ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,251,289, issued on March 18, was assigned to ALIGN TECHNOLOGY INC. (San Jose, Calif.).
"Methods of using an orthodontic appliance having a ridge" was invented by Heng Cao (Santa Clara, Calif.), Vadim Matov (San Jose, Calif.), John Y. Morton (San Jose, Calif.), Jon Moss (Antioch, Calif.) and Ryan Kimura (San Jose, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method may include administering to a patient an orthodontic appliance. The orthodontic appliance may include a shell having teeth receiving cavities shaped to receive and reposition the patient's teeth, at least one of the cavities shaped to apply a resilient repositioning force to move ...