ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 24 -- United States Patent no. 12,557,977, issued on Feb. 24, was assigned to Align Technology Inc. (San Jose, Calif.).
"Smartphone dental imaging attachment apparatus" was invented by Shai Farkash (Hod HaSharon, Israel), Yossef Y. Atiya (Modin-maccabim-Reut, Israel) and Maayan Moshe (Ramat HaSharon, Israel).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Provided herein are systems for monitoring a subject's teeth during orthodontic treatment. In particular, described herein are apparatuses having a fixed focal length for coupling to a patient's smartphone, including a built-in lip/cheek retractor. These smartphone dental imaging apparatuses may be configured to easily and robustly inter...