I did Invisalign a few years ago. Manufacturing the retainers is surely only a small part of the puzzle.

They used a specialized sort of 3D camera on a stick to get an incredibly accurate model of my mouth, any open source solution would need an equivalent. And you’d also need open source code from somewhere to work out which teeth need to move where and at what stage in the treatment.

▲

greedo 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

They also use this camera system when creating implants. After the implant post was installed, they scan your mouth to determine the optimum shape for your crown (that goes on the post).

	▲	themafia 13 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Even with just regular crowns. I've had a few root canals as I've gotten older. They scanned the old tooth, brought into 3d modelling software, modified it for purpose, checked it's resulting fit against neighboring teeth, and then sent it to a mill right in the office and had it glued into my head in less than a hour. My doctor knows I'm into this so he always does it right next to me and turns the PC monitor so I can watch the entire process. The software is so simple almost anyone could use it. Generating a medically correct result is obviously where all the skill lies.

▲

maccard 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That’s pretty wild. I got a mould taken with some sort of a putty .

▲

doubled112 4 hours ago | parent [-]

I wear a night guard and have had them made both ways.

The 3D camera was really neat. A little faster, and I didn’t once dry heave.

I could watch the software and a 3D model slowly form of my mouth. Looked surprisingly user friendly. Missed areas were highlighted, for example.

	▲	toast0 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> A little faster, and I didn’t once dry heave. Dry heaving would have been great. I would regularly vomit from impressions. My orthodontist would just prepare two sets if impression trays, cause the first one was going to go in the medical waste bin. Impressions for invisilign (when I did it, about a million years ago) weren't so bad though. Unfortunately invisilign resulted in an open bite for my molars, which I really should go back to an orthodontist to address, but I'd rather not.

▲

joe_mamba 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

>They used a specialized sort of 3D camera on a stick to get an incredibly accurate model of my mouth

AFAIK Align's 3D scanning system is more or less branched from the same Israeli tech that went into the Xbox 360 kinect camera and the iPhone face-ID.

▲

avensec 2 hours ago | parent [-]

While both were originally companies based in Israel, the technology behind the Kinect is different.

iTero scanners (owned by Align Technology) use parallel confocal imaging via red light lasers. Their newer models also use Multi-Direct Capture techniques.

Kinect used a Light Coding technique, an infrared projector and camera. It was developed by a company called PrimeSense, which was later purchased by Apple.

	▲	joe_mamba 44 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		>"The iTero intraoral scanner was originally developed by Cadent, Ltd., a company based in Israel." There's something with Israel and 3D scanning tech. But I don't think I would like the answer.