The makers of the Invisalign system of plastic orthodontic braces are launching an artificial-intelligence-powered program to allow people at home to track their treatment progress and advance to the next stage when they’re ready.
Align Technology’s Virtual Care AI will be built into the company’s smartphone app. The program will walk users through taking pictures of their teeth and then automatically assess the alignment and spacing of each tooth and compare them to the personalized settings established beforehand by the user’s doctor.
The app will then deliver an automated message instructing the wearer to proceed to the next set of aligners if their treatment is tracking well or to stay on their current aligner if they need more time.
“Aligner fit and seating are important clinical indicators of Invisalign treatment progress tracking and compliance,” Mitra Derakhshan, the company’s senior global clinical vice president, said in a release. In addition, the app can connect users and their doctors if their treatment is going off track, Derakhshan noted.
Align Technology first launched its Virtual Care platform in March 2020, during the earliest stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, to help physicians remotely monitor treatment progress.
Now, the company said its AI tools are being rolled out worldwide—starting in the Americas, the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, the Middle East and Africa—with the automated notifications being registered as a medical device in some countries.