US Patent Issued to Align Technology on Sept. 8 for "Methods of forming arch adjustment dental appliances" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 8 -- United States Patent no. 12,727,972, issued on Sept. 8, was assigned to Align Technology Inc. (San Jose, Calif.).

"Methods of forming arch adjustment dental appliances" was invented by Ryan Kimura (San Jose, Calif.), John Morton (San Jose, Calif.), Richard Shaw (Morgan Hill, Calif.) and Chunhua Li (Cupertino, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Methods of forming dental appliances. A virtual arch element may be formed using a virtual dental arch of a patient. The virtual arch element may be wider than an arch width across the virtual dental arch. One or more virtual tooth engagement structures connected to the virtual arch element may be formed. The virtual tooth...