimum distance between the connecting body 107 and the inner surface of the orthodontic fixture-mounted tooth is equal to or greater than 0.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 1b, 1c and 1d, the connecting part only comprises one connecting body, and the connecting body and the bracket are positioned on different sides. Specifically, the above example sets up connecting portion at the lingual side relative with bracket mounting surface (the buccal surface of back teeth district tooth) for the shell unscrambler can not touch bracket or arch wire wearing or the in-process of taking off, has guaranteed the convenience of wearing and the integrality of shell unscrambler, and the speed of correction of whole dentition keeps unanimous under corresponding correction plan, and then adjusts and control patient's correction cycle and correction effect. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that, based on the above examples, if the bracket is mounted on the lingual surfaces of the teeth in the posterior dental area, the position of the connecting portion may be shifted to the opposite buccal position accordingly, or if the bracket is mounted on the labial or lingual surfaces of the teeth in the anterior dental area, the position of the connecting portion is set on the opposite surface of the bracket to ensure that the patient avoids the shell-shaped appliance from contacting the orthodontic fixture when wearing and removing the shell-shaped appliance and in a state of wearing the appliance, thereby ensuring convenience of wearing without the connecting portion exerting a force on the teeth between the adjacent sub-shells.

In some embodiments, the connecting portion comprises an occlusal surface portion, as shown in fig. 2 a. Fig. 2b shows a possible design of the connection portion of the shell-shaped appliance 202 of fig. 2a, which includes a connection body 205 located on the occlusal surface, the connection body 205 has a width in the facial-lingual direction corresponding to the orthodontic fixture less than or equal to the occlusal surface width of the corresponding tooth on which the orthodontic fixture is mounted, and the minimum distance between the connection body 205 and the highest point of the crown of the tooth on which the orthodontic fixture is mounted is greater than or equal to 0. In the embodiment shown in fig. 2b, since only one connecting body is provided on the occlusal surface, the connecting part does not come into contact with the orthodontic fixture during the use of the shell-shaped appliance regardless of whether the bracket is installed on the buccal surface or the lingual surface of the tooth in the posterior dental area; in addition, the design difficulty of the connecting body positioned on the occlusal surface is lower, the distance between the connecting body and teeth in the height position is mainly considered, and the manufacturing of the corresponding shell-shaped appliance is easier to realize.

Fig. 2c shows another possible design of a connection part comprising an occlusal portion, said connection part comprising a connection body 206 on the lingual side and a connection body 207 on the occlusal side, said connection body 206 having the same or similar shape and position as the connection body 105 described above, said connection body 207 having the same or similar shape and position as the connection body 205 described above. The design in fig. 2c is considered from the perspective of ensuring that the shell-like appliance as a whole, the larger the connection area between the connection portion and the adjacent sub-shell, the more secure the connection, and the strength of the connection portion itself is increased, so that the shell-like appliance is less susceptible to damage. In the embodiment shown in fig. 2c, the bracket is arranged on the buccal side of the teeth in the posterior dental area, and the connection portion comprises a lingual side portion and an occlusal side portion and is free of the buccal side portion. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that, on the basis of the above example, the bracket is provided on the lingual side of the teeth in the posterior area, and the attachment portion is accordingly designed to include both buccal and occlusal portions and to be devoid of lingual portions.

When the connection part includes a plurality of connection bodies, in addition to the embodiments in which the connection bodies are positioned on both lingual and occlusal surfaces and buccal and occlusal surfaces, for the dental appliance of the present invention, the connection part may further include labial/buccal side portions and lingual side portions, wherein the connection part is positioned only above the orthodontic fixture on a side on which the orthodontic fixture is positioned. See fig. 3 a-3 d for an example of this.

FIG. 3a is another example configuration of a dental appliance of the present invention worn on a patient's teeth 900, and FIG. 3b illustrates an implementation of the shell-shaped appliance 302 of FIG. 3a, wherein the connecting portion of the shell-shaped appliance 302 includes a connecting body 305 disposed on a lingual side and a connecting body 306 disposed on a buccal side adjacent to an occlusal surface; the shape and position of the connecting body 305 are the same as or similar to the connecting body 105; the width of the portion of the connecting body 306 corresponding to the orthodontic fixture in the gingival-jaw direction is less than the crown height of the corresponding orthodontic fixture-mounted tooth, and the minimum distance between the connecting body 306 and the outer surface of the orthodontic fixture-mounted tooth is greater than or equal to 0.

Fig. 3c, 3d show two other possible designs of the connection comprising a buccal side part and a lingual side part. The connection shown in fig. 3c comprises a connection 307 arranged at a lingual side near the gumline and a connection 308 arranged at a buccal side near the occlusal surface; the shape and position of the connecting body 207 are the same as or similar to those of the connecting body 106; the shape and position of the connecting body 308 are the same as or similar to the connecting body 306. The connecting portion shown in fig. 3d includes a connecting body 309 disposed on the lingual side near the occlusal surface and a connecting body 310 disposed on the buccal side near the occlusal surface; the shape and position of the connecting body 309 are the same as or similar to those of the connecting body 107; the shape and position of the connecting body 310 are the same as or similar to the connecting body 306.

In the above examples, fig. 3b to 3d show that the connecting portion is designed as a combination of two connecting bodies, so that the connection between the first sub-shell and the second sub-shell of the shell-shaped orthodontic appliance is further enhanced on the premise of not contacting the orthodontic fixture, the orthodontic progress of the whole dentition is kept consistent under the corresponding orthodontic plan, and the orthodontic period and the orthodontic effect of the teeth are further controlled. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, in view of the above examples, if the brackets are to be mounted on the lingual surfaces of the teeth, the lingual connectors are to be positioned above the brackets to ensure that the patient avoids contact of the shell appliance with the orthodontic fixture when the shell appliance is worn and removed and in the worn state.

In addition to the two connecting bodies described above, more connecting bodies can be provided on the basis of the above example, and a plurality of connecting bodies can be located on the same side or different sides of the teeth, and the design preference principle is that "the connecting body does not contact the orthodontic fixture during and after the shell-shaped dental appliance is worn" and "the connecting body does not exert a force on the teeth located between the adjacent sub-shells during use of the dental appliance" as described above.

In the above-described embodiment, the connecting portion includes one or both of a labial/buccal surface portion, a lingual surface portion, and an occlusal surface portion, and a portion of the connecting portion on the same side as the bracket is located above the bracket. As an alternative embodiment, the connecting portion may be further designed to include a labial/buccal side portion, an occlusal side portion, and a lingual side portion, wherein the connecting portion is disposed only above and/or on both sides of the orthodontic fixture at a side where the orthodontic fixture is disposed, as shown in fig. 4a and 4 b. The configuration of the shell appliance 402 of fig. 4a is shown in detail in fig. 4b, wherein the connecting portion 405 includes a buccal lateral portion, an occlusal portion and a lingual lateral portion, the distances between the buccal lateral portion and the outer surface, the occlusal surface and the inner surface of the corresponding position on the tooth are respectively greater than or equal to 0, and the buccal lateral portion includes portions above and on both sides of the orthodontic fixture, excluding a portion below the orthodontic fixture.

Above-mentioned example can avoid tooth surface mounting's just abnormal fixed utensil completely, has higher convenient degree of wearing, makes fixed the correction power of correcting exert better in the correction process, and in addition, connecting portion have also guaranteed the holistic fastness of shell unscrambler, make dental appliance can be applied to corresponding the plan of correcting better, and the correction progress of whole dentition keeps unanimous under controllable condition.

While all of the foregoing examples are examples in which the bracket is mounted to the buccal surface of the tooth in the posterior area, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that, in addition to the above examples, if the bracket is mounted to the lingual surface of the tooth in the posterior area, the connection portion on the lingual side may be correspondingly shifted to an opposite buccal position, as shown in fig. 5a, and the connection portion 503 may be located on the buccal side, so as to ensure that the patient can avoid contact between the shell appliance and the orthodontic fixture when wearing and removing the shell appliance and in a state in which the appliance is worn.

In all the examples described above, the bracket is attached to the teeth in the posterior area, and it is known to those skilled in the art that, in addition to the above examples, when the bracket is attached to the teeth in the anterior area, since the occlusal surface of the teeth in the anterior area is narrow, the connecting portion does not include an occlusal surface portion in general, and as shown in fig. 5b, the connecting portion 504 is located on the lingual side of the teeth in the anterior area to ensure that the shell-shaped appliance is prevented from contacting the orthodontic fixture when the shell-shaped appliance is attached and removed by the patient and in a state where the appliance is attached.

Further, the above embodiments are all the case where one set of orthodontic fixtures is provided, and the case where two sets of orthodontic fixtures are provided is shown in fig. 6. According to fig. 6, two groups of orthodontic fixtures are arranged on the teeth of the patient, wherein one group of orthodontic fixtures 601 is positioned on three left teeth of the patient, and the other group of orthodontic fixtures 602 is positioned on three right teeth of the patient, in this case, the shell-shaped appliances comprise three

sub-shells

603, 604 and 605, the sub-shells 603 and the sub-shells 604 are connected through a first connecting part 606, and the sub-shells 603 and the sub-shells 605 are connected through a second connecting part 607. While the first connection portion 606 and the second connection portion 607 each include a connection body on the tongue side as shown in fig. 6, in an alternative embodiment, the first connection portion 606 and the second connection portion 607 may be configured in accordance with or modified from the previous embodiments.

On the basis of the foregoing embodiments, the shape and structure of a dental appliance comprising more sets of orthodontic fixtures will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art and will not be elaborated upon herein.

Based on the same inventive concept, the invention also provides a shell-shaped appliance, which is used for being matched with an orthodontic fixing appliance and comprises a shell, wherein the shell comprises at least two sub-shells and a connecting part for connecting the sub-shells; each of said sub-housings including one or more cavities capable of receiving teeth, at least a portion of said cavities being designed to reposition teeth received thereby that are not fitted with orthodontic fixtures;

the connecting part is connected with the sub-shells which are adjacently arranged; the connecting part is not in contact with the orthodontic fixing appliance during and after the shell-shaped dental appliance is worn to the jaw; the connecting portion is free from forces acting on teeth located between the adjacent sub-shells during use of the shell appliance.

The design principles, design concepts and structural designs of the shell appliance described herein may be referred to the design of the shell appliance in the dental appliance described above.

The invention also provides a manufacturing method of the shell-shaped corrector, which adopts a hot-pressing film forming process to manufacture the shell-shaped corrector and comprises the following steps:

any one of the correction steps in the correction plan is implemented by matching an orthodontic fixing appliance with the shell-shaped appliance, wherein the orthodontic fixing appliance is used for repositioning the teeth provided with the orthodontic fixing appliance and comprises more than two brackets fixed on different teeth and fasteners arranged on the brackets;

s3, manufacturing an entity dental model: based on the digital dental model comprising the preset connecting part model, a solid dental model comprising the preset connecting part is manufactured by adopting an additive manufacturing process;

s5, cutting: cutting and removing an excess part on the shell-shaped appliance comprising a preset connecting part along a gum line or a position adjacent to the gum line, and cutting and removing a part corresponding to the tooth provided with the orthodontic fixing appliance, wherein the cut shell-shaped appliance comprises at least two sub shells, and the preset connecting part is cut and formed into a connecting part so that the connecting part is connected with the sub shells which are adjacently arranged; the connecting part is not in contact with the orthodontic fixing appliance during and after the shell-shaped dental appliance is worn to the jaw; the connecting portion is free from forces acting on teeth located between the adjacent sub-shells during use of the shell appliance.

In the above manufacturing method, the step S5 adopts laser cutting or mechanical cutting.

Taking the shell-shaped appliance shown in fig. 2b as an example, the manufacturing method of the shell-shaped appliance by using the hot-pressing film forming process comprises the following steps:

s1, acquiring a digital dental model of any correction step in a correction plan as an initial dental model, wherein the any correction step in the correction plan is implemented by matching a group of orthodontic fixtures with a shell-shaped corrector;

s2, as shown in fig. 7, according to the design of a connecting part needed in the shell-shaped appliance, designing a preset connecting part model 702 on the tooth 701 provided with the orthodontic fixing appliance in the initial dental model to obtain a digital dental model 700 comprising the preset connecting part model; the preset connection part model 702 is a convex model and comprises a convex surface positioned on an occlusal surface, the width of a part of the convex surface corresponding to the orthodontic fixture in the facial-lingual direction is less than or equal to the width of the occlusal surface of the corresponding tooth provided with the orthodontic fixture, and the distance between the convex surface and the highest point of the crown of the tooth 701 provided with the orthodontic fixture is greater than or equal to 0;

s5, cutting: cutting and removing redundant parts on the shell-shaped appliance comprising the preset connecting part along a gum line or a position close to the gum line, and cutting and removing parts of teeth on the shell-shaped appliance comprising the preset connecting part, which are correspondingly provided with orthodontic fixtures, wherein the cut shell-shaped appliance comprises two sections of sub-shells, and the preset connecting part is cut and formed into a connecting part; the connecting part is connected with the sub-shells which are adjacently arranged.

In other embodiments, the predetermined connection model may be designed according to the tooth surface, and in step S2, the distance between each point on the convex surface and the point on the occlusal surface of the tooth at the corresponding position is designed to be a predetermined value greater than 0, so as to obtain the convex surface substantially conforming to the shape of the occlusal surface, and then the connection 804 shown in fig. 8 may be manufactured to have a shape substantially conforming to the occlusal surface of the corresponding tooth with the orthodontic fixture installed.

In the manufacturing method of the shell-shaped appliance, the design principle of the preset connecting part model is as follows: the connecting part formed after cutting is ensured not to be in contact with the orthodontic fixing appliance in the process that the shell-shaped dental appliance is worn on the jaw and after being worn, meanwhile, in the use process of the dental appliance, the connecting part and the teeth positioned between the adjacent sub-shells do not generate force action, and the specific shape of the connecting part can refer to the design of the connecting part on the shell-shaped dental appliance in the dental appliance or deform on the basis of the design.

It should be noted that the above embodiments can be freely combined as necessary. The foregoing is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and it should be noted that, for those skilled in the art, various modifications and decorations can be made without departing from the principle of the present invention, and these modifications and decorations should also be regarded as the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A dental instrument, comprising:

wherein the orthodontic fixture is mounted on at least a portion of the teeth between the adjacent sub-shells, the connecting portion connecting the adjacently disposed sub-shells; the connecting part is not in contact with the orthodontic fixing appliance in the process of wearing the shell-shaped appliance to the tooth jaw and after wearing the shell-shaped appliance; during use of the dental appliance, the connecting portion exerts no force on the teeth between the adjacent sub-housings.

2. A dental instrument as in claim 1, wherein the connecting portion does not contact a tooth located between the adjacent sub-housings during use of the dental instrument.

3. A dental implement according to claim 1, wherein the connection portion contacts a tooth located between the adjacent sub-housings but does not exert a force during use of the dental implement.

4. A dental device according to claim 1, wherein the connection and the orthodontic fixture are disposed on the same side or different sides of the tooth in either the bucco-lingual or the labial-lingual directions.

5. The dental appliance of claim 4, wherein the connection portion and the orthodontic fixture are disposed on the same side of the tooth without any physical structure disposed beneath the orthodontic fixture.

6. A dental instrument as in claim 1, wherein the bracket is mounted on the labial side of the teeth in the anterior area, and wherein the attachment portion includes a lingual portion and is free of a labial portion.

7. A dental implement according to claim 1, wherein the bracket is mounted on the buccal side of a tooth in the posterior area and the attachment portion comprises the lingual portion and/or the occlusal portion and is free of the buccal side portion.

8. A dental instrument as in claim 1, wherein the bracket is mounted on a lingual side of the teeth in the anterior tooth zone, and wherein the attachment portion includes a labial side portion and is free of a lingual side portion.

9. A dental instrument as in claim 1, wherein the bracket is mounted on a lingual side of a tooth in the posterior dental area, and the connection portion includes a buccal side portion and/or an occlusal surface and is free of a lingual side portion.

10. The dental apparatus of claim 1, wherein the connector comprises a labial/buccal side portion and a lingual side portion, wherein the connector is disposed only above the orthodontic fixture at a side to which the orthodontic fixture is attached.

11. The dental apparatus of claim 1, wherein the connection portion comprises a labial/buccal side portion, an occlusal side portion and a lingual side portion, wherein the connection portion is disposed only above and/or on both sides of the orthodontic fixture at a side where the orthodontic fixture is installed.

12. A dental instrument as in claim 1, wherein the connecting portion comprises one or more connecting bodies connecting adjacently disposed sub-housings.

13. A dental implement according to claim 12, wherein the connecting portion comprises a plurality of connecting bodies, at least two of the connecting bodies being located on the same or different of the labial/buccal side, lingual side, occlusal side.

14. A dental device according to claim 12 or 13, wherein the connecting body is located on a labial/buccal or lingual side, and a width of a portion of the connecting body corresponding to the orthodontic fixing appliance in a gingival-jaw direction is equal to or less than a crown height of a corresponding tooth to which the orthodontic fixing appliance is attached.

15. A dental device according to claim 14, wherein the connector is located on the labial/buccal side and the minimum distance between the connector and the outer surface of the tooth to which the orthodontic fixture is attached is 0 or greater.

16. A dental apparatus as in claim 14, wherein the connector is on a lingual side and a minimum distance between the connector and an inner surface of a tooth to which the orthodontic fixture is attached is 0 or greater.

17. The dental apparatus of claim 12 or 13, wherein the connector is positioned on an occlusal surface, and a width of a portion of the connector corresponding to the orthodontic fixture in a buccolingual direction is less than or equal to a width of an occlusal surface of a tooth to which the orthodontic fixture is attached.

18. The dental instrument of claim 17, wherein the connector has a shape that substantially conforms to an occlusal surface of a corresponding tooth to which the orthodontic fixture is to be attached.

19. The dental instrument of claim 17, wherein a minimum distance between the connecting body and a crown apex of the orthodontic fixture installed tooth is 0 or greater.

20. A shell appliance for use in a dental apparatus as in any one of claims 1-19, comprising a shell including at least two subshells and a connecting portion connecting the subshells; each of said sub-housings including one or more cavities capable of receiving teeth, at least a portion of said cavities being designed to reposition teeth received thereby that are not fitted with orthodontic fixtures;

21. A method of making a shell appliance as claimed in claim 20, wherein the shell appliance is made by a hot lamination process comprising the steps of:

s4, hot pressing of a film: hot pressing a film on the solid dental model to obtain a shell-shaped corrector comprising a preset connecting part;

s5, cutting: cutting and removing redundant parts along a gum line or a position adjacent to the gum line on the shell-shaped appliance comprising the preset connecting parts, and cutting and removing parts corresponding to the teeth provided with the orthodontic fixing appliance, wherein the cut shell-shaped appliance comprises at least two sub-shells, and the preset connecting parts are cut and formed into connecting parts so that the connecting parts are connected with the sub-shells which are adjacently arranged; the connecting part is not in contact with the orthodontic fixing appliance during and after the shell-shaped dental appliance is worn to the jaw; the connecting portion is free from forces acting on teeth located between the adjacent sub-shells during use of the shell appliance.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein step S5 comprises laser cutting or mechanical cutting.