Tooth shade analyzer system and methods

Claim 1

A method for comparing the tooth shade of a patient's tooth after the patient's teeth are cosmetically whitened, comprising the steps of: capturing a first image of the patient's tooth with an intraoral camera before the tooth is cosmetically whitened, the first image including first color information representative of a color of the tooth, processing the color information of the image to determine the color of the patient's tooth, comparing the color of the patient's tooth to a plurality of tooth shades, the tooth shades being stored in an electronic medium, identifying one or more tooth shades with a combined color corresponding to the color of the patient's tooth, whitening the teeth, communicating the one or more identified tooth shades to a user of the system, and viewing the patient's tooth on a monitor after the whitening step while simultaneously displaying an image of the patient's pre-whitened tooth, to provide before and after imagery.

Claim 2

A method for comparing the tooth shade of a patient's tooth after the patient's teeth are cosmetically whitened, comprising the steps of: capturing a first image of the patient's tooth with an intraoral camera before the tooth is cosmetically whitened, the first image including first color information representative of a color of the tooth, processing the color information of the image to determine the color of the patient's tooth, comparing the color of the patient's tooth to a plurality of tooth shades, the tooth shades being stored in an electronic medium, identifying one or more tooth shades with a combined color corresponding to the color of the patient's tooth, whitening the teeth, communicating the one or more identified tooth shades to a user of the system, and viewing the patient's tooth on a monitor after the whitening step while simultaneously displaying an image of the patient's pre-whitened tooth, to provide before and after imagery.

Claim 3

A system for determining the tooth shade of a patient's tooth, comprising: a color CCD camera for capturing the image of the patient's tooth, the image including color information representative of a color of the tooth, the CCD camera comprising three CCD arrays, each of the arrays collecting image data corresponding to a color spectrum selected from the group of red, green and blue, and a shade analyzer sub-system connected for electrical communication with the CCD camera, the shade analyzer having (i) color processing means for determining the color of the patient's tooth from the color information of the image, (ii) storage means for storing shade information representative of a plurality of tooth shades, each of the tooth shades corresponding to a different tooth color, (iii) color correlation means for comparing the color of the patient's tooth to the plurality of tooth shades and for identifying a tooth shade with a color corresponding to the color of the patient's tooth, and (iv) means for communicating the identified tooth shade to a user of the system.

Claim 4

A system for determining the tooth shade of a patient's tooth, comprising: a color CCD camera for capturing the image of the patient's tooth, the image including color information representative of a color of the tooth, the CCD camera comprising three CCD arrays, each of the arrays collecting image data corresponding to a color spectrum selected from the group of red, green and blue, and a shade analyzer sub-system connected for electrical communication with the CCD camera, the shade analyzer having (i) color processing means for determining the color of the patient's tooth from the color information of the image, (ii) storage means for storing shade information representative of a plurality of tooth shades, each of the tooth shades corresponding to a different tooth color, (iii) color correlation means for comparing the color of the patient's tooth to the plurality of tooth shades and for identifying a tooth shade with a color corresponding to the color of the patient's tooth, and (iv) means for communicating the identified tooth shade to a user of the system.

Claim 5

A system for determining the tooth shade of a patient's tooth comprising: a color CCD camera for capturing the image of the patient's tooth, the image including color information representative of a color of the tooth, the CCD camera comprising a single CCD array, the array including a plurality of proximately located pixels corresponding to a color chromaticity selected from the group of red, green and blue, each of any group of three pixels having a different color associated therewith, and a shade analyzer sub-system connected for electrical communication with the CCD camera, the shade analyzer having (i) color processing means for determining the color of the patient's tooth from the color information of the image, (ii) storage means for storing shade information representative of a plurality of tooth shades, each of the tooth shades corresponding to a different tooth color, (iii) color correlation means for comparing the color of the patient's tooth to the plurality of tooth shades and for identifying a tooth shade with a color corresponding to the color of the patient's tooth, and (iv) means for communicating the identified tooth shade to a user of the system.

Claim 6

A system for determining the tooth shade of a patient's tooth comprising: a color CCD camera for capturing the image of the patient's tooth, the image including color information representative of a color of the tooth, the CCD camera comprising a single CCD array, the array including a plurality of proximately located pixels corresponding to a color chromaticity selected from the group of red, green and blue, each of any group of three pixels having a different color associated therewith, and a shade analyzer sub-system connected for electrical communication with the CCD camera, the shade analyzer having (i) color processing means for determining the color of the patient's tooth from the color information of the image, (ii) storage means for storing shade information representative of a plurality of tooth shades, each of the tooth shades corresponding to a different tooth color, (iii) color correlation means for comparing the color of the patient's tooth to the plurality of tooth shades and for identifying a tooth shade with a color corresponding to the color of the patient's tooth, and (iv) means for communicating the identified tooth shade to a user of the system.